ST. GILES'S--THE CADGER'S HEAD-QUARTERS.
The house, or rather establishment (for it contains no less than eight
houses, having a moderate-sized court within its boundary, in which
stands a large gas lamp) to which we intend to conduct the reader, is
situate at No. 13, ---- Street, St. Giles's. The proprietor being what
is called a gentleman--a man of property--and, like all men of
property, of course, wishes not to have his name mentioned but in a
respectable way--we therefore, with all respect for the power of
wealth, will accommodate him with a dash.
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This cavern was opened some forty years ago, by a man of the name of
----, a native of that cautious country, "_Canny, tak care o'
yoursel_." The Scotchman, with the characteristic foresight of his
countrymen, soon saw that to set up prudence in the midst of wanton
waste, was a sure and ready way to accumulate the _bawbees_.
Accordingly, he took a shop and house at the aforesaid number, and
commenced giving shelter to the wild and the profligate. Trade
thrived, and, ere long, Sawney had reason to bless the day he crossed
the border. He not only grew a rich but a _braw_ man--put his sons to
respectable professions, and expended as much in setting them up in
the world, as might have made them no common lairds in the land of
thistles, and finally gave up the ghost, breathing his last breath
amidst the air of plenty, leaving his money-making craft to his eldest
son, who still carries on this establishment, as well as two others,
one in the Broadway, St. Giles's, and the other in Long Acre, through
the means of a deputy, and in the deputy's name, while he himself
takes his ease in elegant style, a little way out of town, and is
reputed to be the possessor of a great number of houses besides.
This grand cadging rendezvous, then, is under the superintendence of a
deputy, and is kept up in his name; he is assisted by his wife and
under deputy (men-servants), and a few female domestics. This
man--that is, the leader of the band--hails we believe from
Cambridgeshire. He is of a slight make, with a shrewd cast of the eye.
Formerly he figured in a gentleman's family, and has still much of the
air and dress of a lackey: he is nevertheless well adapted for his
situation; is affable and free, gambles, and is the companion of the
lodgers in the house, but knows them not in the street. When any of
the inmates chance to meet him in one of their alms-seeking rambles,
and present their hat, to see if he will set an example to unwilling
people, he never drops in more than one poor penny; his wife,
however, is considered a trump (a generous woman), and never has the
collection-box held to her, but invariably lets fall a _tanner_, to
shew that she is a _Gemman's_ wife. These people have the reputation
of being honest: anything intrusted to them, of whatever value, is
certain of being returned. Robbery and petty thefts are here very
rare, and fights are never allowed in the house, if the landlord is at
home. There are two kitchens, one for the males and the other for the
females: the men are not permitted to visit the women, and, until
after eleven at night, the time the women's kitchen is cleared, very
few of the latter are allowed to disturb their masculine neighbours;
those who have that privilege, are the select few, who are pleased to
term themselves _wives_. There are sleeping apartments, too, for the
different sexes, and rooms for those who pass as married people; and
when any of the fair part of the inmates happen, in their
perambulations, to meet with a friend of the opposite gender, and
find, as they sometimes do, that it will be necessary to have a little
private communion before they part, the landlord has so far
sympathized with such persons, as to provide a room or two for their
particular use. In short, this place, besides being a common lodging
house, adds to it that now very necessary convenience--a brothel.
There are considerably more than one hundred beds in this house, made
of wood and iron, distributed three and six in a room; the single ones
are fourpence, and the double ones sixpence; and when we add the
profits of this to that of the other two establishments, it must be
allowed that the whole must amount to a gentlemanlike sum.
It is now our duty to enter this abode; and though accustomed to those
retreats of vice and crime, we actually did pay a visit to this very
house, one Saturday evening, and there remained until Monday morning,
taking, from first to last, careful notes of the most extraordinary
characters and their ways, in order that our first sketch might be a
correct picture of the manner in which these outcasts of society spend
the last, the best, and the first part of the week.
Well, then, on Saturday afternoon, upon a certain day, we directed our
steps to that well known spot of this mighty part of the world--the
Rookery, the appropriate title given to that modern Sodom, St.
Giles's. On entering this region of sin, we, of course, had the usual
difficulties of foot-passengers to encounter, in picking and choosing
our way among the small but rich dung heaps--the flowing channels and
those pitfalls, the cellers, which lie gaping open, like so many
man-traps, ready to catch the unwary traveller. At length, however,
we reached No. 13, ---- Street, which was pointed out to us by a
damsel standing in one of the many groups which are usually collected
there, discussing the queries of that city, as being the habitation
that we were in search of.
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