The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 375: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ea rg A ee PE A Faia Sr re rer ea eee enesreneneeeteiens, — a — QE an , tee ance ae a ll i han eo De f Pe eee ‘Coffin was in the parlour, and that he evidently sus- pected what was going on. Therefore was it that when the Hangman endeavoured to escape abruptly from the place, the Buttoner opposed his departure ; —and then followed the conflict in the passage which we have already described. The Public Executioner managed to get clear off: but before he thus fled, he committed sad havoc amongst his assailants. Oid Mother Franklin was so severely trampled under his feet that she was subsequently carried in a dying state up to the attic which she occupied ; and the Buttoner had received so severe a blow on the head from the iron heel of Daniel Coffin’s great thick boot, that he also was left in a very dangerous predicament, Mrs. Young had an arm Uroken by the poker which she‘hereelt had first taken as a weapon of attack, but which the Hangwan had wrenched from her hands: two of the frail young women dwelling in her house, likewise had bones broken ; and a third daughier of crime was most severely injurad—all by the random blows which Daniel Coffin had struck with‘ the formidable weapon, Soon afterwards Lawrenge Sampson and several of his men arrived at the house, and received from the Buttoner’a lips a full confirination of the tale which had been recorded in the document drawn up by Mra. Young. He had but just strength enoygh to repeat the particulars; and the surgeon who had been sugunoned to attend on the wounded at Mrs. Youny’s house, declared that the Buttoner could not be removed fur a day ortwo. A Bow Street runner was accordingly left to keep watch upon him, while Larry Sampson and the rest of his men proceeded to Jacob’s Island to ariest Bencull. As the reader has already been informed, the Mushroom Faker and the Durrynacker were captured at the aame time with Beneull bimvelf; but the Hangman had evaded the search-of the officers of justice. Soun after it was daylight in the morning—that saipe Sabbath morning, be it recollected, which was marked by the horrible crimes of Daniel Coffis at the abode of Jeremy Humpage in Whitechapel — several persons made thelr appearance with drags at the Folly Bridges to fish for the corpse of tke mur- dered Neil Gibfon. Thi proceeding naturally ex- cited an immense sensation at Jacob’s Island; and in a very few minutes after the rumour had circu- lated for wlyit purpose the men were come, the windows of all the dingy, dilapidated houses over- looking the biack diueh on both sides, were crowded—even at that ear'y hour—with anxious faces, «AV glance, thrown around apy those coun tenaners so marked with the traces of squalor, wretchedness, and demoralization, would have afforded a perfect index to the condition uf that neyhbuorhood, as if to the reading of the hijden pagea of a vo'ume filled with obscenities, vices, and hurross. The men, however, who had come to drag the dyke, tuok no sudn philosophic view of the scene, but addressed themselves in right good earnest ty the luathsome task which they wore there to fulfil. . On each of the bridges did two of these men begin to drag; and, at first, innumerable were the rotting remuins of cats and dogs that the drags brought up from the thick slimy ditch. All kinda of filth, offil, and garbage were thus disturbed, ———— BT 4s ls oe ee eee — = be i Jaw epee ee fee ee oh ieee 2 > 6 eee ee ee oe ep Fen _ee_EegrnrT=; peng Ww THE MISTRRIES-‘OF TLE COUR‘. t ai ey ada fhe Gp dyke now exha'ed was uanseating to a derrea, Yet that was the water—or rasher the liquid slime —which the inhabitants of Jacob’s Island had to driuk, and to use for all purposes uf cookery or ablution—thu, imbibing thé secds of disease and death from that feti-i stagnant ditch which served alike ay #ueir cistern and their sewer! Suh was it at the period of which we are writing—and such is it at the present day. And then, forsooth! we are coolly tuld—and what is more, expected to believe—that the poor sre cared for by the rich, aud that the wretched inmates of squalid hovels. breathing the atmosphere of pestilence and death, are an object of sympathy with the wealthy and the proud ones whe roll ia their carriages, sleep upoa down, dress in fine garments, an. cat off plate of silver and of gold! Bat to continue our narrative. Aftcr having dragged the ditch for some time without any suc- cess, the men, wom Larry Sainpson had sent thither for the purpose began ¢> think that the corpse for which they were seek ng must have been earried jnto the Thales on some occasion when the sluice-gate was opened. But the exper‘ence of one who was better acquainted than the rest. with Jacob's Island, suggested that it was far more likely the corpse was deeply embedded in the mud. ‘The men therefore attached weizhts to their drags, in order to make the hooks simk dvep down into the slimy bed of the dyke; and the re- sult of this new experimn-nt speedily proved suc- cessful. ‘Lo be brief, the ba!f-decempused coi pse of a female was presentiy dragved up froin the muddy depths, and deposited upon the bride where the men who experienced this success were stationed. We will not shock the reader by paus- iug to describe the loathseme appearanee whicir the once handsome and well-formed young woman now presented to the eye. Jet it be sulficient to state that the spectacle was so revolting as to fi | with horror the minds of even the callous and hardened denizens of Jacob’s [slaud, The corpse was conveyed into Benew!l’s now deserted cmb—there to await the Coroner's Ji gust which would be heldeu upon it in due course; and one of the men who bad,fished up the body, was left in charze of it, That is to say, he focked up all the doors of the house and remained watech- ing outside, for the object was too louthsuine in every respect for the individual to stay inside the place along with It. Mr. Lawrence Sanpson ro-.e very early on this same morving: for he was resolved to adopt all p ssible measures for the arrest of Daniel Coffin. Scarcely had the officer dressed himself and taken a mouthful of breaktast, when he received inteili- gence that the corpse uf the murdered woman had been found; and very soon afterwards the Swag Chovey Bloak called to inform him that the Hang- man was at Jeremy Humpage’s house. Of course the fence made Sampson understand that old Humpzge had not voluntarily secreted the crimi- nal, but that he had forced himself into that a:y- lum. The Bow Street ofticer accordingly lost no time in repading witle half a-dogzen of lis men to the very widst of that morass of wretcheduess and demora ization bearing the name of Whitechapel, —and on reaching the street where Huimpaues andl either brought up to the surface or dragged | estab istiucut was situated, Larry Sampson dis- to land; and the effluvinm which tho troubled posed of his subordinates m such a manuer that i ele oe Beodie, Out: “VGRe waite «ay =. 2 =, ERE Oh oT TE Py SN es Gee Sees “SE ys é ae meat ¢eqrtVerqsetnr DeyewEipe ive Peet fawn, Wl ! | | | | | ple ee Oe ee ~~ ey CONIC OO ( O) < S) CO