and girls, all of them thieves, standing in the middle of the street.
We passed into another lodging-house, and entered the kitchen, which
is about 30 feet long and 18 feet broad. A large fire was burning
in the grate. On the one side of the kitchen were tables and forms,
and the people seated around them at supper on bread and herring, tea
and coffee. There were a number of middle-aged women among them. On
the other side of the kitchen were stalls as in a coffee-shop. We saw
several rough-looking men here. There was a rack on the wall covered
with plates, ranged carefully in order. The tables were littered with
heaps of bottles, jugs, books, bonnets, baskets, and shirts, like a
broker’s shop.
An old gray-headed man sat at one of the tables with his hand on his
temples, a picture of extreme misery, his trowsers old, greasy, and
ragged, an old shabby ragged coat, and a pair of old torn shoes. His
face was furrowed with age, care, and sorrow; his breast was bare, and
his head bald in front. He had a long gray beard. His arms were thin
and skinny, and the dark blue veins looked through the back of his
hands. He was a poor vagrant, and told us he was eighty-eight years
of age. There were about forty persons present of both sexes, and of
various ages; many of them young, and others very old.
We passed on to Lower Keat Street, and on going into a low
lodging-house there we saw a number of young prostitutes, pickpockets,
and sneaks.
We visited another lodging-house of the lowest description, belonging
to an infamous man whom we have already referred to. We were shown
upstairs to a large room filled with beds, by a coarse-featured
hideous old hag, with a dark moustache. Her hair was gray, and her
face seamed and scarred with dark passions, as she stood before us
with her protruding breasts and bloated figure. Her eyes were dark and
muddy. She had two gold rings on one of her fingers, and was dressed
in a dirty light cotton gown, sadly tattered, a red spotted soiled
handkerchief round her neck, and a dirty light apron, almost black.
On observing us looking at her, she remarked, “I am an old woman, and
am not so young as I have been. Instead of enjoying the fruit of my
hard-wrought life, some other person has done it.”
On examining one of the beds in the room, we found the bedding to
consist of two rugs, two sheets and a flock bed, with a pillow and
pillow case, let at 3_d._ a night. This house is registered for thirty
lodgers. Young and middle-aged women, the lowest prostitutes, and
thieves frequent this house; some with holes cut with disease into
their brow. D----bl----n B----ll is the proprietor of this infamous
abode. We saw him as we passed through the house: a sinister-looking,
middle-aged man, about 5 feet 7 inches in height. On leaving the house,
the old hag stood at the foot of the stair, with a candle in her hand,
a picture of horrid misery.
In this locality we went into another infamous lodging-house, a haunt
of prostitutes and thieves, mostly young. There was a very interesting
boy here, respectably dressed, with a dark eye and well-formed placid
countenance, a pickpocket. He told us his parents were dead, and he
had no friends and no home. He did not show any desire to leave his
disreputable life. Several of them were seated at their supper on
herrings, plaice, butter, bread, and coffee.
We visited several of the more respectable lodging-houses in George
Yard, to have a more complete view of the dwellings of the poor in this
locality. We entered one lodging-house, and passed into the kitchen, 33
feet long by 18 feet broad. There were tables and forms planted round
the room, as in the other lodging-houses noticed, and on the walls
were shelves for crockery ware. There was a sink in the corner of the
kitchen for washing the dishes, and a gasburner in the centre of the
apartment. The kitchen was well ventilated at the windows. There was
a large fire burning, with a boiler on each side of the fire-place.
Over the mantelpiece was a range of bright coffee and tea pots. Coats
were hung up on pegs against the wall, and a fender before the fire.
Decent-looking men were seated around, some smoking, some writing,
others eating a plain, but comfortable supper, others lounging on
the seat, exhausted with the labours of the day. In out-houses were
ample washing accommodation, and water-closets. Attached to this
lodging-house was a reading-room. We went to the bed-rooms, and saw
the accommodation and furniture. There were iron bedsteads with flock
mattress and bed; on each bed were two sheets, one blanket, and a
coverlet, a pillow-case, and a pillow. The bed-rooms were ventilated by
a flue.
There is here accommodation for eighty-nine persons at 3_d._ a night,
and there are on an average sixty lodgers each night. The rector of
Christ Church visits and supplies the lodgers with tracts and religious
services. A register is kept of all the people who lodge here. In this
house Karls was apprehended, concerned with another party in the murder
of Mrs. Halliday at Kingswood Rectory.
We visited another lodging-house in the same neighbourhood. The
kitchen was large, with spacious windows in front. There was a large
fireplace, with boiler and oven with a large hot plate. The lodgers
had a respectable appearance--some in blue guernseys, and others in
respectable dark dresses. There was also a reading-room here, with a
dial over the mantelpiece. Some of the men were reading, and others
engaged in writing. There was accommodation for washing, water-closets,
and excellent beds. This house belongs to the same proprietor as the
one already described. It is closed at 12 o’clock, while the others are
kept open all night, and is generally frequented by respectable lodgers.
We also inspected another lodging-house in Thrall Street of a superior
kind, where beds are to be had at 3-1/2_d._ a night. There are two
superior lodging-houses of the same character, kept by Mr. Wilmot and
Mr. Argent, in Thrall Street and Osborne Place, at 3-1/2_d._ and 4_d._
a night.
We thus find that alongside those low lodging-houses and brothels,
in the very bosom of that low neighbourhood, there are respectable
lodging-houses of different gradations in price and position, where
working-people and strangers can be accommodated at 3_d._, 3-1/2_d._,
and 4_d._ a night, in which decency, cleanliness, and morality prevail.
In the course of our visits to Spitalfields we found two institutions
of high value and special interest--a ragged school and a reformatory
for young women. The ragged school was instituted by the Rev. Hugh
Allen, the incumbent of St. Jude’s, in 1853. There are at present
350 ragged children of both sexes attending it, averaging from four
to fifteen years of age. They are taught by Mr. Holland, a most
intelligent and devoted teacher, who is exercising a powerful influence
for good in that dark and criminal locality.
A female reformatory was lately instituted by the Rev. Mr. Thornton,
the present incumbent of St. Jude’s, who labours with unwearied energy
in this district. This asylum is in Wentworth Street, and is fitted to
accommodate eighteen persons.
NARRATIVE OF A PICKPOCKET.
The following recital was given us by a young man who had till lately
been an adroit pickpocket in various districts of London, but has now
become a patterer for his livelihood. He is about the middle height,
of sallow complexion, with a rich dark, penetrating eye, a moustache
and beard. He is a man of tolerably good education, and has a most
intelligent mind, well furnished with reading and general information.
At the time we met him, he was rather melancholy and crushed in
spirit, which he stated was the result of repeated imprisonments,
and the anxiety and suspense connected with his wild criminal life,
and the heavy trials he has undergone. The woman who cohabits with
him was then in one of the London prisons, and he was residing in a
low lodging-house in the west end of the metropolis. While giving us
several exciting passages in his narrative, his countenance lightened
up with intense interest and adventurous expression, though his general
mien was calm and collected. As we endeavoured to inspire him with hope
in an honest career, he mournfully shook his head as he looked forward
to the difficulties in his path. He was then shabbily dressed in a
dark frock-coat, dark trousers, and cap. We give his narrative almost
verbatim:--
“I was born in a little hamlet, five miles from Shrewsbury, in the
county of Shropshire, in October 1830, and am now thirty-one years of
age. My father was a Wesleyan minister, and died in 1854, after being
subject to the yellow jaundice for five or six years, during which time
he was not able to officiate. My mother was a Yorkshire woman, and her
father kept a shoemaker’s shop in the town of Full Sutton. I had two
brothers, one of them older and the other younger than I, and a sister
two years younger.
“I went to school to learn to write and cipher, and had before this
learned to read at home with my father and mother. We had a very happy
home, and very strict in the way of religion. I believe that my father
would on no account tolerate such a thing as stopping out after nine
o’clock at night, and have heard my mother often say that all the time
she was wedded to him, she never had known him the worse of liquor. My
father had family worship every night between 8 and 9 o’clock, when the
curtains were drawn over the windows, the candle was lighted, and each
of the children was taught to kneel separately at prayer. After reading
the Bible and half an hour’s conversation, each one retired to their
bed. In the morning my father would get up and attend to a small pony
he had, and when I was very young we had a stout girl who milked the
cow and did the dairy and household work. The house we lived in was my
grandfather’s property, but being a man very fond of money, my father
paid him the rent as if he had been a stranger.
“There were two acres of land attached to the house, as nearly as I can
recollect; about half an acre was kept in cultivation as a garden, and
the other was tilled and set apart for the pony and cow.
“Our people were much respected in the neighbourhood. If there were any
bickerings among the neighbours, they came to my father to settle them,
and anything he said they generally yielded to without a murmur. In
the winter time, when work was slack among the poor labouring people,
though my father had little himself to give, he got money from others
to distribute among those who were the most deserving. I lived very
happy and comfortable at home, but always compelled, though against my
own inclination, to go twice to service on the Sunday, and twice during
the week (Tuesday and Friday). I always seemed to have a rebellious
nature against these religious services, and they were a disagreeable
task to me, though my father took more pains with me than with my
brothers and sister. I always rebelled against this in my heart, though
I did not display it openly.
“I was a favourite with my father, perhaps more so than any of the
others. For example, if Wombwell’s menagerie would come to Shrewsbury
for a short time, he would have taken me instead of my brothers to
visit it, and would there speak of the wonders of God and of his
handiwork in the creation of animals. Everything that he said and did
was tinged with religion, and religion of an ascetic argumentative
turn. It was a kind of religion that seemed to banish eternally other
sects from happiness and from heaven.
“My mind at this time was injured by the narrow religious prejudices
I saw around me. We often had ministers to dinner and supper at our
house, and always after their meals the conversation would be sure
to turn into discussions on the different points of doctrine. I can
recollect as well now as though it were yesterday the texts used on
the various sides of the question, and the stress laid on different
passages to uphold their arguments. At this time I would be sitting
there greedily drinking in every word, and as soon as they were gone
I would fly to the Bible and examine the different texts of Scripture
they had brought forward, and it seemed to produce a feeling in my
mind that any religious opinions could be plausibly supported by it.
The arguments on these occasions generally hinged on two main points,
predestination and election. My father’s opinions were those of the
Wesleyan creed, the salvation of all through the blood of Christ.
“These continual discussions seemed to steel my heart completely
against religion. They caused me to be very disobedient and unruly,
and led to my falling out with my grandfather, who had a good deal of
property that was expected to come to our family. Though I was young,
he bitterly resented this. In 1839 he was accidentally drowned, and it
was found when his will was opened that I was not mentioned in it. The
whole of his property was left to my father, with the exception of four
houses, which he had an interest in till my brothers and sister arrived
at the age of twenty-one. Again the property that was left to my father
for the whole of his life he had no power to will away at his death, as
it went to a distant relative of my grandfather’s.
“This was the first cause of my leaving home. It seemed to rankle in
my boyish mind that I was a black sheep, something different from my
brothers and sister.
“After being several times spoken to by my father about my quarrelsome
disposition with my brothers and sister, I threatened, young as I was,
to burn the house down the first opportunity I got. This threat, though
not uttered in my father’s hearing, came to his ear, and he gave me a
severe beating for it, the first time he ever corrected me. This was
in the summer of 1840, in the end of May. I determined to leave home,
and took nothing away but what belonged to me. I had four sovereigns of
pocket money, and the suit of clothes I had on and a shirt. I walked
to Shrewsbury and took the coach to London. When I got to London I had
neither friend nor acquaintance. I first put up in a coffee-shop in
the Mile End Road, and lodged there for seven weeks, till my money was
nearly all spent.
“During this time my clothes had been getting shabby and dirty, having
no one to look after me. After being there for seven weeks I went to a
mean lodging-house at Field Lane, Holborn. There I met with characters
I had never seen before, and heard language that I had not formerly
heard. This was about July, 1840, and I was about ten years of age the
ensuing October. I stopped there about three weeks doing nothing. At
the end of that time I was completely destitute.
“The landlady took pity on me as a poor country boy who had been well
brought up, and kept me for some days longer after my money was done.
During these few days I had very little to eat, except what was given
me by some of the lodgers when they got their own meals. I often
thought at that time of my home in the country, and of what my father
and mother might be doing, as I had never written to them since the day
I had first left my home.
“I sometimes was almost tempted to write to them and let them know the
position I was in, as I knew they would gladly send me up money to
return home, but my stubborn spirit was not broke then. After being
totally destitute for two or three days, I was turned out of doors, a
little boy in the great world of London, with no friend to assist me,
and perfectly ignorant of the ways and means of getting a living in
London.
“I was taken by several poor ragged boys to sleep in the dark arches
of the Adelphi. I often saw the boys follow the male passengers when
the halfpenny boats came to the Adelphi stairs, _i.e._, the part of
the river almost opposite to the Adelphi Theatre. I could not at first
make out the meaning of this, but I soon found they generally had one
or two handkerchiefs when the passengers left. At this time there was a
prison-van in the Adelphi arches, without wheels, which was constructed
different from the present prison-van, as it had no boxes in the
interior. The boys used to take me with them into the prison-van. There
we used to meet a man my companions called ‘Larry.’ I knew him by no
other name for the time. He used to give almost what price he liked
for the handkerchiefs. If they refused to give them at the price he
named, he would threaten them in several ways. He said he would get
the other boys to drive them away, and not allow them to get any more
handkerchiefs there. If this did not intimidate them, he would threaten
to give them in charge, so that at last they were compelled to take
whatever price he liked to give them.
“I have seen handkerchiefs, I afterwards found out to be of the value
of four or five shillings, sold him lumped together at 9_d._ each.
“The boys, during this time, had been very kind to me, sharing what
they got with me, but always asking why I did not try my hand, till
at last I was ashamed to live any longer upon the food they gave me,
without doing something for myself. One of the boys attached himself
to me more than the others, whom we used to call Joe Muckraw, who
was afterwards transported, and is now in a comfortable position in
Australia.
“Joe said to me, that when the next boat came in, if any man came out
likely to carry a good handkerchief, he would let me have a chance at
it. I recollect when the boat came in that evening: I think it was the
last one, about nine o’clock. I saw an elderly gentleman step ashore,
and a lady with him. They had a little dog, with a string attached
to it, that they led along. Before Joe said anything to me, he had
‘fanned’ the gentleman’s pocket, _i.e._, had felt the pocket and knew
there was a handkerchief.
“He whispered to me, ‘Now Dick, have a try,’ and I went to the old
gentleman’s side, trembling all the time, and Joe standing close to me
in the dark, and went with him up the steep hill of the Adelphi. He had
just passed an apple-stall there, Joe still following us, encouraging
me all the time, while the old gentleman was engaged with the little
dog. I took out a green ‘kingsman,’ (handkerchief) next in value to a
black silk handkerchief. (They are used a good deal as neckerchiefs by
costermongers). The gentleman did not perceive his loss. We immediately
went to the arches and entered the van where Larry was, and Joe said
to him ‘There is Dick’s first trial, and you must give him a “ray” for
it,’ _i.e._ 1_s._ 6_d._ After a deal of pressing, we got 1_s._ for it.
“After that I gained confidence, and in the course of a few weeks I
was considered the cleverest of the little band, never missing one
boat coming in, and getting one or two handkerchiefs on each occasion.
During the time we knew there were no boats coming we used to waste
our money on sweets, and fruits, and went often in the evenings to the
Victoria Theatre, and Bower Saloon, and other places. When we came out
at twelve, or half-past twelve at night, we went to the arches again,
and slept in the prison-van. This was the life I led till January, 1841.
“During that month several men came to us. I did not know, although I
afterwards heard they were brought by ‘Larry’ to watch me, as he had
been speaking of my cleverness at the ‘tail,’ _i.e._, stealing from
the tails of gentlemen’s coats, and they used to make me presents.
It seemed they were not satisfied altogether with me, for they did
not tell me what they wanted, nor speak their mind to me. About the
middle of the month I was seized by a gentleman, who caught me with his
handkerchief in my hand. I was taken to Bow Street police-station, and
got two months in Westminster Bridewell.
“I came out in March, and when outside the gate of Westminster
Bridewell, there was a cab waiting for me, and two of the men standing
by who had often made me presents and spoken to me in the arches.
They asked me if I would go with them, and took me into the cab. I
was willing to go anywhere to better myself, and went with them to
Flower-and-Dean Street, Brick Lane, Whitechapel. They took me to their
own home. One of them had the first floor of a house there, the other
had the second. Both were living with women, and I found out shortly
afterwards that these men had lately had a boy, but he was transported
about that time, though I did not know this then. They gave me plenty
to eat, and one of the women, by name ‘Emily,’ washed and cleansed me,
and I got new clothes to put on. For three days I was not asked to do
anything, but in the meantime they had been talking to me of going with
them, and having no more to do with the boys at the Adelphi, or with
the ‘tail,’ but to work at picking ladies’ pockets.
“I thought it strange at first, but found afterwards that it was
more easy to work on a woman’s pocket than upon a man’s, for this
reason:--More persons work together, and the boy is well surrounded by
companions older than himself, and is shielded from the eyes of the
passers-by; and, besides, it pays better.
“It was on a Saturday, in company with three men, I set out on an
excursion from Flower-and-Dean Street along Cheapside. They were young
men, from nineteen to twenty-five years of age, dressed in fashionable
style. I was clothed in the suit given me when I came out of prison, a
beaver-hat, a little surtout-coat and trousers, both of black cloth,
and a black silk necktie and collar, dressed as a gentleman’s son. We
went into a pastry-cook’s shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard about half-past
two in the afternoon, and had pastry there, and they were watching the
ladies coming into the shop, till at last they followed one out, taking
me with them.
“As this was my first essay in having anything to do in stealing from
a woman, I believe they were nervous themselves, but they had well
tutored me during the two or three days I had been out of prison.
They had stood against me in the room while Emily walked to and fro,
and I had practised on her pocket by taking out sometimes a lady’s
clasp purse, termed a ‘portemonnaie,’ and other articles out of her
pocket, and thus I was not quite ignorant of what was expected of me.
One walked in front of me, one on my right hand, and the other in the
rear, and I had the lady on my left hand. I immediately ‘fanned’ her
(felt her pocket), as she stopped to look in at a hosier’s window,
when I took her purse and gave it to one of them, and we immediately
went to a house in Giltspur Street. We there examined what was in the
purse. I think there was a sovereign, and about 17_s._, I cannot speak
positively how much. The purse was thrown away, as is the general rule,
and we went down Newgate Street, into Cheapside, and there we soon got
four more purses that afternoon, and went home by five o’clock, P.M.
I recollect how they praised me afterwards that night at home for my
cleverness.
“I think we did not go out again till the Tuesday, and that and the
following day we had a good pull. It amounted to about 19_l._ each.
They always take care to allow the boy to see what is in the purse,
and to give him his proper share equal with the others, because he is
their sole support. If they should lose him, they would be unable to
do anything till they got another. Out of my share, which was about
19_l._, I bought a silver watch and a gold chain, and about this time
I also bought an overcoat, and carried it on my left arm to cover my
movements.
“A few weeks after this we went to Surrey Gardens, and I got two purses
from ladies. In one of them were some French coins and a ring, that
was afterwards advertised as either lost or stolen in the garden. We
did very well that visit, and were thinking of going again, when I
was caught in Fleet Street, and they had no means of getting me away,
though they tried all they could to secure my escape. They could not do
it without exposing themselves to too much suspicion. I was sentenced
to three months’ imprisonment in Bridge Street Bridewell, Blackfriars,
termed by the thieves the Old Horse.