Latest / Mysteries of London Vol. I part 1 / 64 - Mysteries of London Vol I part 1 by George W M Reynolds

Transcript

64 - Mysteries of London Vol I part 1 by George W M Reynolds · Mysteries of London Vol. I part 1

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter sixty one, morning dawned upon the great metropolis. The
0:05
Speaker 1: landlord and landlady of the boozing Kin on Saffon Hill
0:08
Speaker 1: were busily employed, as we have seen them upon a
0:11
Speaker 1: former occasion, in dispensing glasses of all sorts to their
0:15
Speaker 1: numerous customers. The bar was surrounded by everything, the most revolting,
0:19
Speaker 1: the most hideous, and the most repulsive in human shape.
0:22
Speaker 1: Well joe, said the landlord to a man dressed like
0:25
Speaker 1: a butcher, and whose clothes emitted a greasy and carrion
0:28
Speaker 1: like smell. What news down at cow Cross? No thing particular,
0:33
Speaker 1: answered the man, who followed the pleasant and agreeable calling
0:36
Speaker 1: of a journeyman knacker. We have been precious full of
0:40
Speaker 1: work lately, and that's all I knows or cares about
0:43
Speaker 1: seventy nine horses I see knocked down yesterday, and out
0:46
Speaker 1: of them, fifty three were so awful disease and glandered
0:48
Speaker 1: when they was brought in that we was oblaged to
0:51
Speaker 1: kill him and cut 'em up with masts and gloves on.
0:54
Speaker 1: It was but three weeks ago that we lost our
0:56
Speaker 1: best man, Ben Biddle. You reclect beIN Biddle. I knowed
1:00
Speaker 1: him well, said the landlord. He took his morning here
1:03
Speaker 1: regular for sixteen years and never owed a penny. But
1:06
Speaker 1: do you know how he died? Demanded the Knackers, staring
1:09
Speaker 1: the landlord significantly in the face. Can't say that I do.
1:13
Speaker 1: He died of a fearful disease which is getting more
1:15
Speaker 1: and more amongst human critters every day, continued the Knacker.
1:19
Speaker 1: He died of the Glanders. The glanders ejaculated the landlady
1:23
Speaker 1: with a shudder, and all the persons who were taking
1:25
Speaker 1: their mourning at the bar crowded around the Knacker to
1:28
Speaker 1: hear the particulars of ben Biddle's death. You see, resumed
1:32
Speaker 1: the Knacker, now putting on a very solemn and important air.
1:36
Speaker 1: There's more diseased horses sold in Smithfield Market than sound.
1:40
Speaker 1: The art of doctoring a dying horse so that he
1:43
Speaker 1: looks as lively and sound as possible to anyone which
1:46
Speaker 1: ain't very knowing in them matters has come to such
1:48
Speaker 1: a pitch that I'm blowin off if the wises ain't
1:51
Speaker 1: taken in. At times we have horses come into our
1:54
Speaker 1: yard that was bought the same morning in Smithfield and
1:57
Speaker 1: seamed slap up animals. But in a few hours, the
2:00
Speaker 1: effects of the stimulants given to them goes off, the
2:02
Speaker 1: plugs falls out of their noses, and there they are
2:05
Speaker 1: at the point of death. Why if a horse has
2:08
Speaker 1: got four white feet, they'll paint three, or perhaps all
2:12
Speaker 1: of them black. And that part of the deception isn't
2:14
Speaker 1: never found. Tell they're freed in our yard. But about
2:18
Speaker 1: poor Biddle, said the landlord. Well, in comes a horse
2:21
Speaker 1: one day, continued the knacker. And although we saw he
2:24
Speaker 1: was dead, lame, and although done up, we never suspected
2:27
Speaker 1: that he had the glanders. So Ben Biddle had the
2:29
Speaker 1: killing on him. He drives a pull axe into the
2:32
Speaker 1: animal's skull, and he takes the wire and thrusts it
2:34
Speaker 1: into the brain as business like as possible. While he
2:37
Speaker 1: was stooping over the beast, his hat falls off his head,
2:39
Speaker 1: and his handkerchief, which is always carried on his hat,
2:42
Speaker 1: fell just upon the horse's mouth. The brute snorted out
2:45
Speaker 1: the last groan at the very moment that Ben picks
2:48
Speaker 1: up his handkerchief. So Ben puts the handkerchief again into
2:51
Speaker 1: his hat and puts his hat on his head, and
2:53
Speaker 1: away we goes to the public house to have a
2:55
Speaker 1: drop a half and half very right too, said the landlord,
2:58
Speaker 1: who no doubt spoke freelingly well preceded the knacker. Ben
3:02
Speaker 1: drinks his share, and presently he takes his handkerchief out
3:05
Speaker 1: of his hat, quite promiscious like, and wipes his face.
3:08
Speaker 1: In a few minutes, he feels strange pain in the eyes,
3:11
Speaker 1: just as some dusted guardian, but he didn't think much
3:13
Speaker 1: of it, and so on he goes back to the yard.
3:16
Speaker 1: In a few hours. Ben was taken so bad he
3:18
Speaker 1: was obliged to give up work, and by eight or
3:21
Speaker 1: nine o'clock of his force to take him to Bartholomew's hospital,
3:24
Speaker 1: he was seized with dreadful fits of vomiting, and matter
3:27
Speaker 1: come out of his nose, eyes and mouth. By the morning,
3:30
Speaker 1: his face was all covered over with sores. Holes appeared
3:33
Speaker 1: in his eyes, just for all the world as if
3:35
Speaker 1: they had gotten the most tremendous smallpox in him, and
3:38
Speaker 1: his nose fell off. By three o'clock in the afternoon,
3:41
Speaker 1: he was a dead man, and our herd say that
3:43
Speaker 1: he died the most awful agonies. And that was the Glanders,
3:47
Speaker 1: said the landlady. Yes, he got him by wiping his
3:50
Speaker 1: face with the pocket handkerchief that had fallen on the
3:53
Speaker 1: horse's nostrils. How shocking ejaculated several voices. And is the
3:57
Speaker 1: Glanders increasing, ousts the Landlord. The Glanders is increasing, answered
4:02
Speaker 1: the knacker, And I feel convinced that it will soon
4:04
Speaker 1: become a disease as regular among human beings as the
4:07
Speaker 1: smallpox or measles, because the authorities doesn't do the duty
4:11
Speaker 1: in preventing the sale of diseased animals. And how would
4:14
Speaker 1: you remedy the evil? I would have the Lord Mayor
4:17
Speaker 1: in corporation appoint a proper veterinary surgeon as inspector in
4:21
Speaker 1: Smithfield market, a man of great experience and knowledge who
4:24
Speaker 1: won't let himself be humbugged or gammered by any of
4:27
Speaker 1: those infernal thieves that gets a live in eye and
4:30
Speaker 1: makes fortunes too by selling diseased animals doctored up for
4:33
Speaker 1: the occasion. Yes, that's certainly a capital plan of your
4:36
Speaker 1: answered the landlord approvingly. But what becomes of all the
4:39
Speaker 1: flesh of the horses that go to your yards? You
4:42
Speaker 1: may divide the horses that's killed by the knackers into
4:44
Speaker 1: three sorts, answered the man. That is first, those horses
4:47
Speaker 1: that is quite healthy, but that has met with accidents
4:50
Speaker 1: in their limbs. Second those that perhaps the least thing
4:53
Speaker 1: disease or in the very last stage through old age,
4:56
Speaker 1: And third those that is altogether rotten. The flesh of
4:59
Speaker 1: the first is bought by men whose business it is
5:01
Speaker 1: to boil it carefully and sell it to the sausage makers,
5:04
Speaker 1: and makes the sausages firm, and is much better than beef.
5:08
Speaker 1: There isn't a sausage shop in London that don't use it.
5:11
Speaker 1: Then the tongues of the first rate animals goes to
5:13
Speaker 1: the butchers whose salts and pickles them. And I'm blowed
5:16
Speaker 1: if any of them could tell from the best ox tongues. Well,
5:20
Speaker 1: I'll never eat sausages or tongues again, cried the landlady.
5:23
Speaker 1: Oh nonsense, it's all fancy, exclaimed the knacker. Half the
5:26
Speaker 1: tongue that has sold for ox tongues is horses tongues.
5:29
Speaker 1: A knowing hand may always tell them, because they're rather
5:32
Speaker 1: longer and thinner. For my part, I like them just
5:35
Speaker 1: as well every bit. And the flesh of the second
5:38
Speaker 1: sort of horses that goes to supply the cat's meat
5:41
Speaker 1: men in the swells and neighborhoods. And the third sort,
5:44
Speaker 1: that is altogether putrid and rotten, is taken up by
5:46
Speaker 1: the cat's meat men in the poor neighborhoods. And do
5:49
Speaker 1: you mean to say that there's a difference even in
5:51
Speaker 1: cats meat, between the rich and the poor customers, demanded
5:54
Speaker 1: the landlord. Do I mean to say so? Repeated the knacker,
5:58
Speaker 1: in a tone which showed that he was surprised, said
6:00
Speaker 1: the question being asked, Well, of course I do. The
6:02
Speaker 1: poor may be poisoned, and very often is too, for
6:06
Speaker 1: what the rich cares a fig. I can tell you
6:08
Speaker 1: more too. Some of the first class horses, meat and
6:11
Speaker 1: sound and good, remember, is made into what's called hung beef.
6:14
Speaker 1: Some is potted, some is sold to boarding houses around
6:18
Speaker 1: London where they takes in young gentlemen and ladies at
6:21
Speaker 1: very low rate, and some is disposed of. But no,
6:24
Speaker 1: I don't dare tell you. Yes, do tell us, said
6:27
Speaker 1: the landlady in a coaxing tone. Do that's a good fellow,
6:30
Speaker 1: cried the landlord. Come tell us, exclaimed a dozen voices. No, No,
6:35
Speaker 1: I can't. I should get myself into a scrape, perhaps,
6:38
Speaker 1: said the knacker, who was only putting a more keen
6:40
Speaker 1: edge upon the curiosity which he had excited for he
6:43
Speaker 1: intended to yield all the time. We won't see a word,
6:46
Speaker 1: observed the landlady. And I'll stand a quirm of blue ruin,
6:49
Speaker 1: added the landlord, with three outs. You know me and
6:52
Speaker 1: the missus. Well, if I must, I must, said the
6:54
Speaker 1: Knacker with affected reluctance. The fact is, he continued slowly,
6:58
Speaker 1: as if he were weighing every word he uttered. Some
7:01
Speaker 1: of the primest bits of the first rate. Flesh that
7:03
Speaker 1: goes out of the Knacker's yards of this west metropolis
7:06
Speaker 1: is sent to the workhouses. The workhouses ejaculated the landlady.
7:10
Speaker 1: Oh what a whore an abdomination, cried the landlord, filling
7:14
Speaker 1: three wineglasses with gin. It's God's truth, and now that
7:18
Speaker 1: I've said it, I'll stick to it, said the Knacker.
7:20
Speaker 1: It's a shame, a burning shame, screamed a female voice.
7:23
Speaker 1: My poor old mother's in the union after having paid
7:26
Speaker 1: rates and taxes for for two years. And if they
7:28
Speaker 1: make or eat horses flesh, I'd like to know whether
7:31
Speaker 1: this country is governed by savages or not. And my
7:34
Speaker 1: brother's in a work ass too, said the poor decrepit
7:36
Speaker 1: old man, and he once kept his carriage and dined
7:39
Speaker 1: in company with George the Third at Guide Hall, where
7:42
Speaker 1: he'd no end of turtle and venison, but lack a daisy.
7:45
Speaker 1: This is sad falling off? Is he to come down
7:47
Speaker 1: to horse flesh in his old age? What of the
7:51
Speaker 1: use of all this here whinin' and nonsense, oh, exclaimed
7:54
Speaker 1: the knacker. Don't I tell you that good horse flesh
7:57
Speaker 1: answers all the purposes of beef, and is eaten by
7:59
Speaker 1: their in the shape of sausages and tongues. What a use, then,
8:03
Speaker 1: of making a fuss about it? How do you suppose
8:06
Speaker 1: the sausage shops can afford to sell solid meat without
8:09
Speaker 1: bone at the price they do if they didn't mix
8:11
Speaker 1: it with horses flesh. They pays twopence a pound for
8:14
Speaker 1: the first class flesh, and so it must be good.
8:17
Speaker 1: Never mind, ejaculated a voice. It's a shame to give
8:20
Speaker 1: paupers only a few ounces of meat a week, and
8:23
Speaker 1: let that be horses flesh. It's high time these things
8:25
Speaker 1: were put to an end. Why don't the people take
8:27
Speaker 1: their own affairs in their own hands. Come now, said
8:30
Speaker 1: the knacker, assuming a Dictorial air and placing his arms
8:33
Speaker 1: at Kimball. Perhaps he ain't aware of good first class
8:36
Speaker 1: horse flesh is better than half the meat that's sold
8:39
Speaker 1: in certain markets. I shan't say which for the benefit
8:42
Speaker 1: of the poor. Now you toddle out on Sunday night
8:44
Speaker 1: on the Holloway, Liverpool, mile In and Hackney Roads and
8:47
Speaker 1: see the sheep and oxen and calves coming into London
8:50
Speaker 1: for the next morning's market. Numbers of the poor beasts
8:53
Speaker 1: fall down and die through sheer fatigue their flight and
8:56
Speaker 1: cut up all the same for the butcher's market. And
8:58
Speaker 1: what do you think, because of all the beasts that
9:01
Speaker 1: die of disease and so on in the fields, do
9:03
Speaker 1: you suppose they're wasted? No such thing. They are all
9:06
Speaker 1: cut up for consumption. Just take a walk on Saturday
9:09
Speaker 1: night through a certain market after the gas is lighted,
9:12
Speaker 1: not before, mind, and look at the meat which is
9:15
Speaker 1: marked cheap. You'll see beef at twopence halfpenny a pound
9:18
Speaker 1: and veal at threepence. But what sort of stuff is this?
9:21
Speaker 1: Diseased rotten? The butchers rub it over with fresh suet
9:25
Speaker 1: or fat neck gives it a brighter appearance and a
9:27
Speaker 1: bitter smell. Howsoever, they can't prevent the meat from being
9:31
Speaker 1: quite thin, shrunk, poor, and flabby upon the bone. I'll
9:35
Speaker 1: bear witness to the truth of all what you've been
9:37
Speaker 1: saying this last time, said the butcher's lad, stepping forward.
9:40
Speaker 1: Of course you can't, exclaimed the Knacker, casting a triumphant
9:43
Speaker 1: glance around him. And do you know, he continued, that
9:46
Speaker 1: half the diseases and illnesses which takes hold of us
9:49
Speaker 1: without any visible cause, and which sometimes puzzles the doctors themselves,
9:53
Speaker 1: comes from eating this bad meat that I've been talking about. Now,
9:57
Speaker 1: tell me ain't a bit out of good health? The
10:00
Speaker 1: horse that was killed in a regular way, with the
10:02
Speaker 1: blood flowing better than a joint offen old cow that
10:05
Speaker 1: dropped down dead of the yellows in a field during
10:08
Speaker 1: the night and wasn't found so till the morning. With
10:11
Speaker 1: these words, the Knacker took his departure, leaving his hearers disgusted,
10:15
Speaker 1: in dignant, and astonished to what they heard. As the
10:18
Speaker 1: clock struck nine, the resurrection Man and the cracksmen entered
10:21
Speaker 1: the boozing kin. They were paired straight into the parlor
10:24
Speaker 1: and seemed disappointed at not finding there someone whom they
10:28
Speaker 1: evidently expected. He ain't come yet, the young sparks, said
10:32
Speaker 1: the cracksmen. And yet he had plenty of time to
10:34
Speaker 1: go home and get a change of linen. In that like,
10:37
Speaker 1: maybe he has turned into bed and had a good snooze,
10:40
Speaker 1: observed the Resurrection Man. He is not so accustomed to
10:43
Speaker 1: remain up all night as we are. I think his
10:46
Speaker 1: head is regular turned with what he has seen in
10:48
Speaker 1: the great grib Yonder, he seemed to give such exceeding
10:51
Speaker 1: vague answers to the questions we put to him. As
10:54
Speaker 1: we walked through the park this morning, I heard say
10:56
Speaker 1: that the conversation of great people is very gammoning, and
10:59
Speaker 1: that they can't always understand each other. So if young
11:02
Speaker 1: Holford has been listening to their fine talk, is no
11:05
Speaker 1: wonder he got cranky. Humbug ejaculated the Resurrection Man sulkily.
11:09
Speaker 1: Let us have some egg flip and we'll wait for him.
11:12
Speaker 1: If he comes, he shall give us all the information
11:15
Speaker 1: we want, and if he doesn't, we will lay weight
11:17
Speaker 1: for him, carry him off to the crib, and let
11:19
Speaker 1: the mummy take care of him till he chooses to speak. Yes,
11:23
Speaker 1: that'll be the best plans of the cracksmen. But don't
11:25
Speaker 1: you think it very wise thing that he wants to
11:27
Speaker 1: have the whole business to himself. That's just what I
11:30
Speaker 1: do think, answered the resurrection man. He'll find himself mistaken,
11:34
Speaker 1: though I rather fancy so do, I echoed the cracksman.
11:37
Speaker 1: But let's have this egg flip with these words. He
11:40
Speaker 1: ordered the beverage, and in due time a court pot
11:43
Speaker 1: filled with the inviting compound, with a foaming head and
11:47
Speaker 1: exhaling a strong odor of spices, was brought in by
11:50
Speaker 1: a paralytic waiter who had succeeded the ship shot girl
11:54
Speaker 1: mentioned on a former occasion. Good stuff, this, said the Cracksman,
11:57
Speaker 1: smacking his lips. I wonder whether poor Buffer has got
12:00
Speaker 1: anythinghap so good this morning? What's to day, oh Friday,
12:04
Speaker 1: mused the resurrection Man, as he sipped the quantum of
12:07
Speaker 1: flip from the tumbler, with a relish equal to that
12:09
Speaker 1: events by his companion. Let's see what's the fare to
12:12
Speaker 1: day in clerk in Well Prison? Lord, don't you recollect
12:16
Speaker 1: all that? Cried the cracksman. In taking a piece of
12:19
Speaker 1: chalk from his pocket, he wrote the deetary table of
12:22
Speaker 1: Clerkinwell New Prison upon the wall that's a nice allowance
12:26
Speaker 1: for a strong, healthy fellow, exclaimed the resurrection man contemptuously.
12:30
Speaker 1: One month upon that will make his flesh as soft
12:33
Speaker 1: and flabby as possible. It's a shame by heavens to
12:35
Speaker 1: kill human beings by inches in that way. What a
12:38
Speaker 1: precious fool the buffer has made of himself, so the cracksman.
12:41
Speaker 1: After a pause, the buffer ejaculated the paralytic waiter, who
12:45
Speaker 1: had been affecting to dust a table as an excuse
12:47
Speaker 1: to linger in the room with the chance of obtaining
12:50
Speaker 1: an invitation to partake of the flip? Is anything wrong
12:53
Speaker 1: with the buffer? Safe and lavender, answered the cracksman, wooly,
12:57
Speaker 1: and ten to one. He'll swing for it my eyes.
13:00
Speaker 1: I'm very sorry to hear that, cried the waiter. He
13:03
Speaker 1: was a capital fellow and never took the change when
13:05
Speaker 1: he gave me a joy to pay for his threepennince
13:08
Speaker 1: of rum of the morning. Well he's done at Brown
13:11
Speaker 1: at last. In all events, continued the cracksman. What has
13:15
Speaker 1: he done, asked the waiter. Why what he isn't likely
13:18
Speaker 1: to have a chance of doing again? Answered the cracksman.
13:21
Speaker 1: I suppose you know that he married mal Fair the
13:23
Speaker 1: sister of him, as was killed by Bill Bolter at
13:26
Speaker 1: the old house in Chick Lane three years or so ago.
13:30
Speaker 1: Will He had a child by mole, and a very
13:32
Speaker 1: pretty little critter. It was even a fellow like me
13:36
Speaker 1: that can't be supposed to have much feeling for that
13:38
Speaker 1: kind of thing, used to love to play with that
13:40
Speaker 1: little child. It was a girl, and I never did
13:43
Speaker 1: see such sweet blue eyes and soft flaxy hair the
13:46
Speaker 1: moment she was born. Off goes the Buffer and subscribes
13:49
Speaker 1: to half a dozen bearing clubs. The secretaries and treasures
13:53
Speaker 1: all was exceedingly glad to see him. Took his tin
13:55
Speaker 1: and put down his name. This was about two years ago.
13:59
Speaker 1: He kept up all payments regular, and he was also
14:02
Speaker 1: precious regular in keeping up such a system of ill
14:04
Speaker 1: treatment that the poor little thing seemed sinking under it. Now,
14:07
Speaker 1: as I said before, I'm not the most remarkablest man
14:10
Speaker 1: in London for feeling, but I'm blowed if it couldn't
14:12
Speaker 1: have cried sometimes to see the way in which the
14:14
Speaker 1: Buffer and Mouth would use that child. I've seen it
14:17
Speaker 1: standing in a pail of cold water, stark naked in
14:20
Speaker 1: the middle of winter, with the ice was floating on
14:22
Speaker 1: the top, and because it cried, its mother would take
14:25
Speaker 1: a rope half an inch thick and belabor the poor back.
14:28
Speaker 1: Then they have starved it and made it sleep on
14:30
Speaker 1: the beer boards. But the little thing loved its parents
14:33
Speaker 1: for all that. And when the Buffer beat mole, I've
14:35
Speaker 1: seen that poor child creep up to her and say,
14:38
Speaker 1: in such a soft tone, don't cry, mother. Perhaps all
14:41
Speaker 1: the reward it got for that good weltering. How the
14:44
Speaker 1: child stood it all so long? I can't say. The
14:47
Speaker 1: Buffer thought she never would die, so he determined to
14:50
Speaker 1: put an end to it at once. And yet he
14:52
Speaker 1: didn't want money, for we had had some good things lately,
14:56
Speaker 1: with what one thing and another. All I know is
14:58
Speaker 1: that he first takes the little child and flings it
15:00
Speaker 1: down the stairs. He then puts it to bed and
15:02
Speaker 1: sends his wife to the doctor's for some medicine. And
15:05
Speaker 1: into the medicine he pours some laudnun. The little creature
15:08
Speaker 1: went to sleep, smiling at him, and never woke no more.
15:11
Speaker 1: This was two days ago, yesterday. The Buffer goes around
15:15
Speaker 1: to all the bearing clubs and gives notice of the
15:17
Speaker 1: death of the child. But somehow or another, the thing
15:19
Speaker 1: got wind one of the secretaries of a club takes
15:22
Speaker 1: a surgeon along with him to the buffer's lodgings, and
15:25
Speaker 1: it is all blown. Well, I never heard of such
15:27
Speaker 1: a rig as that before, exclaimed the waiter. As for
15:30
Speaker 1: the rig, observed the cracksman coolly. That is common enough.
15:34
Speaker 1: Ever since the burial societies and funeral clubs come into existence,
15:37
Speaker 1: no think has been more common than these child murders.
15:40
Speaker 1: A man in full work can very well afford to
15:43
Speaker 1: pay a few halfpence a week to each club that
15:45
Speaker 1: he subscribes to, even supposing he puts his name down
15:48
Speaker 1: to a dozen. Then those who don't kill their children
15:51
Speaker 1: ride out do so by means of exposure, neglect, and
15:54
Speaker 1: all kinds of horrible treatment. And so it is easy
15:56
Speaker 1: enough for a man to get forty or fifty pounds
15:59
Speaker 1: this way at once. So it is so, it is
16:02
Speaker 1: said the waiter. Burial clubs afford a regular premium upon
16:05
Speaker 1: the murder of young children. All London is a wonderful place.
16:09
Speaker 1: Everything of that kind is invented and got up first
16:11
Speaker 1: in London. I really do think that London beats all
16:15
Speaker 1: other cities in the world for matters of that sort. Look,
16:18
Speaker 1: for instance, What a blessed thing it is that the
16:20
Speaker 1: authorities seldom or never attempt to alter what they call
16:23
Speaker 1: low neighborhoods. Why is the low neighborhoods that make such
16:26
Speaker 1: gentlemen as you two, and affords you the means of
16:29
Speaker 1: concealment and existence and occupation and everything else. Supposing there
16:33
Speaker 1: was no boozing kins and powdered cribs like this, how
16:36
Speaker 1: would such gentlemen say? As you two get on? Ah,
16:39
Speaker 1: London is a fine place, a very fine place, and
16:42
Speaker 1: I hope I never shall live to see the day
16:44
Speaker 1: when it will be spoilt by improvement. Come, there's a
16:46
Speaker 1: good deal of reason and all that, exclaimed the Resurrection Man. Here,
16:50
Speaker 1: my good fellow, he added, turning to the waiter, drink
16:52
Speaker 1: this tumbler of a egg hot for your fine speech.
16:55
Speaker 1: The waiter did not require to be asked twice, but
16:57
Speaker 1: imbibed the smoking beverage with an infinite satisfaction. To himself,
17:01
Speaker 1: I never heard anything more true than what this fellow
17:04
Speaker 1: has just said, observed the Resurrection Man to his companion
17:08
Speaker 1: in inquidity. Only suppose now that all Saints Guiles, Clerk Nwell,
17:14
Speaker 1: bethnel Green and the mint were improved, as they call it,
17:18
Speaker 1: where the devil would crime take refuge. For no one
17:21
Speaker 1: knows better than you and me that we should uncommon
17:24
Speaker 1: soon have give up business if we hadn't dark and
17:27
Speaker 1: narrow streets to operate in, cribs like this kin to
17:30
Speaker 1: meet and plan in, and the low courts and alleys
17:33
Speaker 1: to conceal ourselves in. Lord, what indeed would London be
17:37
Speaker 1: to us if it was all like the West End?
17:40
Speaker 1: And so the fact is that the authorities very kindly
17:43
Speaker 1: leave in existence and undisturbed those very places which give
17:46
Speaker 1: birth to you, gentlemen in the first instance, said the waiter,
17:49
Speaker 1: and sustain you afterwards. Well you ain't very far wrong,
17:53
Speaker 1: old feller, exclaimed the crocsman. But blow me if this
17:56
Speaker 1: ever struck me before, nor me either, said the resurrection man,
18:00
Speaker 1: till the flunky started the subject. Ah, there's a many
18:04
Speaker 1: things that has struck me since I've been in the
18:06
Speaker 1: waiter line and flash houses of this kind, observed the
18:09
Speaker 1: paralytic attendant, shaking his head solemnly. Well, one curious fact
18:13
Speaker 1: I've noticed, which is that in nine cases out of ten,
18:17
Speaker 1: the laws themselves make men take two bad ways and
18:20
Speaker 1: then punish them for acting under their influence. I don't
18:23
Speaker 1: understand that, said the cracksman. I do, though, exclaimed the
18:26
Speaker 1: resurrection man. And I mean to say that the flunky
18:29
Speaker 1: is quite right. We ain't born bad. Something then must
18:32
Speaker 1: have made us bad. If I've been in the Duke
18:34
Speaker 1: of Wellington's place, I should be an honorable and upright
18:37
Speaker 1: man like him. And if he had been in my place,
18:39
Speaker 1: he would be what I am. Of course, he would
18:42
Speaker 1: echo the waiter. Now I understand, cried the cracksman. I
18:45
Speaker 1: tell you what we'll do, said the resurrection man, after
18:47
Speaker 1: a few moments reflection. This devil of a holfer doesn't
18:50
Speaker 1: appear to hurry himself, and the rain has just begun
18:53
Speaker 1: to fall in Torrents. So we'll have another quarter flip,
18:56
Speaker 1: and the flunkies shall sit down with us and enjoy it.
18:59
Speaker 1: And I'll just tell you the history of my own
19:01
Speaker 1: life by way of passing away the time. Perhaps you
19:03
Speaker 1: may find, added the resurrection man, that it helps to
19:06
Speaker 1: bear out the Flunkey's remark that in nine cases out
19:10
Speaker 1: of ten, the laws themselves make us take to bad
19:12
Speaker 1: ways and then punish us for acting under their influence.
19:15
Speaker 1: The second supply of flip was procured, the door of
19:18
Speaker 1: the parlor was shut, room was made for the paralytic
19:21
Speaker 1: waiter near the fire, and the resurrection man commenced his
19:24
Speaker 1: narrative in the following manner. End of Chapter sixty one,
19:28
Speaker 1: recording by Judy Geynen