The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 271: what you’re looking at

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

a é e o and smoking their cigars, boldly faced the in- clement night. The lieutenant-colonel was not unlike his brother Octavian,—being of the middle height and of slender figure: he likewise wore a moustache—but his hair was somewhat darker. He had a military look, and was altogether a per- sonage of preposseesing a Such was the companion whom Captain Stanley had found _ the officer in & ely Words with the business which _ they had in hand ; | his sucpoor. The | request was by = piege of gold; and an } mative answer was @f once retarned. “Follow me, gentiomen,” said the constable ; _ Sand I will soon show you & iittle of low life in London.” | geure streets; the he into 4 court, which was but fesbly lighted the rem struggling thrvagh the dingy window panes the sombre- stood opens and wotben y apparelied, with looks of brazen immodesty, sto: thresholds. They flung forth scene jests at the passers-by ; and w! man roughly Bede them hold their of abase vomited forth torrents doors at length, bat only to open their windows and continue their hideous outpouring. The con stable led the two offcers to the extremity of court, and knocked sharply at a door which wes shat. It was | . s looking old man; #84 Without the slightest cere- mony, the police-offiner entered, followed by Lord open a side-door, and abruptly drawing forth his bull’s-eye, or lantern, the constable threw thé light into the room: but there was no one there. An it inner door however immediately opened ; and vomited forth io loathsome @ flood of h nature, that the two officers gazed with mingled horror and dismay on those hideous specimens of the lowest of both sexes. — The room into which they thus poured then- selves, was almost entirely denuded of farniture: but that from which they had emerged, had the tresses; and both hed their walls and ceilings as grimy and blackened as if the whitewasher’s brush had never touched them: Old men and boys— elderly women and young girls, formed this motley group, a glance over which sent a sickening sensa- tion to the heart. Rags end filth—the stamp of poverty and the impress of erime—misfortans and vice—ugliness and deformity in all their most re- volting shapes—together with the brasen hardi- hood of female depravity, were the jambled charac- teristics of this loathsome scene. “Now, gentlemen,” aaid the police-constable, “is the person you want amongst these ?” ‘No: he is a boy of about curteen, with a sickly appearance, and very sharp featnres,” an- swered Captain Stanley, who thus bed his tale ready. de three of the front-doors | Significant looks were rapidly exchanged amidst the motley erew,—these looks being as much as to imply that the individual so described was not any where upon the premises, nor was he indeed known to them,—which was not astonishing, inasmuch as the object of the search was of Captain Stanley’s own imaginative creation. But the visitors observed that a young woman, on hearing that description, disapp from among the i and returning into the inner room, she a opening into the passage. Bho hastened ap-staire; and e door was speedily Regn to opert and shut on the first landing. “Well, gentlemen,” said the pelice-constable, “if the boy is not here, we must look into the rooms up-stairs.” “You won't find him,” eaid the old man who ha opened the front door, and whe pad lingered im the passage: he was the landlord of this loath- “We sha’n’t take your word for ft, Mr. Dyson,” gaid the constable, purposely ascu a decided air. “I know you of old; there is mot a better 9 padding-ken in all London than you ere for atalling off us policemen,” pid man grambled something ; and the con- the staircase. The other | they abounded in similar of lost, degraded, ang demoralized hv- swarm of at least Sfty persons, haddling and herd- ing together like so many swine—breathing an atmosphere which seemed fraught with pestilence -——and rendering the entire place a hotbed for all the elements of plage, cholera, and the fearfallest The police-constable and the two officers issued forth from the house, and were speedily outside the coart. “Did you observe, gen ” asked the con- stable, “that girl who suddenly disappeared from the ground-floor rooms end hurried up-steirs ——" “Yeo. What was her object ?” “It was to tell those above that ft was all right —Unal they might make themselves easy, for it was none of them who were wanted. Suppose for argument’s eake that you had given a true descrip- ° tion—inadvertentl ing §& slip ont of your moath,—and soppowe thse the p Aaees who pa really wanted had been all the time up-siairs,—thi Warning would have been quickly given, and an escape effected by a back window, or perhaps 8 trap-door on the top of the house. Ah! gentle- men, you don’t know what dodges the keepers of Unece pedding-ken ere up to for the purpose of helping those who lodge with them.” The -officer now conducted Lord Charles Meredith and Captain Stanley to another house in the same neighbourhood, and where suppers were going on in every room. It was the resort of beggars and tramps, and was seldom frequented by thieves,—the mendicants who patronized it, en- deavouring to keep it as “select” as possible! For there are aristocracies, grades, and distinctions even amongst the lowest strata of society, and amidst the whole range of demoralization’s sphere. In every room throughout this lodging-house, the (COLL (C DOO (GO)