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Criminal Manchester - Experiences of a Special Correspondent · Classic History Book Collection

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One charter street, past and present. The truth of the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: rather trite saying that half the world knows not how
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the other half lives is so generally acknowledged that ignorance
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of certain phases of life in our city can be
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: pleaded with equanimity by the vast majority of us. We
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: do not take the trouble to inquire what is going
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: on in circles very far below us, and are as
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: little acquainted with the existence led by the poverty stricken
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: or the vicious in our back streets and courts, as
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: if a great gulf divided us. Their ways are not
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: our ways. And it is only when the light shed
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: by policial or other authority is turned upon this hidden
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: underworld that we see aught of its nature. But this
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: light is in many respects a false one, as it
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: illuminates but the more salient features and belongings of the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: scene it reveals, leaving in greater darkness much that is
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: important and characteristic. We accept the revelation given and do
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: not care to venture beyond the circle marked out by
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: this artificial guide, for we are as little fearful of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: prying too deeply into the secret of the minority that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: is at times so troublesome and dangerous. In spite of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: all this, the maxim that has been applied to the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: highest class is applicable to the lowest. You may keep
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: this minority out of sight and out of mind, but
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: it is tenacious of life and is one of the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: estates of the realm. Being so it is worth examining curiously.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: And from the knowledge gained by temporary association with what
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: is termed low life, I may be able to give
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: some idea of what is transpiring even now in our
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: midst among the outcasts and pariahs of the community. How
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the association has been formed matters not save that it
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: had its present purpose in view, and was not called
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: into being by idle curiosity or senseless intrusion piloted by
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: one who has returned but recently from penal servitude, or,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: as he would say, from doing a set stretch. I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: sank my identity for a time and gained an insight
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: into crooked life, which is at once interesting and novel.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I must first explain that in Manchester there are four
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: districts in which are located our criminal population, which may
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: be enumerated as Charter Street, part of Deansgate, Ankots and Gaythorn.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: The first named is bounded by a portion of Rochdale Road,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Angels Street, Crown Lane, part of Redbank, besex Row, long
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Mill Gate, and a number of streets leading up to
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Smithfield Market. This is the headquarters practically of the Thieving Fraternity,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and with it I will first deal, leaving a description
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of the other districts to a future article. My guide.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Keeping his appointment in long mill Gate with marvelous punctuality,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: we commenced our wanderings into what was to me an
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: entirely unknown locality about ten o'clock at night. We struck
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: off at once in the direction of Charter Street, and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: on the way I was entertained with a long and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: querulous complaint on the bad state of business, which is
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: worth reproducing. It was to the old tune of times
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: was then and contained a vast amount of information as
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to the former state of affairs at a period not
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: so very far distant. He remembered seven or eight years ago,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: how the street Charter Street was just as it should be,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: and what could be done in spite of all the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: De's detective police in the city in the middle of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the day for fifty two hundred men known thieves. Every
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: one of them could be seen loitering at corners, pattering
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: away in groups of their doings, on their various lays,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and laying plans for their next work. If the face
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of a known constable in plain clothes showed itself at
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a corner, they were off into entries and houses in
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a second, and the street would be as deserted as
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: if no crowd had been in it. In at the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: front door and out at the back, over the yard walls,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: as quick as fear could make them scramble, for each
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: one knew he might have been spotted for some little
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: job he had done, and it would not be worth
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: while to wait and be lagged. Not that they went
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: always quietly, for the street had weapons of its own,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: and when a rescue was attempted, it fared ill with
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the officers. He Many a house was kept hidden a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: supply of stones, and these were used with great effect.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Before the disturbance, not half a dozen could have been
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: found on the roadway, but when all was over they
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: could be counted by the hundred. Many a hard fight
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: was waged with the police, who did not always come
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: off without serious hurt. Joe Hyde then kept the London Tavern,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: which was recognized as the great place of resort of
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: cross men thieves from all parts of the country, and
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: there the cutest of the fraternity most did congregate. There
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: were men who could pass muster in a crowd, and
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: were well dressed, and had plenty of ready coin to spend.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Why I've seen suddenly my companion breaks out a dozen
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: and playing cards all night, and the table covered with
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: sovereigns five pound a corner, and all paid up at
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the finish. We could manage it all right then and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: come direct to the street. But now we have to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: go outside anywhere where we can get a place for
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: we should get hauled up sharp. If we went to
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: old Quarters, then there was Teddy and Bob Butterworth's, but
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: they've got a ten and twelve stretch. While I've been away,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: they could sleep twenty or thirty of us every night,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and we put up there as nice as could be.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: We used to drop nearly all the stuff at Bob McFarland's,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and a good fence receiver he was. Then some went
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to Patsy Reardon's, but he's dead and his old woman
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: is doing time for taking in some two or three
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: hundred watches from the guns, pickpockets, one arm, Kitty and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Cabby Jan are still here, but it's a hot shot now.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: To work in fencing isn't half what it was before
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the Act, and getting watches even isn't worth the trouble.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: You can't place half of them, and when you do,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: it's but a trifle. I might do a bit of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: ale and bater in working and thieving, but not in Manchester.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: All the old uns are gone away and everything's changed
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: for the bad. This was the burden of the complaint,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and it is true that the Habitual Criminals Act, generally
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: known to the profession as the Act or the New Act,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: has crippled the extensive operation of convicts immensely. Formerly, the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: line that divided the thief proper from the working men
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: and hawkers on the one hand and vagrants on the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: other was clearly defined, but now it can no longer
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: be traced. Thieving alone is too hazardous, and as my
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: experienced friend put it, ailum portering is considered most profitable.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: A little bit of work hawking or otherwise with a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: spice of thieving, pays well and can be pursued with impunity.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: For a time. There are very few persons at the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: present time who subsist entirely on the proceeds of continual
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: and systematic theft. By the time I had been put
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: in possession of these facts, we had got well into
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the street, and a number of suspicious looking men and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: youths could be seen standing at the corners near the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: public houses that are pretty thickly scattered about the neighborhood.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: They were slovenly dressed and had a listless, heavy look
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: about them that gave an idea of mental and bodily depression.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: We looked into several liquor vaults, and in most of
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: them the counterparts of the men outside were drinking. They
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: were not particularly noisy, though their talk was coarse and brutal,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: As I, of course anticipated. They were of the usual
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: rough type, and were as good specimens as could be
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: picked out of any of our large jails. They seemed
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: to have no object in drinking, save to while away
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the time, and many sat smoking on the low wooden
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: seats without joining in the conversation or exhibiting sociability in
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: any way. They were content with their position in the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: glare and warmth of the gas light. And the stolid
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: on intelligent gaze they turned on their companions was as
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: purposeless as can be imagined. It as well to follow
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: suit in the drinking we entered a more pretentious house
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: than we had yet seen, and after passing a long,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: well lighted bar with a spacious counter that would have
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: accommodated some fifty persons, we gained a small room leading
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: out of an adjoining passage. It was a decently furnished,
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  Speaker 1: snug smoke room, and in it were four men engaged
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  Speaker 1: in a subdued conversation, which they broke off as soon
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: as we entered. Some money was lying on the table,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and one of them was about to gather it up
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: when my companion made use of some back slang which
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I could not comprehend, and they resumed their task of
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: apparently dividing the money. Each man eventually got a couple
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of sovereigns and some loose silver that was left spent
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: in glasses of whiskey. They were more respectable in appearance,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and their talk was less slangy than the men I
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: had seen in the other drinking places. But all of
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: them had been convicted of felony, and one a little
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: stumpy man with a face bespeaking low cunning was just
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: out on ticket. With a convict's carelessness, he was again
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: associating with his old companions in spite of the risk
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of being sent back to finish his time. Two of
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the others were strangers, but as I learned from scraps
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: of conversation, they had done the boat, the slang term
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: for the now abolished system of transportation from London. They
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: had only been in the town a few days and
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: were living out in the direction of Queen's Road, as
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: they would not trust themselves in the lodging houses of
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the street, where they might be recognized and watched by
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the Slops police. We had only time to drink our
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: liquor hastily, for it was eleven o'clock and we were
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: soon out into the street again. At the corner were
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: standing a couple of men whom I identified as belonging
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to our local detective force, and as they moved towards us,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the Cockney strangers broke away from our group and walked
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: rapidly across the street. I felt inclined to follow, but
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: was pulled back by my guide, and turning sharply round,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: we stepped into a dark, narrow entry, and with a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: sense of utter helplessness, I stumbled along as best I could,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the ground being rough and uneven, and not a ray
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: of light visible to show whither I was going. I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: nearly came to grief several times in treacherous puddles that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: had collected in stray holes, and it was only by
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: touching either war with my outstretched hands that I could
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: progress at all. Suddenly I found myself out in the
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: open air in what was evidently a back court. But
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the yard was so small and the night so dark,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: that I could see no passage by which we could
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: make our way out. We mustn't be seen, said my
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: faithful convict, and stepping cautiously to the door of one
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of the houses, he rapped quietly but distinctly. The effect
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: was anything but encouraging. For a dog inside gave tong immediately,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and to judge from the energy with which he flew
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to the door, he would have been a ferocious customer
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: to deal with. It appeared as if he would get
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: at us, and as we could hear someone stirring in
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the room, we beat a rapid retreat. Follow me. Sharp
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: was all the instruction I got and we were again
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: off in the darkness through such a devious maze of
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: courts and passages that I wondered what particular part of
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the city we should arrive at. We got out safely,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: albeit I was bruised and dirty from falling against such
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: trifling obstacles as the corners of walls and a few
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: broken down steps, And to my surprise we were in
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Charter Street. All was quiet, and we passed over and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: entered one of the houses, which I was told was
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the begging Ken. End of Part one, Chapter two, Life
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: in Charter Street. The begging Ken was gained after passing
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: through a long passage leading into a room which was
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: large enough to accommodate with comfort the dozen persons male
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and female that were sitting on either side of a
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: large deal table. They were of the genus Cadja, but
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: wore a very different look to that put on when
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: ursuing their vocation of pestering well to do people for arms.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: They were dressed in their ordinary clothes, to be sure,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and their looped and windowed raggedness showed up strangely in
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the light of the great fire which roared in the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: wide grate. They seemed as much at home, as it
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: was possible to imagine, and were smoking filthy clay pipes
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: and exchanging confidences with perfect freedom. There was no whineing
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: cant in their voices now, for they had only fellow
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: cheetahs to deal with, and they accordingly appeared in their
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: true colours. They took but very little notice of us,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: for supper was very nearly ready, and a savory odour
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: rose from a huge iron pot that was simmering and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: bubbling on the fire. One of the hobs, too, was
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: fitted with the kitchen boiler, and the steam was blowing
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: off at an alarming rate. I was curious to know
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: how these vagabonds dined, for the meal they were about
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to take was really dinner, though enjoyed at a later
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: hour than even the most aristocratic in the land would
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: care to fix. Some common earthenware plates, which at least
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: looked clean in spite of their dilapidated state, were placed
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: on the bare table, and a knife and fork of
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: exceedingly venerable aspects were assigned to each person. Pipes were
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: put out carefully and even tenderly deposited in the owner's
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: pockets for strangers. The love of the vagrant for his
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: soothing comforter, and in another minute the pot was standing
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: on the hearth, and beef steak and onions were being
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: distributed to each hungry wanderer. A loaf of aldermanic proportions
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: graced the center of the board, and giant slices were
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: cut from it and eagerly seized. Having watched the feed
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: for a short time, until every mouth was full, and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: nothing could be heard but the harsh clatter of steel
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: and platter varied with the uncouth noises made when the
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: vulgar heat we took our leave. This ken has an
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: immense reputation among the cadging and tramp fraternity, as they
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: can always ensure good treatment if they have the means
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: of paying a very small charm, and it is needless
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: to say they have always these means. Here they arranged
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the districts in which they shall work the city and
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood, and map out with wonderful cuteness and sagacity
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the route each shall take. Their organization is not so
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: perfect as in the metropolis, but the method is the same,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and a rough sketch has even been discovered in which
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the most prominent features of the suburbs were clearly shown
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: their mendicancy is far too skilled for haphazard begging. The
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: next house we visited was somewhat different in character to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: this place in which vagrants assembled and partook more of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the genuine nature of a thieve's rendezvous. Entering direct from
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: the street, we were in a small room, well furnished,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: with the walls hung with a number of gaudy engravings
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and a large quantity of cheap china, ornaments and glassware
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: standing on a sideboard. The fireplace was to our left,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and to the right of it, and in fact immediately
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: adjoining it, it was a bedstead in which the proprietor
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: of the establishment was sleeping. He rose bolt upright on
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: seeing my guide, whom for convenience I will henceforth call mac,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and I had a good chance of seeing his face.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: It was that of a man prematurely old, and the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: grizzled military mustache stood out from the livid and haggard
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: face with singular effect. There was a blazing fire within
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: a few inches of him. His hand, in fact, if
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: stretched out, could have touched the bars, and yet he
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: shivered and drew the clothes about his shoulders as he asked,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: what's up? He lay down again quietly on hearing that
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: a pal was being shown around, and told us there
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: was somebody in the kitchen. At the foot of the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: bed was a wide doorway, and after a short struggle
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: with a stubborn latch, we had an opportunity of seeing
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: who this somebody was. The room had nothing very characteristic
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in its general outline, the walls being whitewashed and fairly clean,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and the ceiling blackened and discolored with smoke. A flight
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: of stairs led up to the bedrooms, and on the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: bottom step I ensconced myself while Mac fraternized with a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: couple of men who were lounging on a bench with
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the customary careless and limp bearing that is noticeable about
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: your manner of questionable repute. The place was excessively hot,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: for a gas jet was flaring away, while the fire,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: more extensive than any I had yet seen, was roaring
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: up the chimney. It may seem strange to refer so
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: constantly to the presence of these fires, but I was
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: struck with the lavishness with which the coal was used,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: and the evident pleasure afforded to those who were gathered
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: round them. It is natural, perhaps that warmth and the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: comfort inspired by the glow of a reaming fire should
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: be particularly sought after in a profession which drives its
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: votaries into hardship and privation in the open air. But
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: whatever the cause may be, the fact remains that thief
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and vagrant are extravagantly partial to a good, wholesome English
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: coal fire. I sat on the stairs listen with no
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: particular interest to what was being related of various people
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: of a certain importance, I supposed in their several lives,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: until my attention was attracted by two or three coarse
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: expressions addressed to a girl who seemed to be unusually
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: quiet and reserved. She was a mill hand, apparently, and
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: had the typical check shawl of her class over her shoulders.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: She was not above eighteen years of age, and would
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: have been good looking but for two or three ugly
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: scars that disfigured her cheek. She kept turning to a
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: youth about her own age, who was seated at the
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: end of the bench nearest the fire, and attempted to
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: raise a laugh by two or three jokes remarkable for
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: nothing but their breadth of meaning which embraced more than
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: I should like to say. Her man would not be mollified,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and sulkily smoked his pipe, only opening his lips to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: use bad language of the highest order. He was a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: good specimen of his kind, clear sharp face, with marks
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: of manhood before youth had passed away, closely cropped hair
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: almost hidden by a tight fitting cap that showed his
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: ears with uncommon effectiveness, and a wisp of dirty white
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: handkerchief tied loosely round his throat. He rose once to
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: light his pipe, and I could see the gleam of
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: his brass tipped clogs as he shuffled to the fire.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Mac chafed him on his bad temper and suggested he
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: should square up with the gal, But he only got
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: more savage and swore more continuously, while reflecting on what
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a splendid Charley Bates he would make if only an
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: artful dodger were forthcoming. I was considerably startled by an
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: inscription in large red letters over the chimney piece. It
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: was so incongruous that I could scarcely believe my eyes.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: But through all the covering of dirt and dust, I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: read thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: thy God in vain. However, the text had reached its position.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I could not imagine, but I must confess to being
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: greatly shocked at hearing the profanity indulged him beneath that
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: commandment of the ten which inculcates chastity of speech, And
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: thought true that perhaps only myself and my companion could read.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: But it seemed as if the finger of old that
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: had written mieni Miani had traced in letters of blood
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the solemn warning against blasphemy, which now looked down upon
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the reckless beings I was among. I hastened to leave
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the place, for though no purest I could not coolly
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: listen to more cursing. With such an eloquent monitor before me,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and with a sidelong glance at the scroll, half obliterated
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: with finger marks, smoke and kindred filth, yet standing out
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: from the drear wall with the vitality of inspiration, I
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: made my way into the front room. His occupant was
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: again asleep, and the flickering firelight threw strange shadows over
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: his face as he moved uneasily in bed. We noiselessly
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: opened the door, and once again were in the open,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: with the reek of tobacco and the stuffiness of the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: ho still clinging to us. I tried to elicit for
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: mac some information as to the presence of the strange
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: text in the house we had left, But he knew
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: nothing of it, and had looked upon it with the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: callous eye of a man who has sat untouched under
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: prison chaplains, and wondered what the patter was all about.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: He said he had seen the diarrhea paper which was
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: pasted up on the wall, and of which he had
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a high opinion. This was in allusion to the notice
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: issued I believe by the Lodging House Inspectors, which has
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: been circulated extensively in our lowest slums, and has done
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a certain amount of good in spite of the ignorance
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: of many who could not read its sensible directions. We
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: left Charter Street and walked quietly along an adjacent thoroughfare,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: which was as silent as if it were one of
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the byways of the city of the Dead. Mack told
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: me the houses were respectable, which I interpreted to mean
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of a character superior to common lodging kens, and in
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: this I was confirmed when he added that the flymen
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: who were never lagged lived in them. This means rogues
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: who do their thievings so cleverly and with such precautions
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: against detection, that the police cannot, perhaps for years, convict them,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: although they are morally convinced of their guilt. One of
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the front doors stood wide open, and at the end
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: of the low, narrow passage leading to the back kitchen,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: a brilliant light was shining. We walked in, and there,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: comfortably enjoying their midnight drink and smoke, were two respectably
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: dressed men who might have passed for clerks or warehousemen.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: There was nothing in their appearance to create suspicion, and
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: after resting for a few minutes and joining them in
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: a pipe, I left with the impression that they must
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: have retired long ago from public life. I gave utterance
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to these sentiments, and was pulled up by a sarcastic
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: chuckle for mac, who disabused my mind of all illusions
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: by stating that they were the two cleverest ooks pickpockets
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: in the city, but had only worked at fairs and races.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: They had been very successful, too, he told me, and
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: had had all luk in very seldom being jugged locked
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: up one or two other of these respectable habitations we
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: looked into, and shortly after we wended our way back
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: to the street, Cabbijan's being our destination, and there a
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: surprise awaited us Chapter three. What followed In Charter Street
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: We passed straightway into the back kitchen, down the customary passage,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and were in the sanctum of Cabbyjan, who is well
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: known to the vast majority of persons on the cross
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: in the whole country. Her fame had reached my ears
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: long before I had ever heard where she was located,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and I was impatient to obtain a glimpse of so
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: notorious a personage. There was a number of women and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: lads sitting in the room, but the keeper herself of
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the establishment was not there. From the upper regions, however,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: came noises which showed that something unusual was taking place,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and great was our surprise when, in answer to her
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: question as to what was up there, one of the
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: women surlily jerked out A dead man, if you want
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to know such indeed was the case for a member
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of the fraternity eminent as a pickpocket. He might indeed
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: have been called a great gun had died a day
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: or two before, and the wake was now being held
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: with all due honors. I should have liked much to
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: have been at the wake proper, but on proposing to
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Mac that we should go upstairs, he said it would
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: be impossible for me, even with his introduction, to remain
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: in the place. The worthy Anne was aloft superintending the
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: ceremony of waking, and the woman who had vouchsafed the
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: information as to the proceedings puffed savagely at a short
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: duodan and eyed us with a disfavor through the rank
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: tobacco smoke. Two or three of the youths, not more
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: than sixteen or seventeen years old, were more communicative and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: said there was plenty of stuff to be had. Stuff
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: is the generic term for drink and food, and I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: wondered who were provided both so lavishly. The place looked
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: squalid and miserable, and the people in it were of poor,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: miserable appearance, as if they found it hard to live
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: at all. The walls were bare and dirty, and the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: furniture of the rudest and scantiest kind, a rough wooden
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: form doing duty for half a dozen shares. It did
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: not seem as if much money would be forthcoming in
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: such a barn of a place, and as the youths
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: were mere snowdroppers or linen lifters from clothes lines and hedges,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: it was not to be expected that they could play
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the part of generous donors. Mac had again to play
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the part of mentor, and the mystery was made clear.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: The money required to inaugurate the wake and sustain it
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: with fitting dignity was solicited in the neighborhood, very few
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of the crooked community refusing to give something, and a
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: general appeal being made at the various public houses. The
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: result was the raising of some three ord four pounds,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: which were spent mostly in drink. It would have been
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: thought that, as the money could be so readily obtained,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: there would have been a big burial, but this is
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a most absurd notion. However grand might be the wake,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the funeral was quite another thing. Let the parish authorities
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: see after that. And in this particular case I may
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: as well state the parish did have to take charge
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: of the corpse, and it was buried at the expense
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: of the ratepayers, after five times as much money as
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: would have paid the undertakers handsomely had been squandered in
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: excesses by the sorrowing friends of the dead man. At
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: these excesses, the least said the better, as some of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the scenes enacted at the wakes, even at the present time,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: are too disgusting and horrible to be related. Murty's lodging
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: house was our next resting place, and it exemplified the
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: truth of the old saying relative to every man's house
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: being his castle. For there was a double door which
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: was barred and bolted, as if to resist an attack
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: from without. After a heavy crossbar had been clanged noisily
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: down upon the floor, and the inner door half opened,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: we were admitted. I could see nothing but a little
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: sickly gas flame that almost gave up its puny light
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: as a draft of the cold night air rushed in.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: For the room was filled with dense smoke that choked
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: us with its fumes and made our eyes stream with tears.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I stood quite still, for I did not know in
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: which direction to move, And as I became accustomed to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the partial darkness, I discovered whence the smoke came. At
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the extreme end of the room was a low, open
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: fireplace in which a fire was smoldering as if it
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: had been damped down. And it was from this that
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the nuisance arose, For eddying gusts swept down the chimney
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: and leapt up to the sooty ceiling with untiring energy.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: There was no one at all to be seen save
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: the old woman who had admitted us, and who carried
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: in her hand a primitive candlestick in the shape heap
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of an old brown ginger beer bottle, in which a
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: solitary dip was struggling to keep a light. She ushered
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: us into a smaller room, cautioning us to mind the steps,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: as we had to descend a couple of feet. Here
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: there was not so much smoke, and half a dozen women,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: all middle aged and looking worn out and disreputable, were
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: gathered together, smoking and gossiping in a subdued manner, as
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: if there had no interest in their own conversation. One
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: suddenly brightened up for a moment as a man emerged
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: from a corner, and mac remarked that he must be
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Brigham young, with so many wives about him. We more
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: respectable than that sort, she remarked, in a tone meant
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to convey pride in her own marital relations, whatever they
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: might be and her companions leered approval, with every indication
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: of admiring the sentiment. By this time, the old woman,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: who had securely fastened the doors, had joined us, and,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: holding hers sputtering candle over her head, she proceeded us upstairs,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: where some thirty or forty lodgers were enjoying their night's repose.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: The stairs were narrow and steep, with sharp turnings and
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: landing places in the most unlooked for corners, and several
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: times I lost sight of my guiding star, the glim,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: which appeared to dance about like a will o the wisp.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Once I stumbled in the dark and fell crash against
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a whitewashed door, A hoarse voice inquired in most uncivil terms,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: and even with allusions to a place and personage not
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: very popular, who's there? I replied, in as gruff tones
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: that it was all right, and retraced my steps with
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: a morbid fear of finding myself rolling to the bottom
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of the stairs. Fortune favored me, however, and taking the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: right turn I was without further inconvenience in the main
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: sleeping room. It was one of the strangest places I
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: have ever seen, and yet it would have been hard
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: to improve upon it as regards cleanliness and ventilation. It
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: was a long, wide attic with boxed off sleeping compartments
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: running down either side, leaving a pretty broad passage along
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: which to walk. Rude deal doors with no hinges were
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: fitted to the compartments, and these had to be lifted
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and dragged away before admission could be obtained. Every bit
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: of woodwork was as white as snow, for the whole
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: interior had been recently whitewashed, and the cross beams and
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: rafters were of the same color. Looking inside several of
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: these sleeping boxes, I saw that a bed was placed
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: in each, and that there was just room for the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: lodger to undress and no more. As the glare of
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the candle fell upon the sleeper's eyes, some started up
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and stared stupidly about, while others blinked and yawned, as
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: if too overcome with sleep to care much about what
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: was going on. The air was as sweet as that
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: of any ordinary dwelling house, and no wonder for the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: sanitary authorities sternly enforced the laws in regard to full
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: accommodation being given to all lodgers. At one end of
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the dorm was a low brick archway, as if a
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: petition wall had been sometimes broken through, and this led
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to a further series of beds, each with its occupants.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Married couples althose professing to be included in that category
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: were provided with beds detached from the general sleepers. I
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: suppose that this dormitory contained many characters well known to
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the police, but they were enjoying good quarters and slept
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: as soundly as if of the just two or three
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: jokes were bawled out by some sleepless individuals, and as
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: the speakers were at different ends of the garret, their
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: voices were pitched in no low key. The eyre of
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: a more sedate of the community was aroused at this
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and as long as the light remained, a babel of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: oaths and invectives could be heard. This subsided as we
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: picked our way carefully downstairs at Fat Billies not far distant.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: The accommodation was somewhat similar, though the chambers generally being
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: smaller and more news. The wooden partitions were differently arranged.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: In contrast with the whitewash of the walls and ceilings,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: the doors had all been coated with coal tar, and
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: the smell of this pervaded the whole house. His antiseptic
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: qualities are of course well known, and the idea of
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: thus applying them is worthy of encouragement. The floors and
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: beds were scrupulously clean, even though many of the lodgers
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: were far from appreciating the blessings of cleanliness. In the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: largest room of all, with some half dozen beds, and
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: here a curious scene was being enacted. A young Negro,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: with face as black as the tarred doors, was sitting
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: on the side of his couch, holding his face between
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: his hands, and swearing in the most horrible broken English,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: for he was enduring the scourge of toothache with about
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: as much fortitude as a child exhibits when first becoming
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: acquainted with molar teeth. To add to his discomfort, he
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: was made the butt of his companions, who, exercising their
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: wit upon him with merciless severity. The remedies that were
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: suggested to DARKI were as astonishing as unique, and he
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: could scarcely refrain from grinning himself at some of the expressions.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: It was a sight to be remembered. For a more
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: powerful picture, it would have been hard to have designed
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the low browed room looked weird and desolate in the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: half light, and the figures of the inmates, in every
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: possible attitude and in every variety of motion, showed forth
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: strangely in the gloom, restless and with no signs of
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: possible sleep. Here was one sitting straight upright in bed,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: and there half dozing was another reclining with cheek resting
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: upon his uplifted arm. Others lay at full length with
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: their hands locked between their heads, a favorite position with
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: your outcast, who was often thus to supply the want
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: of a pillow and shelterless. Some few were lying passively
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: with eyes closed, heedless of the tumult, and only showing
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: by their uneasy movements that they were not slumbering. And
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: in the midst of all the white figures that shifted
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: and swayed in the uncertain twilight, with ghostly shadows lurking
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: in dark corners and dancing on the walls, there reared
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: itself the dark image of the poor man of color,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: as if the unholy genius of the spot had come
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: to mount guard over his subjects. We watched the fun
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: until it appeared as if the nigger would never get
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to rest at all, and thinking I would see if
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: he could stand a practical joke, I pulled out a
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: small pen knife and proposed to cut his gums. This
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: latest advanced cure was received with rows of delight by
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the rough spirits in bed, but Darky cried off when
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I showed him the steel, and suggested that I should
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: put my finger in and feel I had too much
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: respect for my own flesh and blood to tempt the
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: unfortunate contraband to cannibalism, and so left him in his
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: pain to solace himself as best he could. I stay
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: in the street had now been protracted to a very
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: early hour, but we gave several other Cross cribs a
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: call before leaving the district. In one of these only
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: was there anything of interest. Where a dozen men and
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: women were smoking their cheap tobacco with a relish that
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: was absolutely startling, for they pulled at their stumpy pipes
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: with such vehemence that their very breath seemed to be
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: converted into dense smoke, which hung about their heads and
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: curled lovingly round their necks, as if loath to part company.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: There was one woman who had the dirtiest pipe their
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: rankest weed and the most garrulous tongue, and on the
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: pretense of getting a light from her clay, I struck
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: up a brief acquaintance. She was a withered, dried up
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: specimen of the hoisting shoplifting sisterhood, with a little puckered
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: up face, expressionless in repose, and yet mobile. When the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: eyes peered out sharply at a strange question, sucking the
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: stem of her pipe with great gusto, she told me
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: how cleverly she had been pinched lock up for lifting cheese.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: She was running off with a huge piece of the
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: grocer's property in her arms when she heard an outcry
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: raised behind, and accordingly quietly dropped her booty and walked away.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: She was caught, as stoutly asserted her innocence, but on
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the buttons of her dress were the marks of her guilt,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and the cute slop back slang for a police officer
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: fitted the buttons one by one into the corresponding holes
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: in the cheese. I thought I was in for a
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: patter committed to the sessions, said Irish Kate in conclusion.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: But I got off with two months. She laughed and
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: chuckled over the affair as if she had enjoyed the punishment,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: and I'm not sure that she had not. End of
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter four, Deansgate Dens. Before dealing with the
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: criminal population which finds its home in the neighborhood of Deansgate,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: it may be as well to give some idea of
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the number of convicts on license and under police supervision
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: in the city. By the courtesy of the Chief Constable,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: I am enabled to quote the return for the year
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: ending the twenty ninth of September last. From this it
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: appears that one hundred and eighty three convicts on license
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: and one hundred and sixty six under police supervision, or
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: a total of three hundred forty nine, have been within
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: what may be termed direct controlled during the past twelve months.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Of those on license, about one in every three was
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: a woman, while among those under supervision, the sexes were
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: nearly equal, there being ninety two males and seventy four females.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Out of the total of three hundred forty nine, only
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: twenty seven have been transferred to Manchester from other districts.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: So that we may claim the other three hundred and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: twenty two convicted felons as our exclusive property. Of the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: whole number, only one hundred and seventy six remained in
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: the city at the date of the return, the remainder
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: having disposed of themselves or having been disposed of by
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the authorities in various ways. For instance, twenty nine had
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: been convicted for new offenses, twenty one had not reported
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: themselves at all, fifty five had removed or been transferred
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: to other police districts, and the licenses of thirty five
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: others had expired. Of those under supervision, twenty six had
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: been punished for neglecting to report. Only seven licenses had
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: been entirely revoked. And this proves how admirably the system
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: of releasing men on ticket works where the local police
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: machinery is sufficiently powerful to keep the most dangerous criminals
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: in awe. As I have before stated, the Deansgate district
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: is an extensive one, comprising the majority of the smaller
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: streets running at right angles from the main thoroughfare between
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Bridge Street and Saint John's Street, and many others of
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: the narrow allies on the opposite side of the street.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Under the guidance which had safely initiated me into the
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: mysteries of Charter Street. I sought to gain an insight
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: into the life which hides itself in perhaps our closest
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: and most uninviting courts, and choosing a Saturday night for
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: my visit, I saw sufficient to sicken and dismay the
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: most ardent philanthropists that ever studied social economy. Upwards of
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: a hundred houses did I enter upon various excuses, and
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: it would be impossible to describe each in detail. They
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: had many features in common, and the type of misery
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: and debasement presented by their inmates was generally the same.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: The distinctive characteristics were in the individual and not in
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: the mode of living. The following were the principal streets
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I first of all made acquaintance with, and to some
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: of them. I will later on refer more intimately Wood Street,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: spinning Field, Dollfield, Wilmot Street, Hardman Street, Royton Street, and
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Thompson's Street. There are very few registered lodging houses in
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: this neighborhood, as at exenements are mostly small, two story
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: cottages in which three or four men and women live
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: with their children if they have those encumbrances, and in
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: which the cooperative spirit is largely exercised For existence is
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: merely of a hand to mouth kind. They are mostly
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: thieves of the lowest order, though many clever pickpockets are
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: also turned out, and the place is a very hot
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: bed of social iniquity and vice. To deal with this
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: latter phase of crime is hardly possible in articles of
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: this nature. But so intimately is the called social evil
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: connected with actual offenses against the law that it is
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: difficult to dissever them. This assertion is particularly applicable to
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: the Deansgate neighborhood, as perhaps is only too notorious. The
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: women are of a class whose degradation is utter and
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: whose reclamation as a body is an absolute impossibility. They
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: only commit theft when detection is practically unable to reach them,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and their chief victims are drunken men and country at
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: flass backslang flats or greenhorns, whom they pick up rab
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: and rifle pockets with perfect impunity. The amount of property
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: thus stolen in twelve months, and of which the police
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: had never made cognisance is enormous. I shall not further
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: touch upon an unpalatable subject, and my only apology is
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: that the ground is considered too dangerous to be circumstantially
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: mapped out for the benefit of the common public. In
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Wood Street, we were arrested by the sound of music
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: proceeding from what looked like an old beer house, and
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: on entering we came upon a party of a dozen
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: youths and girls assembled in a half furnished room which
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: resembled a tap room, listening to a hurdy gurdyman grinding
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: out a lugubrious waltz, and a red faced girl with
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: a glaring red shawl over her shoulders shaking a tambourine.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: The audience was a small one, but there was enough
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: dirt and old clothes among them to stock a marine
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: store dealer. We were altogether more disreputable looking than the
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: denizens of charter streets. The women were all bare headed
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: save the strata of cheap oil and the dust of
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: weeks which covered their hair, and the men were in
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: a chronic state of tight fitting cloth caps and large
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: party colored mufflers. Peter, the master of the house, was out,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: and it was not until I had passed into an
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: inner room that I was aware that I was not
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: in a public house. I fully expected to come across
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: a bar, but only met a woman with a child
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: in her arms. Who looked weak and sickly. I learned
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: that the premises had once been licensed, but they had
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: suffered disestablishment some time since. The remnants of their old
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: glory were visible in the presence of innumerable gaudy paintings
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: on the walls, representing subjects the most diverse. Once I
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: was confronted by Caxton pulling a proof with his first
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: rude machine from his wooden type, and in another second
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: I started on discovering two or three pewty realistic celebrities
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: in a remarkably airy undress, sparring at me from their
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: tinsel frames. It was as if the spirit of the
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: place dumbly appealed to the inmates not to forget its
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: ancient name and fame. But these are already things of
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: the past, and the short span that marks a generation
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: in these infamous quarters will blot them out altogether. Coming
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: out of this queer habitation, we passed down the street
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: until opposite a huckster's shop lighted by an oil lamp
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: stuck among various comestibles in the window. Here, a middle
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: aged man who looked like a costa was cursing a
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: woman seated at the side of the fire in the
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: choicest billings Gate. She answered him now and again with
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: a sneer, which only enraged him the more, and seeing us,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: he made a direct appeal out of sheer inability to
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: cope with her tongue. Look here, she says, she'll am
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: me bingched, locked up for kicking, and yet she's broken
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: her plate on me head. She'll be picked and not me.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: This was screamed out at the top of his voice,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: with an expletive between every third word, and as he finished,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: he savagely smashed the pieces of the broken plate that
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: were lying on the floor. There was a mark on
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: his forehead, and it was clear that he had been
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: struck with something, and that very recently. We left him
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: literally breathing vengeance, and we could hear the row going
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: long after we were out of sight of the shop.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Several other interiors came under my notice that were of
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: a far superior class, many indeed being as snug as
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: they could be made. Pictures in more than one instance
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: completely covered the walls, leaving scarcely a trace of the
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: paper visible. And in one living room where the ceiling
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: was so low that my hat almost touched it, a
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: handsome parrot in a gorgeous cage was quietly roosting. The
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: pictures in these domiciles were a study in themselves, and
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: it would be interesting to trace the causes that led
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: to their perch. Exciting battle scenes, stirring scenes by sea
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: and land are easily accounted for by the strange love
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: for the terrible that is inherent among the lowest and
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: most brutal scriptural subjects. Saints with the golden glory around
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: their holy brows, the Madonna with her infant child, the
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Crucifixion and resurrection are only what might have been expected
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: in this other dwelling peopled by Roman Catholics. But other
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: pictures are far more puzzling. The portrait of the Prince
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: of Wales, for instance, representing him as a rosy cheeked
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: young man with incipient mustache and whiskers in a military habit,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: is an especial favorite, and I was continually encountering it.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Not a single portrait of her most gracious Majesty Victoria
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: did I observe, and yet her eldest son was everywhere visible.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Whatever induced these outcasts and offenders against the laws of
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: God and man to adorn their walls with the likeness
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: of England's future king, I know not unless the money
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: was invested to obtain a good property for the frames
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: were all of pretty solid construction. After a chat with
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Lizzie O'Neill, whose husband Big Jack is waiting for sessions,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: and a look into Johnny the Kid's house, we dropped
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: into the residence of fat An, where half a dozen
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: collier lads from Wiggin were enjoying themselves. Some rude attempts
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: was being made at a song by a half drunken girl,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: but two or three of her companions drowned her voice
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: by their incessant quarreling. These colliers from a distance are
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: a feature of these haunts on Saturday nights, and I
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: saw at least fifty of them during the evening in
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: various cribs. They're cleaned out of all the money they
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: think fit to spend, and when they refused to part
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: with more, they are occasionally bundled out into the street.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: A row is created and any portable property they may
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: have on them in the shape of scarf, pins, watches
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: and loose cash, is quickly transferred to other owners. As
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: a precaution, they generally go in threes and fours and
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: profiting by experience and of late, by their improved system
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: of purring, they can defy any of the koshas bullies
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: who may attempt to molest them. Some of these colliers
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: were mere boys, and their stunted growth and the unhealthy
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: look about their shrewd pale faces showed the viciousness of
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: their lives. They were all clogged, and not a few
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: had brass tips on the sharp wooden toes that would
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: have told fearfully in an up and down fight. They
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: had nothing to recommend them in appearance or speech, and
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: were only one remove above the class they were temporarily
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: associating with. Fat An's neighbor was Liza Lanky Lancashire, who
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: deserved some little notice. Stepping into her front room direct
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: from the street, I saw a big, unwieldy woman sitting
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: on an old sofa, with her elbow on the small
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: round table that stood near her. There was a strong
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: smell of whiskey pervading the room, and I perceived that
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: her head was bound round with a wet cloth. She
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: threw herself back on the sofa, and the action disclosed
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: her features, which were bloated and swollen and bore marks
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: of many a brutal blow. She seemed morose and savagely discontented,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: and a more forbidding face. I have seldom seen The
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: damp bandage over her forehead, with the wet trickling down
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: her temples, only made the thick, bushy eyebrows and prominent
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: cheek bones more striking, and the disheveled hair and dress
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: completed the picture. A man came in from her back
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: kitchen with another bandage, and the smell of whiskey was
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: explained as he told us that he thought whisky good
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: for a bad head. She sulkily snarled out that it
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: was and subsided into her ill humored apathy once more.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: A laboring man with a wooden leg was resting upon
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: another sofa, and it was evident he was a stranger
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: from the alarmed look he kept casting upon the woman.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Who he was and what he wanted in such company.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: I did not take the trouble to inquire, leaving Lanky
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: to her novel cure for headache, the outward application of
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: alcohol to counteract its inward effects. We made tracks without
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: further delay. End of Part four, Chapter five, Deansgate Scenes
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday night narrower streets I had seldom been in,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: and more repulsive men and women I had never beheld
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: than those who jostled us at corners and brushed up
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: against us with the privilege of the vulgar. The rain
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: began to fall, slowly but steadily, and shining puddles in
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: the ill paved roadway gathered quickly as we passed along.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Suddenly Mac touched my arm and dived down into what
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I thought an old cellar, for a wide arched passage
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: gaped before us. I carefully followed, and after going down
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: three or four steps, I was quite in darkness, with
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: the exception of the faint glimmer from a dim street
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: lamp that was reflected from the wet surface of the flags.
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Set your hats off, said Mac, and mine the top.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: It was fortunate he has spoken so promptly, for I
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: was just raising my head and I found I could
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: not stand upright. Groping along with blind confidence, I followed
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: one of the walls, which was damp and slimy, and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: so we passed on for some twenty yards. Almost as
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: suddenly as we had entered this miniature tunnel did we emerge,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: But it was by a series of steps which led
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: into a black court, with the houses grouped in most
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: irregular disorder. The passage was nothing but a subway between
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: the dwellings facing the street. But why such an extraordinary
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: means of communication should have been found necessary I cannot
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: surmise it would afford ample means of escape for any
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: one pursued by strangers, and I am half inclined to
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: believe it had often done good service in that particular direction.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: In the yard itself, flights of steps, guarded by eyes
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: and hand rails, led to some of the doors, and
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: below were the sellers that had once served as dwellings
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: for the poorest and most wretched. We looked into several kitchens,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: but only found women sitting with strange men of the
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: Collier type I have mentioned, singing and indulging in coarse jokes.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Passing along a kind of wooden bridge, we traversed another
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: dark entry and were once more in the open street,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: though in quite a different direction to the thoroughfare from
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: which we had started. Dolfield and Wilmot Street were now
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: near at hand, and they were next looked up. Men
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: and women were, as usual thickly clustered together in the
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: front rooms, and most of the doors were wide open,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: as if inviting the unwary to enter once in the dark.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I had got half way upstairs before finding out that
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: I should have turned to the left to have entered
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: the proper room. I was soon recalled to a sense
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: of my mistake by the appearance at the top of
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: the stairs of a woman half undressed, with a ragged
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: petty coat over her head and a guttering tallow dip
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: in her hand. She inquired, where that are you going?
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: And I went down the steps backwards as rapidly as
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: I could. I slipped out into the street, where I
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: found Mac waiting for me. He laughed inordinately when I
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: told him what had happened, and said they always had
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: the stairs opposite the street door for convenience. He added sententiously,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: you know they can kick a man downstairs and straight
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: out into the gutter without any trouble, and it's very
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: useful sometimes. I had not the slightest doubt of this,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: for I had observed that the stairs faced directly to
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: the street. But I made an inward vow never to
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: go up any more of them, for the virago in
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: full war paint had rather startled me so closely built
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: at these wretched dwellings that on entering Brocky Rose Hands
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: in Wilmot Street, we could distinguish every word of a
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: song that was being screeched out by a woman in
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: the adjoining corner house in Dolfield. We turned round the
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: corner to find the vocalist, and we had not long
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: to search. In a miserable apartment two feet below the
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: street level and almost pitch dark, for the paraffin lamp
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: had been so badly trimmed that the glass was jet
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: black with smoke. We discovered this Deansgate nightingale. She was
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: sitting on a rickety stool, with her toes almost under
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: the grate, in spite of the good fire that was
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: half scorching her, and as she turned round defiantly to us,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: it could be seen that she was too drunk to
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: be amenable to the rules of ordinary conversation. Her man
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: was standing by her, and an old woman with a
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: face wrinkled and black with age and dirt, was crouching
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: on her knees to light her pipe with a glowing ember.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: The songstress had the remnants of some good looks still
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: left her, but it was too plain. She was of
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: the wicked, and her language proved it. Her song was
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: singularly enough, a love ditty that I have often heard
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: rendered by street singers with far less power and effectiveness.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: She was almost crooning it as the Irish would say,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: and as the words and I was in my green
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: grass grave, and green grass grew all over me came
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: softly forth. For the girl had a voice of fair compass.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: The old woman mumbled and nodded, and her pipe shook
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: in her lips as she looked admiringly at her companion.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: The room was almost devoid of furniture, and the dirty
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: plaster walls, innocent of paint or paper, formed a fitting
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: frame for the picture. The place was stifling, and the
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: stench from the lamp oil and from other sources was sickening.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: We left them to their music and stepped out once
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: more into the rain. It was a dreary walk, and
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: we were glad to take refuge in an entry to
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: escape the drizzling downpour. We had only been standing beneath
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: the sheltering arch a few minutes when we heard a
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: row in the yard, and we, of course hastened up
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: to see what was the cause. Of the disturbance. It
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: was nothing but Bradley's Court would Street had often seen
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: a drunken woman behaving like a mad creature, and Sphinx's
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: gal was now only raving at the top of her voice,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: for the police had been round, and their presence had
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: reminded her of poor Bill, who was I think doing
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: a stretch. The door of the room in which she
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: lived was open, and through the smoke that filled the place,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: we could see her gesticulating in the wildest fury. Two
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: or three neighbors tried to calm her, but without avail,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: for she would not be appeased. On the low iron fender,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: a child of seven or eight years of age was sitting,
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: but in such a state of dirt, blackened and beground
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: with smoke and other impurities, that his features were scarcely distinguishable.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: He was a mere pigmy of a lad, and yet
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: he remained quiet and never uttered a cry. While the
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: woman was so noisily demonstrative, he seemed not the slightest alarmed,
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: and gazed now into the fire and then at the
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: person's in the doorway, with no interest at all expressed
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: in his face. He had been used to this sort
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: of thing I supposed from his earliest years, and took
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: it as a matter of course, no doubt his training
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: will have good effects in after life. After hearing sufficient
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: vile expressions to last an ordinary being for the term
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: of his natural life, we betook ourselves to the street again,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: but it was only an escape from Scylla to fall
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: into charibdis, for we soon perceived that a battle royal
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: was being carried on between two women who were involved
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: in a hopeless struggle to remove the hair from each
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: other's heads. They were watched by an appreciative circle of friends,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: male and female, who now and again quarreled among themselves
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: to bear the combatant's company. The result was what might
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: have been expected the commencement of a free fight, but
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: it was soon put a stop to by the appearance
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: on the scene of a man whom I could see
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: at once had more power over these unruly mobs than
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: they would like to confess. He was of average build,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: but broadly set, and he went for the crowd instantly
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: with a quiet determination that was in keeping with what followed.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: He had no stick or anything to protect himself, but
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: he parted the women, thrust one among the crowd and
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: gripping the arm of the other, pushed her into one
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: of the houses. Then, turning to the men who were
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: still quarreling, he sharply spoke to them by name and
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: told them to be off. One who had been engaged
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: in the fight called out menacingly, all right, you jerome,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: But before he could say more, he was seized by
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: the collar, run barrow fashioned down the street, shoved into
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: his own residence, and told to remain inside to ensure
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: compliance with his orders. This man of prompt and energetic
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: action pulled the door smartly to and ordered the few
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: stragglers to disperse. They tailed off in various directions without
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: further disturbance, and the street was as quiet as before.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: The whole affair had transpired so rapidly that I could
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: scarce believe my senses when I saw a craft, apparently
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: the lowest ruffians of Wood Street slinking off, cowed by
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: a single man. This proves how well order can be
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: preserved by a good detective officer who knows his work
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: thoroughly and does it without fear or favor. There are
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: several men of the kind in our local force, and
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: their names are more powerful in the dangerous districts than
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: the presence of any number of men in uniform. After
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: this little scene, we continued our excursion, and we found
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: many evidences that the elite of the district were spending
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: Saturday night in the most approved English fashion, that is
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: to say, they were recklessly getting rid of all their
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: spare cash and receiving in return. Various forms of drink, song,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: and dance were added to give piquancy to the amusement.
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: For in one house, the inevitable hurdy gurdy was grinding
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: forth a lively tune, while a man in shirt sleeves
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: danced a hornpipe with spirit and energy. To see the
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: pleasure with which the limited audience watched his own kooth motions,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: one would have imagined he was best man in the
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: district at a breakdown. But I have seen many a
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: ladd at a street corner doing a double shuffle to
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: warm his clogged feet, who could have beaten him with ease.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: The songs were of a very diverse character, For in
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: one place a respectable house by the way, though in
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: a disreputable neighborhood, a strong, well built fellow was quavering
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: out on the banks of the nile while mending a
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: dilapidated waistcoat. He was a tailor, but his physique was
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: that of a navvy, and it was strange to observe
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: his huge hand plying the needle so dexterously. He was
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: as bashful while singing as a girl, And as the
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: chorus was taken up by five or six men as
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: powerful looking as himself, he seemed wonderfully relieved to find
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: his own voice drowned. He was loudly applauded at the finish,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: and was as pleased as the greatest tenor that ever
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: responded to an encore. Very different in sentiment and character
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: was another effusion, a verse of which his work, appending
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: for its originality. He was howled forth in a shrill
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: treble by a youth who might have been the hero
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: of the song itself, as near as I can recollect it,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: ran Thus, Oh, I'm a bloke that gets me a
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: living by taking things what isn't given with me, and
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: with me, fist with me, duke with me, Marla. I
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: wish there was no bobbies. I do I do for
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: the treadmill. It does make me ill, And I only
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: steals my belly to fill with my hand, with my
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: fist with my duke with my Marla oh Downey on
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: the Blue Us. End of Part five, Chapter six, Gambling
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: and Prize Fighting. The Deansgate district is such an extensive
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: one that I found it impossible to perambulate all its
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: bypaths and in direct crooked ways in the course of
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: a single evening, and thus my steps were led to
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: it or second Saturday night. Passing into back Dolefield, we
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: looked into Thornley's crib, as disreputable as any in the city,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: and I had the pleasure of seeing the veteran, a
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: genuine Eccles, with a face that would rival Bardolph's, reclining
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: on the sofa with a couple of old women to
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: bear him company. He had made his own room tolerably comfortable,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: and there was the usual display of cheap and gaudy ornamentation.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: Lord Palmerston's jolly face looked straight into mine, and the
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: well known features of the popular actor mister J. L.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: Toole came also under my direct gaze. It may be
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: that the celebrated comedian never imagined he would come so
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: low as this, but he must be willing to pay
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: for his popularity in more ways than one. We also
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: beat up the quarters of Doggie Duff, but he was
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: unfortunately out, and the only occupant of his diggings was
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: a girl who was half asleep on a couch. Doggie
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: is rather a slippery customer, Mac told me, and is
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: so careless about his supervision that he occasionally gets into
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: trouble through his memory, playing him false in the matter
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: of reporting himself to the slops. After a little further
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: investigation of the neighborhood of Cumberland Street, where I was
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: glad to learn much had been done by the owners
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: of recently erected factories in purchasing of a good deal
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: of cottage property and letting it only to working people, who,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: as Mac put it, were poor but square. We turned
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: into Byron Street, facing the field at the end. Further
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: from Key Street was a narrow entry sloping at an
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: angle of some thirty degrees, and this was the route
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: which led us into Butterworth's Court and to the residence
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: of Country Pole, a woman of middle age and with
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: a vacancy in her face caused by the loss of
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: an eye which had been kicked out by her pal
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: puffer Bill. She was gossiping with a couple of women
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: of the same stamp as herself, and one of these
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: had a large piece of sticking plaster over her forehead,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: as if her particular bill had been attempting a similar
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: experiment to that made in the case of the landlady.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: They were surly enough to assatism Mark Tapley himself, and
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: on our gently inquiring for Puffer, we were told with
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: an oath that he hadn't been there for some months,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: and goods shut to him. I very much questioned whether
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Puffer's heart was true to Paul still, but fearful of
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: provoking the wrath of that bird of prey, I refrained
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: from gratifying my curiosity. Close to this place was a
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: similar establishment, the occupier of which had done a drag
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: three months imprisonment, but had thrown up crosswork for the
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: more lucrative profession of betting, in which he had been
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: nabbed and put in for the modest sum of seventy
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: five pound, which was devoted to her Majesty's service. There
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: were many working people living in this same court, but
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the proximity of these questionable houses must have a bad effect,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: and in one square house we saw that this was
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: so for a girl of eighteen years of age, was
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: lying dead drunk across two chairs. Her feet touched the
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: ground at one end of this hard bed, and a
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: head was hanging down with her hair streaming on to
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: the bricks at the other. Several women were in the
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: same place with two or three children, but they took
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: the whole business as a matter of course, and went
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: on with their supper, as if drunkenness was nothing more
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: than an everyday occurrence. As I suppose it really was.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: The children had a good example set them, certainly by
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: the scene. There was a dirty bed with tumbled clothes
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: near the fireplace, and it was used in place of
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: chairs by several of those present. Living and bedroom all
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: in one is the best description, and that details can
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: be readily sketched in such an arrangement is by no
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: means uncommon. For in another court in the spinning Field vicinity,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: I had before seen a large bed occupying half the
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: living room and coming flush with the fireplace. On that
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: bed two children were sleeping, undressed and with the blankets
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: pulled over them. And upon the same couch two men
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: and a woman were sitting with their feet on the
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: fender making their midnight meal. The children turned uneasily in
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: their slip, and the dirty brown bedclothes redolent of humanity.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: The odour is so peculiar I cannot otherwise convey my meaning,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: were tossed about in all directions. How many creatures slept
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: nightly in that bed, I shudder to think, but used
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: his second nature, and no doubt they had become inured
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: to any little disagreeable incident that might arise in Little
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Key Street. The class of persons also appeared to be
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: of the lowest of the hard working population, and in
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: some of the courts, the scanty furniture and the squalid
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: appearance of the kitchens showed how hard was the struggle
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: for existence. Being Saturday night, many of the women were
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: washing linen for the sabbath, and across the rooms were
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: stretched clothes lines, and which ragged shirts and well worn
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: underclothing were slowly drying. We made our way into one
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: of the houses, and, hearing voices at the end of
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: the passage, we went forward and came upon eight or
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: nine lads gamboling in the back washing house. They were
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: gathered round a small barrel in a hole in which
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: was stuck a candle, and for a minute or so
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: we watched them without being perceived. The youngest was about
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: twelve years old, and the ages of the others would
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: not exceed fifteen or sixteen. And yet they were gambling
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: with all the eagerness of most accomplished and inveterate gamesters.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: The game was turned by them speaking or spin hapney,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: and is a very simple one. A member of the
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: circle puts his coin down in the center, covering it
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: with his hand, and the others fly their coins and
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: speak in turn. Those who guess rightly receive a hapning
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: from the centerman. Those who are wrong pay him a
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: similar amount. Suddenly, a youth, who had exhibited the true
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: gambler's instinct in showing heads every time, caught sight of us,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: and seeing strange faces, he gave the alarm. The barrel
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: was kicked over, the candle doused, and the juvenile ruees
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: were scampering off in the dark. They fell pell mell
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: over each other in getting to the back door, colliding
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: with the barrel, which rolled towards us, And in another
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: minute the clatter of small clogs resounded in the back entry,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: which led into another street. We were greatly amused at
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: witnessing the stampede, for it was plain that they suspected
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: we were going forcibly to interfere with their amusement. Only
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: Fancy laughed Mac the kids stuck us for the Blues Police.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: The idea was certainly a ludicrous one. We were by
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: this time in Key Street itself, and in passing along
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: we called at a lodging house in which were two
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: shady characters playing at drafts, and a third acting the
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: part of critic and spectator. It was a dull place
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: and had no noticeable features worthy of remark. It had, however,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: once been a beer house, and under the title of
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: the Red, White and Blue, had been notorious all over
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: the country. It has suffered disestablishment, like many of its brethren,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: and fame no longer records its glories. The last place
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: we visited on the Wood Street side of Deansgate was
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: a large rambling corner house at the junction of Tickle
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: and Longworth Streets, kept by a notable dog Fancier, an
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: exponent of the noble art, which is dying out with
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: the suppression of the p r. It is a house
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: with a history, and the back kitchen could tell many
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: a tale of battles fought and won within its narrow precincts.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: This kitchen is only some ten feet square, and a
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: sofa runs along one side and a wooden seat along
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: the two other walls, while the fireplace occupies the fourth side.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: The ceiling is not very high, and a wooden beam
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: near the door makes it appear still lower. From this
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: beam stretches a small gas bracket which gives light to
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: the apartment. I had heard of some famous ancient rendezvous
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: of the stars of the ring in bygone days, and
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: I questioned Mac, who I knew was one of the
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: prettiest men with the gloves that ever stepped inside the ropes.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: Why you've no idea, Sir Mac volubly commenced what's taken
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: place here years ago? Many a smart ladder's towed the
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: mark here, pointing to the middle of the brick floor,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: and some of the best in the country have been
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: licked by the old uns. I've seen it myself, when
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: the kitchen's being full up, and all one has had
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: to stand on the sofa and benches all round. You
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: see off the floor, for we had no ring. One
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: second was down there in the corner of the fireplace,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: and the other in the opposite corner. He was sharp
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: and quick, for there was no funking or getting away
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: excepting to the fireplace. It was all up and down,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: rough and tumble and beautiful slogging work. It was too
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: You can't get anything like it. Now they've stopped it
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: all together being one lately, did you say, well? About
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: two years ago Tabby Edwards and Brocky Bill had a
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: set two for a couple of quid two pound a side.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: It wasn't bad, but they were both lushed drunk before
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: they began, and they got cut up heavily. Yes, Tabby won,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: though he'd got the gravel, rash, cut face and the
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: bricks there when he was down there. Upstairs was a
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: regular ring, stakes and ropes and all in the top
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: room a big place, and some of the spryest men
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: with the gloves have stripped up there that have ever
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: seen many. A big benefit has been brought off when
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: young Cheer and Wareham's lot were about. He was kept
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: by a pro fighting man then. But it's all up now.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: The story seemed incredible, for the house is not fifty
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: yards from Deansgate itself, but the truth is too well
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: known to many to require corroboration. I was not sorry
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: to hear that it was at an end, though I
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: could sympathize with the old pugilist in his keen regret
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: that the present age was so degenerate as scarcely to
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: recognize the necessity of legitimate boxing. Being one of the
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: first attainments of our youth. I met several fighting men,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: but they all agreed that the ring is now quite
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: out of date, and even glove fights are looked after
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: by the police as much as the genuine battles used
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: to be. One big, hulking fellow with a face as high,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: hard as wood, and cut and scarred all over wherein
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: deep dints of old wounds did remain was particularly indignant.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: What's a man like me to do? He asked. I
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: was trained up to it and made heaps of thickens
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: sovereigns whenever I fought, and I didn't care a kiss
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: my hand for thrashing, for I was nusted like a gid.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: I've stripped one day and got a smasher on my
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: ribs and spike through foot, but I never let on.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: Told his second the peelers drove us off, and I
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: went at it again next day and licked my man,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: though my ribs had gone stiff. Then you could do
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: something without being made a fuss about in papers. But
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: now I only go round to gaffes fairs and spa
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: we want or two dummies for a trifle that won't
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: keep me? And what can I do but go crooked?
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: If I butter bloke up, Grotter Man, can you blame me?
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't think it worthwhile to preach morality to this
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: untutored savage, so standing him a soothing drink, I left
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: him to his meditations. Having finished the Wood Street district,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: we crossed over and commenced an inspection of the Peter
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Street side of Deansgate. End of Part six, Chapter seven,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: Women and their Masters. The Peter Street side of Deansgate
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: one shared with the Wood Street neighbourhood the questionable notoriety
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: of being the most dangerous district in the city. But
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: of late years a determined course of action has been
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: pursued by the police, which has resulted in thinning to
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: a very large extent the ranks of the worst offenders.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: The beer houses in which nightly assembled lawless characters of
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: the worst type have one by one been deprived of
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: their licenses, and they now do duty as lodging houses,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: the large open rooms being peculiarly adapted for affording sleeping
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: accommodation to persons who are not particularly fastidious as to
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: the nature of the couch they occupy. Entering one of
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: these places in Jackson, we marched along a passage and
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: came upon what had been the old tap room, a long,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: low room with benches and rough wooden tables, at which
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: a few men of dirty and unkempt aspects were sitting,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: smoking short pipes. They had, to all intents and purposes,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: nothing to occupy themselves with, not even cards or dominoes.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: But they listened to a mechanical organ near the door
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: that was grinding out a lively melody at the top
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: of its pitch. The room was fairly comfortable, and if
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: its occupants were rather uncivilized in appearance and had as
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: much dirt as shirt to their backs, none of them
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: were of so low a cast as the Charter Street
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: or Wood Street roofs. Men of the order who have
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: been convicted and wished to work for a living, in
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: preference to resorting to their old practices, often locate themselves
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: on this side of Deansgate instead of joining their friends
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: over the way. Hence, it might be argued that the
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: pick of the timid and irresolute congregate on one side
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: of this populous street, and thoroughgoing thieves on the other.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: Bootle Street and lad Lane were taken next. But in
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: the matter of meeting people of notoriety, we were singularly unfortunate.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: Mac tried house after house to see if he could
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: come across any pals, but he was disgusted on discovering
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: that the old order had changed, giving place to the new,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: and that where years ago he could have fraternized with
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: a dozen crossmen, he had now only the dubious pleasure
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: of greeting square folk. These were poor enough, certainly, and
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: their abodes were far from being attractive, for squalor and
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: misery reigned supreme in many of them. There was a
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: lack of cleanliness and comfort in the interior of the
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: houses that was very shocking, but this was perhaps only
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: the natural result of people living and sleeping in the
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: same small room. In one house, three women were crouching
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: in the dark round a fire, the blaze from which
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: alone afforded light to guide us of them was sobbing bitterly.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: We thought at first she was crying on account of
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: a child she was holding to her breast, and who
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: looked sick on to death. But we rapidly found out
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: our mistake. She was not lamenting her own trials, but
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: those of a sister, a fine handsome woman, but whose
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: features were for the time so fearfully bruised that I
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: could scarcely trace their outline. Both eyes were blackened and
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: almost closed, Her cheek was cut and discolored, her lips
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: bleeding and swollen, and in her hair were traces of blood,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: as if she had been beaten on the head. She
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: must have been suffering great physical pain, but she never
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: spoke a word, only drawing her shawl closer over her head,
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: as sinking down nearer to the fire, as if seeking comfort.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: In answer to our questions, the woman with the child
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: soon explained the matter. Her sister was living with the
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: man as his wife, and because she would not go
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: out into the streets, he had struck and kicked her
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: until she had escaped from her own house to the
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: one she was now in. The woman herself told us
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: he'd done it afore, but she would never go out
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: at nights for all his cruelty. He could kill her
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: if he liked, but she wouldn't do it. Why didn't
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: she tell the police because she wasn't going to round
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: inform on him for it. He'd done a stretch year
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: once for garotting, and she didn't want him to be
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: sent away again. Yes, he was all right when he
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: hadn't got the drink in him. He'd be sorry to morrow,
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: and she should go back again. It was only after
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: a great deal of skillful questioning that we managed to
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: elicit this information. And I marveled at the forbearance of
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: the woman who could return to a man who had
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: first of all attempted to degrade her and then half
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: killed her because she chose to be faithful to him.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: I know him, said Mac, and I've all baden. He
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: is too, especially to women. He's always living with some
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: girl he's got hold of, and when he's tired of one,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: he just thrashes her till she'll go on the street,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: and then if she won't give him money, he finds
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: someone else. Why once he met a servant girl, made
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: her drunk and drugged her in one of the cribs,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: abused her as much as he liked, and then stole
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: the only two quids sovereigns she'd got in the world.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: She'd come to town to look for a shop and
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: had sowed a money in a stays, but he ripped
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: them up and got the sobs. Did he clear out
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: after it? Not a bit. He was booked by one
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: of the D's detectives and did a double stretch two
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: years for it. At sessions, he's no worse than many
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: of them, only he never cares who he drops on.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: I fervently hoped that many of them would not cross
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: our path, for it was unpleasant to feel that a
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: ruffian of this breed might take it into his brutal
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: head to drop on one of us. The estimate of
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: women in these quarters is a very low one, for
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: inquiry proved that they are kicked and ill treated as
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: a matter of course, and where they are not the
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: professional companions of thieves, they're something worse. We visited several
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: more houses in back Life Adeline and back all Port,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: and I was shown the runs and means of escape
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: from one street to another. The place is almost like
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: a rabbit warren, for each entry leads into another, and
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: each court of butts on its neighbour in the most
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: inexplicable way. In addition to this, there are means of
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: through communication from the lodging houses, and such a labyrinth
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: of passages that any stranger must inevitably come to grief
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: if once involved in the maize Fustian cutters and other
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: poverty stricken workers live in these courts, and if these
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: articles were dealing with other than true criminals, some curious
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: information could be given as to the mode of life
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: and experiences of these unfortunate creatures. As poverty is no sin, however,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: it would be unfair to expose their misfortunes in such
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: bad company as we are now associating with. In Gregson Street,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: we wandered into another large lodging house which had once
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: been a beer house, And what struck me most in
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: this bare and comfortless tenement was a printed notice stuck
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: up requiring payment in advance. There were a few men
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: having supper in different parts of the front room, one
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: discussing a rasher of hamm and a bowl of tea,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: and another cooking a red herring in a very summary manner.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: He pushed the fish between the bars after it has
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: sputtered and blazed on the coals, took it out with
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: a pocket knife, which he thrust right through the middle,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: and placed it smoking on his plate. Two or three
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: live embers adhered to the sides, but he picked them
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: off with his hands, licked his fingers to get rid
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: of the superfluous oil, and then calmly dissected the dainty
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: morsel with his most useful knife. In an inner room,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: unusual luxuries were provided in the shape of a bit
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: of looking glass about two inches square, nailed to the wall,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: and an inch of dirty comb suspended by a string
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: from a hook. How many thousand dirty heads that wreck
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: of a comb had done duty upon it would be
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: difficult to say, But there it hung his silent sorrow,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: doubtless bewailing the loss of its teeth through extreme age.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: In a second and smaller house, two youths were lying
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: on a bench about six feet long by eighteen inches wide.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: Each lay lengthways with his head upon the other's feet,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: and the lads had crept so close together for the
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: sake of warmth, that it was hard to distinguish to
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: which body the various limbs belonged. They slept as soundly
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: on their hard bed as if comfortably between the sheets,
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: and afforded a good example of the impartiality of tired
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: nature's sweet restorer. In a third dwelling, a stout, red
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: faced man with with clean shaven cheeks and a bullet
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: head on which the hair was scarcely half an inch long,
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: snored on a small form, his head thrown back and
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: supported by the wall. This was the redoubtable fat allet.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: But he was awfully savage at being shaken up by
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: mac and would not keep his eyes open, but swore
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: with them shut, in a manner to alarm anyone unaccustomed
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: to the general literature of Blasphors. He is being cut
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: up about the loss of his woman, explains Mike. She's
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: doing a seven stretch now, and only began it in
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: the summer. She was fly enough to keep them both,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: and now he has to do as best he can
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: without her. No wonder this pensioner on a woman's abilities,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: was cast down at the way in which he had
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: been served by luck. Dyer's Lane and Fleet Street were
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: the next on my list, And here again I found
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: many traditions for the good old days had passed, and
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: instead of Ruffianism being rampant. The stern self assertive power
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: of the criminal law is in the ascendant, and comparatively
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: few desperate characters can be found. The lodging houses and
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: general dwellings are on a par with those in lad
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: Lane and Gregson Street, but many of them have a
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: history which would startle the staid residence in busy Dean's
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: Gate if the walls could only speak. One of the
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: best things that has happened for the neighborhood is the
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: pulling down of the poor cottage property at the rear
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: of these streets to make way for the new Midland Railway,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: and the effect will soon make itself apparent in the
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: disappearance of the disreputable and immoral men and women that
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: are so long haunted Wimmill Street and Peter Street. The
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: good work the police began has been completed by the
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: railway company, and the peaceful, law abiding working people who
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: are compelled to hang out in these marked quarters should
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: be thankful that, though they may still be under the
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: ban of poverty, they have no longer the degrading association
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: of thieves to poison their lives. Something of this kind
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: crossed my mind as we were going up Fleet Street,
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: and saw stretching before us, the drear, vacant space, eloquent
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: in its desolation of modern improvement and civilizing influences, that
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: was so soon to be covered with the turmoil and
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: life of a great railway station. While in one of
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: the back kitchens, Mac, who had grown more and more
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: downcast at meeting none of his old friends, suddenly found
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: his tongue and gave me the benefit of one of
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: his experiences as a man lived here once. He said
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: he was about the worst I ever fell across, And
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: he did a trick which you perhaps won't believe. He'd
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: three daughters, and two of them had gone to the
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: bad but still lived with him as he took all
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: the money they could get. The third was as fine
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: a gal as ever came out of Fleet Street, but
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: she was a cut above a lot. I wouldn't have
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: any batter with the men who came to the house
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: one night. The old man was drunk and sold her
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: to one of the fellows who had been drinking with him.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: At least he took half a dollar half a crown
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: from him, and said he could take the girl altogether
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: and do what he liked with her. Well, she was
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: called in from a pub beer house over the way,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: and the man got hold of her and insulted her.
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: She fought like a cat to get away, but he
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: was too strong and they rolled over and over on
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: the floor, the father and a lot of fellows looking
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: on and enjoying the fun. I came just in time
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: to see the finish, for in the struggle, a shovel
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: that was stuck in the fire and was red hot,
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: caught in the girl's dress and was dragged across the bricks.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: She was frightened at being set on fire and threw
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: the brute offer. He fell with his hands across that
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: shovel and was burnt pretty smart, for he couldn't such
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: a thing with his fingers for weeks. Yes, she got
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: away that time, but she went like a sister's though
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: think she's married now. Before leaving I was shown Number eleven,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: now a decent lodging house, but once a den of
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: fearful notoriety and the central place of meeting of hundreds
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: of the most unscrupulous crooked men in England. End of
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: Part seven, Chapter eight, A dog fight, brutality and poverty.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: We were working down Deansgate in order to arrive at
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: the Gaythorne district, and while in Lombard Street, had a
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: somewhat narrow escape from a vicious bulldog that was ensconced
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: under a sofa in one of the houses we looked into.
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: He would have exercised his talents upon our carves in
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: a very short space of time, had he not been
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: kicked into a corner by his master. I was half
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: afraid of the brute making a second attempt upon the
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: unprotected lower man, but he contented himself with growls and snarls,
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: not loud but deep, and his sonorous chest notes furnished
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: a base accompaniment to our conversation. He was full of years,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: but still had the indomitable pluck of his race, and
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: I learned that he was the hero of at least
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: a hundred fights. Mac knew him and his master well,
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: and over a social pipe he narrated some of his
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: experiences in the matter of dog fights in the Deansgate locality.
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: Seeing that we were his master's friends, the surly bull
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: came into the circle we had formed round the fire
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: and stretched himself across the hearth. But whenever I moved,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: he admonished me by a smothered bark strangled in his
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: throat to remain still and not destroy the effect of
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: the story. It was a thing that was all the
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: go at one time, said Mac, and every booz shot
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: beer house in wood Street and spinning Field he used
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: to have their garrets fitted up for dog fights regular
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: every week. It was known well enough when a match
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: was coming off, and we used to get many a
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: swelling who didn't mind paying for it. It was always
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: at the top of the house that we brought the
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: fight off, and at night when there was plenty of
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: row in the street to prevent any noise being heard,
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: not from the dogs. They had too much to do
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: with each other to kick up any shine. But occasionally
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: the backers would go half mad excited like and would
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: scream and who to keep up their particular favorite. One
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: night we had a gathering at the ship for Cockney
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: Charli had got a pup he swore could and be licked,
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: and a wiggin Wigan bloke had matched an old and
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: against it for a fiver five pound note. It was
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: a big do and there were forty or fifty of
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: us packed in garret and coin was laid freely for
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: Both dogs were clippers, just before they were loosed. Cockney
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: Charlie offered long odds on his pup and to rile him.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: Some of us said we wouldn't rob him, for he
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: knew his animal would be fair beaten. He was so
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: savage that he cried out by pap loose or smash it,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: but we never thought he would well fight went on
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: and the youngster had the best of it for a bit,
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: but the wiganman was too much for it at finish,
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: and in last set too left it on floor half dead.
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: The put was bitter and frightful on head and shoulders,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: but might have got over it. Cockney Charlie was as
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: good as his word, for he went out, tried put
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: with another dog because it was licked, jumped on his favorite,
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: and he went dead soon after. I inquired if anything
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: of the kind could be seen now, but Max said
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: it had been all over now for years, as the
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: houses had been closed where it was carried on. Men
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: like Cockney Charlie can no longer enjoy their amusement. The
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: action of the police in disestablishing these low drinking shops
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: has evidently done good in more ways than one. We
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: struck down Deansgate itself after leaving Lombard Street, and after
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: a few minutes walk we turned into Gaithorne Street, which
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: gives the name to a thickly populated district, bounded on
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: the one side by a blank wall which fences off
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: the canal and runs from Deansgate right through to Albion Street,
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: and on the other by the railway arches which extend
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: along Hewett Street and several of which have been converted
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: into dwelling houses, a cow shed, a coal depot, et cetera.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: I was told beforehand that I should meet with few
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: actual thieves in this quarter of the city, in spite
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: of the fact that it was once as notorious as
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: the street, and I found that my information was correct.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: Criminals have been cleared out, and in this place resides
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: a population rough and turbulent, truly but honest. So far
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: as their lives are known. There is completely poverty stricken
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: as any of the poorest among us, and their abodes
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: are as a rule, without comfort or any of the
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: little home luxuries that the hard working classes can sometimes
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: afford to indulge in. They are a quarrelsome race too,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: and yet so clannish that when a street route takes
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: place the police have always a difficult task to restore peace,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: much less to arrest the leading spirits. It would scarcely
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: be an exaggeration to say that more assaults upon men
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: in uniform are reported from the Gaythorne streets than any
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: other single quarter. It is like putting one's hand into
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: a bag of snakes to draw out an eel for
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: a constable to take into custody the leader of one
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: of the drunken broils that are of so frequent occurrence here.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: I had only the address of one celebrity in this
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: new field, and that was Auntie Mary, who was said
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: to be keeping a disorderly house in Abraham's Court, Gilbert Street.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: To the court we repaired. But upon entering the house
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: where I had understood she could be found, we discovered
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: that our bird had flown a few days before. Two
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: decent looking women peered at us suspiciously over the solitary
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: candle on the table until that Auntie's carryings on had
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: given such offense to the neighbors that a complaint had
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: been lodged, and after receiving a gentle admonition from the police,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: she had deemed it best to flit. The women were
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: eager to unfold the tale of Auntie's wrongdoings, and with
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: a volubility that only the love of scandal could have created,
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: poured forth how she had been sent to prison for
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: bad conduct when living near Campfield Library, how she had
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: no business to have come into the court at all.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: In short, how wicked she was in all her doings.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: I was sorry I could not meet Auntie, as I
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: was in hopes of gaining some valuable knowledge from her
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: as to the haunts of the few friends she had
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: in Gaythorne. But being disappointed in this, I asked Mac
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: to guide me through the worst streets on Speck to
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: see what was the character of the inhabitants, and if,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: as reports stated, there were any cellar dwellings still in existence.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: Our first place of cork was a huckster's shop in
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: Commercial Street, but we were most positively assured that they
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: were all workers who lived in the adjoining streets, and
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: if poor were honest. This was unsatisfactory from one point
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: of view, as my object was crime and not poverty.
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: But having no choice, I thought I would for once
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: sacrifice Barabbas for Lazarus, and give up my search for
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: the thief for the sake of his brother, the poor man.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: Before leaving the shop, I'd gained an insight into the
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: mysteries of Gathorne bookkeeping. For on the black leaded mantled
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: piece were chalked a number of hieroglyphics, as puzzling to
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: the outsider and to the uninitiated as the characters on
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: the moabite stone itself. Ciphers and crosses were abundant, but
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: few plain figures could I see. Rows of ciphers straggled
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: across the bricks, colliding with others that had wandered from
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: their proper course, and struggling with the crosses which seemed
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: to have been dropped about wherever the fancy of this
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: artist in chalk had willed. And yet, as Max sagely whispered,
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: every knaut means so thin, and many a weary housekeeper
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: must have looked with dismay at seeing the little white
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: circles increasing day by day. I counted fifteen in one row,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: and wondered who the unfortunate victim was who had thus
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: rashly run into debt. The scent of onions, bloaters, sour
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: butter and pickles was too powerful to allow me to
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: solve the problem or of discovering the value of x,
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: that unknown quantity, and we departed at once. We passed
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: from Jordan Street to Mount Street, and in the latter
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: thoroughfare we found cellar dwellings still in vogue. Down about
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: half a score of steps, we picked our way into
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: a kind of area with small arches formed by the
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: steps leading from the footpath to the houses overhead, causing
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: us to stoop every other minute. Lights shone from crevices
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: in the window shutters, and at last we entered one cellar,
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: wherein we could hear voices. It was like stepping into
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: an oven, for the confined air was superheated by a
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: large fire in an extensive grate in the right hand wall,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: and apparently there were no means of ventilation. A man, who,
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: to judge from his clothes and blackened face, was an engineer,
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: was talking to his wife, and a child was sitting
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: near them. The walls were bare and damp looking, and
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: the ceiling, brown with smoke and dust, was so low
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: that my hat almost touched it. A small table and
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: a few chairs with a low, uninviting bed constituted the
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: furniture that it was The old story of living and
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: sleeping in the same room, and that some eight feet
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: below the street level. It was close and uncomfortably enough
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: for October. But what it would be in cold weather,
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: when every chink and cranny would be carefully stopped to
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: keep out the cold, fresh air, I should not like
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: to say. Coming up again to the street level, we
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: turned into an entry and was soon in a small
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: yard with two story cottage tenements of the meanest kind.
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: At the door of one of these, an urchin of
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: tender years was standing in the state of nakedness, bar
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: a dozen square inches of dirty calico that served him
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: as a tuney. His little body was kept warm with
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: the thin coat of dirt of a tint between black
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: and brown, that covered him from top to toe with
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: admirable impartiality. We could only catch a glimpse of the kitchen,
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: for there was no light, but the prospect did not
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: tempt me to enter. In the corner of the yard
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: to the left was a small house that seemed to
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: have been built to fill in the space, and for
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: no other reason, for there was really no room for
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: it Properly in the yard, the flickering of a flame
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: from the fire shot across the window, and looking in
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: we saw a child seated on the hearth stone, warming
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: himself and watching the blaze as it leapt fitfully up
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: the chimney. As I opened the door, another lag came
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: down with a candle, and we could then note how
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: wretched was this apology for a dwelling. The plastered walls
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: were honeycombed with holes, and the dirt and smoke of
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: years encrusted them. There were three small toes and two
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: chairs in the place, and so small was the room
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: that these alone almost filled it. Noticing a bundle in
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: the corner, I asked one of the lads if it
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: was a bed, and he answered, yes, father sleeps there,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: a mother and us upstairs. More complete poverty I had
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: never beheld, And yet the parents were not drunken or improvident,
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: for the children said they were then away at a
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: teetotal meeting. This house I found to be typical of
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: many more. For in one the door could not be
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: opened more than a foot as it came in contact
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: with the poles of the bed, across which a thin
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: veil was hung to prevent aught being seen from outside.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: And in another, two children, both very ill, were sleeping
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: on a sofa, while the mother herself sat upon the bed,
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: waiting till a husband should come in for the night.
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: Along Cheatham Street, with the railway viaduct frowning down on us,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: we proceeded and thence into Backsmith Street, with its disused
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: cellar dwelling with areas six or eight feet wide and deep,
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: guarded with strong iron railings, and with long narrow bridges
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: leading to the adjoining houses, as queer a place to
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: look at as any in Manchester, for it is unique
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: in construction and has almost the appearance of a skeleton stockade.
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: An old irishwoman does wood cutting in one of the cellars,
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: and we literally dropped in upon her and had a chat.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: She had not much to say and was rather frightened,
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: so we took our leave pretty quickly. I had had
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: enough of poverty by this time, and we finished our
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: ramble by walking up Gaythorne Street and calling in at
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: Number fifty, once a fearful den under the reign of
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: fat Helen away in servitude, but now occupied by honest tenants.
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: Half the houses have been turned into workshops, and every
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: haunt of crooked persons done away with. End of Part
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: eight Chapter nine, Under the Lash a Garrottu's Confession. By
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: a singular chance, I have been able to meet with
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: a man who has been under the lash for a
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: garrote robbery, and he has recently returned from the term
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: of penal servitude which followed the infliction of the cat.
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: This will serve to indicate that it is some time
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: since he underwent the severe sentence passed upon him. But
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: I may state that the offense for which he was
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: convicted was committed in wood Street, and that the actual
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: scratching took place in the county jail. Strange ways, as
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: the man, since his return, is earning his living honestly,
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: and as it can serve no purpose to give his name, address,
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: or present occupation, I shall refrain from entering into such details.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: His story was told under circumstances which did away with
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: any inducement to exaggerate or to give a false account
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: of the whole business, and I pledge myself to detail,
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: as far as possible, in his own words, the history
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: of what has been to him the greatest trial in
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: his life. He is still comparatively young, and on meeting him,
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: I was surprised to find that he was like the
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: brutal beings who are believed to be the terrors of
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: our dark nights and darker bypaths. As little as a
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: jail is like a church. He speaks fluently and as
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: a rule correctly, though his speech is of course considerably
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: embellished with the slang patter which is almost a second
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: language to him. Slim of build and rather below the
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: average height, he possesses apparently none of the strength or
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: nerve that should mark a thief who has to pursue
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: the most hazardous line in his profession. But still there
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: is a determination in his face which goes far to
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: prove that he would not be easily daunted in any
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: enterprise he might undertake. The face is an intelligent one,
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: with quick, uneasy eyes, but the features are clean cut
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: and there is nothing sensual in them, the forehead particularly
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: being good. So much for his general appearance, which is
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: far from being unprepossessing. The following is his narrative. Some
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: years ago, I've been working all around Scotland with the
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: Gaffs Fairs, et cetera, and had done well at breech buzzing,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: pocket picking at most of the towns from Dunfrees to Aberdeen.
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: I was with a good mob gang, and we lifted
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: many a buck pocket book without once being put in.
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: At Aberdeen, I heard my mother was ill, and I
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: came straight away down here, and as I'd done so well,
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: I thought i'd throw up crooked work, marry a certain party,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: and settle down. I meant to do it, but I
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: got in a row in wood Street and I was
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: lagged for what I'd never done. It was a put
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: up job, for I never screwed garrotted the man who
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: was robbed, and at the sizes, I fancied I must
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: get clean off. I was surprised when the Jewry found
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: me guilty, and then I knew I was in for
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: something hot, for i'd done a drag three months and
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: four years besides two or three six months. I never
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: expected to hear what I did, and when the judge
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: said I was to get a seven stretch, seven years
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: penal servitude and two dozen lashes, I funked it. I
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: can tell you it knocked me over completely, and I
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: scarcely knew what to think about. I was awfully wild,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: for I considered I didn't deserve such a severe sentence
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: for what I'd never done. But it must come off.
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: I knew I was in for it proper, and I
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: made up my mind to bear all and say nothing.
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: I was sentenced on the Monday, but not till the
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: next Tuesday, but one that I was told I should
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: have my bashing plogging. I was in the state all
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: the days. I was in the cells, thinking on what
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: I should get if it had come straight off. I
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have minded, but it was thinking over it. I
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: kept trying to feel what the strokes of the lash
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: would be like, whether it would hurt me very much
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: after the first half dozen. But I could never get
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: past one point, and that was that it would be
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: smart if anyone had come and told me I could
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: get off by having another five stretch. But on the
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: seven I should have jumped at it. Not a word
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: of a lie, I'm telling, for I was safe. I
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: should catch it warm. I'd heard that the strongest men
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: couldn't stand it. I was always weak, though I had
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: nothing the matter with me anytime, and I was sure
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: it could kill me out and out. I felt as
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: certain of that as anything, and I couldn't sleep a
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: bit waiting, for it's what settles you. But at last,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: one morning I was told I was to be scrapped.
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: I was led from selling to the yard and stripped
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: to me trousers. It was as cold as could be,
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: for it was in December, and I shivered and felt
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: just as bad as ever I did in my life.
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: I was taken to a wall and saw two rings
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: in the bricks about as high as my shoulders, and
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: two posts of wood standing a bit apart and away
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: from the rings, with a cross piece that seemed as
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: if it could slide up and down. At the bottom
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: of the post was a kind of box with two
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: round holes in the top. They opened this like you
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: might pull a drawer out of a cupboard, and I
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: was made to stand in it. My feet were fitted
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: into the corners, and then they closed it and screwed
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: it up. My legs would fixed in the holes, now
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: up to over the knee, and I was as fast
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: as in avice. My hands were put into the rings,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: and the cross piece of wood fitted across my chest
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: by the doctor. I was as tight as a drum,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: and my back was a little bent and forced out,
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: and my arms stretched full length. I couldn't bend my
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: knees or shift about in any way for everything was
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: fixed up so as to keep me in that same
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: state till I'd got my dose. There was something wanting
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: at first, so after I'd been tied up some minutes,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: I was half frozen, and they undid me and put
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: something over my shoulders. My back was stiff with cold
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: even in that time, and I had to wait a
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: bit longer. It was cruel for I like suffered twice,
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: but at last they put me up again. One of
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: the screws turnkeys had got the cat in his hand,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: and he was a big fellow, but not half a badden.
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: He said to me. I hoped I shouldn't think any
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: worse of him for it, but if he didn't do it,
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: someone else would. Of course, it was his duty, but
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: he did lay it on. The doctor stood by with
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: his chronometer in his hand, counting. I'm sure it was
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: a chronometer, for I had handled many one in my time.
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: And then I got my bashing. The first stroke went
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: right across my shoulders, and it was something awful. I'd
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: never felt anything like it before, and I howled out
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: sharp and roared as loud as I could just where
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: the lash went. It seemed to burn right into me,
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: and the skin felt as if it had swelled up
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: and was going to burst. He went through me like
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: and if a hot iron had scorched me, it wouldn't
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: have been half as sharp. I'd been told by the
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: old uns in the jail that he was best to shout,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: as the doctor would think it was hurting me bad,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: and I might get off with half the dose. And
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: I kept on all the time it lasted. I could
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: have said to the doctor, you pig, as quiet as
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: I'm saying it to you now, For crying didn't ease
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: me a bit. It was only a bit of kid
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: deception to scheme the doctor, but it didn't work. It
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: was slow time, for I counted thirty before I got
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: number two, and that came as sharp as the first.
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: I cursed and called them every thing I could get
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: off my tongue, for I felt savage at being shoved
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: in for what I didn't deserve. The doctor stood close
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: by and pointed out where every stroke was to drop,
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: and the screw put it down just where he showed
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: he was a bad and that doctor, for every cut
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: was as bad as the others, and the pain was
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: just like dying over and over again. What did I
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: think of between the lashes. I oh, no, for I
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: was cursing as hard as I could. You see, I
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: did think I'd done many times things that I ought
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: to have got to lashing for. But now I was innocent.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: I couldn't help that coming into my head during the
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: half minute between the lashes. But the hardest pull was
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: trying to make out where the next would drop. The
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: doctor would point and I so I heard the whip coming,
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: and then I cried out louder every time. Sometimes it
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: would drop on one of the cuts that had gone before,
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: and it was bad. Then I could have sworn. My
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: back was as big again as it should be, For
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: after the cat was pulled sharp back, the flesh went
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: after it and rose up till I knew I was
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: bleeding and that the skin had burst. The blood ran
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: down into my trousers, thick, no cheese mistake about it.
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: How did it hurt me? Why? Every now and then
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: the cat lapped round my chest, And that was worst
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: of all. It knocked me out to wind. My breath
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: went as if I jumped into cold water, choking like,
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: and me mouth as dry as could be, had nothing
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: to chew. So I hung onto the rings with my
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: hands as hard as I could, and this only pulled
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: my chest across the wood and made me back tighter.
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: I bled a good deal, but I got the two dozen,
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: and I felt every oddun each one. The last was
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: as bad as the first, every bit of it, if
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: not a trifle smarter. But I shouldn't have minded if
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: it laid it on quicker. It was the slow time
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: that licked me, And if I'd had the regulation three dozen,
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: I think it would have done for me. It's all
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: stupid about not feeling it after the verse five or six.
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: Your back don't grow dead numb, that's all, but only
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: gets tender as you get more of it. Is there
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: anything else like a bashing? Nothing that I know of.
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: I've had most kinds of knocking about, but it licks all.
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: There's no punishment comes anywhere near it. It's as bad
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: while you're waiting as when you're getting it, and both
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: as smart. When I was taken down, I was properly
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: done over, and me back was bleeding in a dozen places.
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: I was swelled all round too, in a way you
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: couldn't believe. And I couldn't button me trousers and put
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: me braces on. Although before I was scrapped. I could
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: have wrapped trousers band half a dozen inches over. There
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: were prison clothes and they throw them at you and
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: ain't particular about the fit. I was sore for a
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: good many days, but I wouldn't go to hospital or
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: see the doctor. I knew I had to go through
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: the mill, and I meant to do every bit of
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: it without flinching. I gave my head to it, and
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: when one of the screws came round and asked me
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: if my back had done bleeding, I told him I
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: was all right. I went to chapel the day after
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: the bashing, for I wouldn't give in, though I needn't
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: have gone unless I liked. I stayed in jail thirteen
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: weeks and was then sent to the bank Mill Brank prison.
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: My back was heeled then, but the marks were there,
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: and when I got in the bath with the others
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: they made some remarks about it, but I didn't care.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: There were a dozen of us from Manchester, and we
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: were such thin, poor looking devils. The doctor said we
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: must be badly off in this part of the country.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: I was put to the tailoring, but I didn't know
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: which finger to put the thimble on until I was
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: shown it was only prison work, and I managed in
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: time to do pretty well. There was a navy put
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: to the same work, but he couldn't do it at all. Yes,
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: we were treated well, but the legs low thieves with
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: the dirtiest lot I ever met. They'd do anything to
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: get in favor with the screws, or even to get
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: a smile from the big men. You see, some few
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: of us couldn't eat our food, and we'd give our
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: loaf to a pal who could. One of these legs
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: would think I can't get it myself and nobody else shall.
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: So he goes and peaches, in forms and gets us
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: three days solitary, stuck in a dark cell with wards
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: to lie on and a rug to cover us. After
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: I'd been at the bank for ten months, I went
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: to Dartmoor after getting the doctor to examine my chest.
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: I said I wanted to go, but he told me
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: it would finish me. I went though, and the other
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: doctor there said a little field work would do me good.
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: It was in the summer and I thought I'd touched.
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: Being fortunate. We went out on the moor and had
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: to cut turf with the warders with us, and the
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: other guard with guns always in sight. I found it
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: was hard work cutting turf with our big knives, for
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: they make each one do the same amount of cutting,
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: so that the weakest has to keep up with the strongest.
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: They work against each other there, and it was so
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: hot that we'd have pulled our shirts off if they'd
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: have let us with little sheet iron cells to sleep
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: in and to eat our meals in not above seven
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: feet long by five feet wide, all running up the
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: middle of the big yard, with doors facing opposite ways.
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: The officials were always down severe upon us. If you
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: looked at another man, you'd be spotted, and if you spoke,
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: you were brought and tried before the governor, just like sizes,
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: only no jewry. They punish your sharp and if you
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: try to escape, they shoot at you as long as
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: they can see you. Three got shot while I was there,
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: and one took it stiffly and got two or three
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: slugs in to him. If I had my time over again,
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: i'd sooner do it at Bellevue, grinding air, turning the
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: cranks so many thousand times per day than down there.
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: What are the guns thieves think of a bashing well,
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: anyone who puts up a man for anything under a
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: book with two or three hundred pounds in it is
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: a dunce, a regular flat. It ain't worth a doing
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: when you know what's waiting for you and you're certainly
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: getting a bashing. No good crossman would think of it.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: It's only these greenan's, these laborers who say I'm starving.
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: There's two or three bob. If I put this bloke
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: up and turn him over ransack his pockets, I'll do it.
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: That's the sort of flats who do it, and sometimes
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: it settles the man clean off. But none of us
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: fly mobs will do the grip. Now, he had got
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: so excited while talking that he had jumped off his seat,
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: and with the enthusiasm of his craft, was suiting the
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: action to the word by showing me how the hug
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: was done in putting up any unfortunate he might be spotted.
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: He gripped his left wrist with his right hand, threw
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: his left elbow outwards and upwards, and then, tightening every muscle,
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: depressed both elbows, and drew his left towards his chin.
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: The movement was quick as could be, and I recognized
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: in a minute, how futile resistance would have been if
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: a man's neck had been enclosed in such a powerful grip.
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: The garret is unquestionably supreme as a means to induce
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: rapid insensibility in a victim. Such was the tale as
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: related to me, almost as coherently as they have given it,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: though it required many questions carefully framed and put to
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: elicit the information. In no case have I used language
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: that was not actually uttered. And if many of the
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: words seem strange as issuing from a convict's mouth, they
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: are truly his own, and not of my choosing. End
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: of Part nine, Chapter ten, Men Canal Street, Ginger Liz,
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: and Cockney Jim. I've described a life that hides itself
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: in Charter Street, Deansgate and Gaythorne, and in this my
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: concluding article, I shall cover the remaining ground that can
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: properly be dealt with. Though it is scarcely so prolific
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: as the districts that have already been under notice. Its
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: area is much wider, however, though its special criminality is
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: decidedly of an inferior order, and is so scattered that
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: it loses much of the dangerous character which is developed
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: when its component parts are comprehensively grouped together. It has
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: many features peculiarly its own, and as it consists of
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: three detached localities, these features are pretty distinctly marked in each.
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: The districts are Canal Street, Ankots and London Road. The
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: first mentioned as the worst of the three, and is
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: of the wood Street type, than which very few grades
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: of life are lower. It is perhaps a terror incognitiate
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: to nine tenths of the inhabitants of the city, and
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: yet there is included within its limits enough fis to
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: start any ordinarily sized civilized town. It lies within a
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: few yards of one of our principal thoroughfares, but is
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: as far removed from it socially as the deepest crime
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: from the most exalted honesty. Lying at the back of
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: the woodyard in Oxford Street, which is almost opposite the
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: railway station, Canal Street has really, for some distance only
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: one side composed of houses. As the canal runs flush
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: with the roadway, from which it is separated by a
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: low brick wall, the level of the canal is considerably
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: lower than that of the street, and two or three
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: locks mark the steep descent of the waters. The single
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: row of houses mentioned are, with one or two exceptions,
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: thoroughly disreputable, and their open doors are at night time
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: thronged with men and women who sit on the steps
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: and chafe any strange passer by. In a manner more
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: pointed than polite, I was initiated into the mysteries of
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: several of these places. An Irish pole was introduced to
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: me in an incoherent state of intoxication. Her residence was
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: a fair specimen of many others, being decently furnished, though
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: without elaboration, and it afforded a striking contrast to that
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: of dirty alf the front room of which was gorgeous,
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: with mirrors, mahogany and mixed materials, from the gilded chandelier
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: to the fanciful china ornaments. Curtains of richest coloring were
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: festooned over the window, and a soft yielding carpet invitingly
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: sank under my feet. Luxury itself could not have asked
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: for more, and every attention had been paid to the
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: minutest details. The walls of the passage or hall, perhaps
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: as the proprietor would prefer it to be called, being
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: fancifully lined with a classic pattern in subdued chocolate colour,
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: the gas lights lit up all with their rich blaze,
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: and a more perfect whited sepulcher I know saw for
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: vice reigns triumphant Here criminality that can scarcely be touched upon,
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: and yet a more productive center of crime it would
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: be hard to find, For here finds its way the
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: money stolen from employer or other victim, and viciousness reproduces
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: itself in many shapes. Men may enter the street honest
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: and may leave it thieves for money that was not
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: their own they have recklessly squandered, and the harpies have
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: effected a change that too often leads direct to further roguery.
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: I instance this house, as it is only one of
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: many others that are for some reason tolerated as part
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: of our social fabric, and as affording a means of
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: solution to the mystery of how respectable men, young men
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: especially become thieves, apparently spontaneously, not professional thieves stealing for
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: the sake of getting a living without working, but secret
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: pilferers from till or safe obtaining means to gratify their
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: sensual appetites. A surface or this plain sailing for a
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: long time, but at last comes detection and the master,
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: to his horror, finds his clerk or warehouseman is as
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: despicable a felon as the poor wretch who makes Charter
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: Street his home when not provided for by a beneficent
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: government in a comfortable jail. If the thousand upon thousand
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: patient inquiries by the police as to where the culprits
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: resorted and who were his companions were but published, this
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: Canal Street Palace of Sin and its facsimiles dotted over
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: the face of our city, thick as plague spots, would
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: show what a terrible agency is at work among us,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: recruiting year by year the ranks of the dangerous classes
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: from our middle class population, passing a glaring vault which
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: is doing a roaring trade. I found myself in Sackville
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: Street and mac ushered me into the habitation of one
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: of our most noted characters in certain circles, who has
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: a connection with crooked persons that is exceedingly immune. Narrative.
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: Ginger Liz, as she is euphoniously called on account of
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: her blond hair, is a woman of middle age, still
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: quick and active in her movements, and with a certain
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: cunning and suspicious look about her face, which baffles description.
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: There was nothing to attract attention in the room. We
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: entered two or three women and a man who looked
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: like a well to do mechanic, being its sole occupants.
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: There was drink upon the table and all present were
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: taking toothfuls of whiskey out of wineglasses. Ginger herself was
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: seated on the sofa, holding converse with the man, and
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: as nothing of interest seemed likely to transpire, I was
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: quickly back into the street again. I was curious to
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: hear about the reddun's doings. Her mac let on at once. Ginger,
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: you see, sir, he said, is a real cleveron, and
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: you ought me to equal all over the city. She's
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: as fly and knowing as the whole boiling of us,
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: and many a bloke down on his look as she
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: pulled up all square again. She's a perfect godsend too
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: when we jugged locked up, and knows every move of
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: the court as well as Scotti himself, the slang name
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: of one of our leading detective officers. When a good
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: crossman is taken in and is dragged up at Minshall Street,
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: she sees him as a visitor ascends one of her women,
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: and no matter what he wants, she'll let him have it.
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: She'll find two or three quid sovereigns for a lawyer,
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: and she'll square the prosecutor abounce him if he wants
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: to alibi. She'll manage at first rate. And if there's
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: any stuff stolen property to be got rid of while
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: he's in, she's the woman to do the trick. She
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: knows it's all right with them, for they'll pay a
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: double when they're out, and she mostly pulls them off
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: even if they go to sessions. As sizes, she'll get
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: the best patterers counsel money can fetch, as she can
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: put things together straight as a line if she's let alone.
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: The days have been down on her once or twice,
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: but she ain't been stopped yet. It'll be hard lines
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: for many port when she's shifted. She is genuine metal,
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: no kid mistake. Max sang the praises of this genius
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: of Minschell Street with a fervency that was in keeping
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: with the subject, and no doubt Ginger is an invaluable
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: ally to the thieves who find work for our worthy justices.
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: Richmond Street, narrow and squalid runs at right angles to
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: Sackville Street and parallel with Canal Street, and the dwellers
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: in it are of the lowest class. The houses are
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: poorly fitted up, and many women live in the same place.
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: The visitors to these dens are colliers from outside and
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: hard working labourers from within the city, who think drink
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: and debaucher it the only true pleasures provided for them,
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: and behave accordingly. I will only mention one of these,
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: and that is where Cockney Jim reigns supreme when he
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: is in town. In the back kitchen, furnished with the
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: customary sofa, table and chairs far too numerous in proportion
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: to the size of the room, with three women and
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: the inevitable man, in this case an outsider on the drunk.
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: A quart bottle nearly full of dark British brandy graced
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: the middle of the table, and a drunken, sodden wretch
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: clad in tawd refinery, with bleared eyes and scrufulous features,
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: was pouring a glass of neat spirit down her throat.
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: She drank the poison without winking, and helped herself to another,
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: replenishing the glasses of her companions at the same time.
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: For these women can drink with the confidence begotten of
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: long practice, and never dream of spoiling their taste by
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: polluting their mouths with water. Their male friend was subdued
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: and maudling, but he seemed perfectly content with these philistines,
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: and glared jealously at us, as if expecting we were
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: about to deprive him of the comfort derived from the
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: drunken endearments of these representatives of the gentler sex. We
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: left him to his fate, and as I could not
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: see Cockney, I again requested information from mac. It appears
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: that Cockney attends races and various other meetings all over
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: the country, at which he picks up a satisfactory living.
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: But one of his means of obtaining the needful is
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: by one of the cleverest tricks that has ever been
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: in vogue. It is known as ring dropping, and it
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: is generally very successful when tried. Many will have been
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: made familiar with it through newspaper reports, But for those
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: who are still blissfully ignorant, I will unfold its mysteries,
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: provided with cheap gold rings worth a few shillings, but
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: stamped with a forged mark, and to an inexperienced eye
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: of some value. A sharp and his confederate start out
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: into the public streets, patiently waiting until a likely victim approaches.
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: The sharp walks past him and suddenly stops and pretends
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: eagerly to pick something up. He has a ring in
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: his hand, and rising quickly examines it with well affected pleasure.
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: The victim either stops out of curiosity or else is
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: detained by a direct appeal to congratulate the finder. The
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: confederate comes up, and, as an innocent passer by, also stops,
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: asks to look at the ring, finds that it's marked,
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: prizes it at ten pounds or twenty pound, and offers
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: to buy it for that money if the lucky man
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 1: will accompany him to his house. The said lucky man can't,
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: as he's got to go to his work and will
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: lose his place if he's late. He's an honest man,
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: he is, and must want to make money out of
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: the ring, so he'll sell it there and then for
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: a couple of pounds. The confederate is annoyed that he
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: has not the amount on him, and expresses vexation that
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: he should lose so good a bargain. The victim, meanwhile,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: has had his cupidity excited, he examines the ring, sees
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: it's all right, thinks what an ass the fellow must
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: be to sell it for a mere song, and after
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: a little parley, pays the two pound and makes off
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: with his treasure. The state of his mind after visiting
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: a jeweler can be readily imagined. Some twenty or thirty
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: streets in the neighborhood of Ankots and in the district
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: lying to the left of London Road, very near to
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: the railway station, were visited by us, but it was
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: rather hard to find thieves, though we did come across
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: a few scattered in courts and stray houses. In Ancots
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: there is a contingent of foreign adventurers, Italian organ grinders,
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: et cetera, who live in one or two large lodging
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: houses that are well kept and have few undesirable features.
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: The poverty of the residence in these quarters is very great, and,
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: as Mac put it, where there's poor people as thieves.
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: This is true of many streets I inspected. But the
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: proportion of dishonest persons to respectable workers is so small
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: that practically in Ancoats and London Road, crime is being
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: strangled by its intimate association with elements inimical to it.
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: Men who work hard all day and earn little feel
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: savage at seeing good for nothing. Rogues with plenty of
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: money hanging about the public houses, doing nothing but enjoying themselves.
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: And accordingly they round on their neighbours and put the
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: police in possession of valuable information as often as possible.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: Ale and porter work, Stealing and working is the mode
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: of life followed by hundreds in these poor streets, and
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: many a wretch finds his way to jail for petty
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: larceny in spite of the character his unwary employer may
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: be induced to give him. After many knights wanderings, I
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: considered that I had at last come to the end
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: of my tever and in the slums off London Road,
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: I closed my acquaintance with the phases of life I
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: had been studying. The impression derived from my extended visits
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: is that so completely has the police organization gained a
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: mastery over the classes which live by nefarious transactions, that
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: the city has been cleared of the sharpest and most
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: dangerous thieves, who have sought fresh fields and pastures knew
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: where the hand of the Manchester Detective cannot reach them.
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: That this is true is proved by the very few
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: robberies of any importance that of late years have taken
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: place in our midst and that when a more usually
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: daring attempt is made on life or property, it is
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: made by strangers and not by genuine residents. There are
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: indeed few large cities that can compete with our own
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: in the systematic suppression of viciousness in all its forms,
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: has shown in the sketches of Criminal Manchester. End of
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: Criminal Manchester, Experiences of a special correspondence read