The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 91: what you’re looking at

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Zo why not bad Israclites as well as good anes? We will even go farther—-and we will affium that within the range of our own experience, we have met persons professing Christianity of «@ viler stamp of rascality, and capable of more unmuti- gated scoundrelism, than ever we discovered a Jew to be guilty of. Mr. Samuel Emanuel was the proprietor, as we havé said, of an immense clothing mart. He had spent thousands and thousands of pounds in ad- vertising it, and hed puffed himeelf up into an anazinyg notoriety. Not a wooden hoarding about London that was not covered with his placards. If you tok your seat in an omnibus, a shower of litthe books, neatly stitched, would suddenly rain in upon you: and on picking one up, you imme- diately recognised the superb frontage of Mr. Samucl Emanuel's establishment in the form of a wood-cut upon the cover. If you went for a walk in the fields in the environs of London, your eye would catch the name, calling, and addrees of Mr. Samuel Emanuel upon every fence and on every dead wall. If you looked in the advertising columns of newspapers, your eye would suddenly rest on « string of ill-measured lines, by courtesy called “ poetry ;” and if you had the curiosity or patience to read the wretched doggrel, you would thence evolve a series of the most extra puffs of Mr. Samuel Emanuel’s establishment. There could be no doubt in your mind that while Mr. Samuel Emanuel considered the Sovereign to be the first persunage in the realm, he entertained the pleasing cunviction that he himself was the second. Talk of your firstrate suthors—your eminent artists, or your great sculptors—talk of your renowned warriors by sea or by land—what was any one of these in comparison with the far- faued Mr. Sa:nuel Emanuel ? And yet, if you walked into his establishment and behwld this great personage, you would find him to be as unprepoesessing a fellow as you could possibly mcct in a day's walk. Scarcely. of the middje heigut—ill made and ungainly—he sourht to act himself uff by all the accessories of his gwn tailoring craft. No trouser-pattern in hie own window would bo more outrageous than the one aclected fur his pantaloons. He would wear a dress-coat, with rich velvet collar and lappels, as carly as eight o'clock in the morning; and his waistcoat wuuld be of the gaudiest silk pattern. As fur bis neckerchief, it would be sure to cor- respond in its flaunting vulgarity with the rest of lis attire, and would be fastened in front with some incunceivably outrageous breast-pin—perhaps an enormous carbuncle clutched in s goldgn fist. Festooning over bis gaudy waistcoat, there would be three or four watch-chains of different fashions and degrees of massiveness ; and his dirty, stumpy, ill-shaped fingers, with very horrible nails, would be decorated with enough rings to fill a small tray, euch as those whose contents purchasers are in- vited to inspect in jewellers’ shops. As for his cuuntenance, i¢ had all the promineaicy of profile characteristic uf his race,—but with an expression of mingled hardness and meanness, of low paltry cunning and avaricious greed—togetber with a faculty for the sudden assumption of 8 coarse vul- ' gar insolence, that might readily bo suppused to [e_eanume @ Weegee characterise such an individual. | His wiico was perfect giantcss, with largo Gane <a oa EF Sie E> EEN ED THE MYSTEKGIES OF THE COURT. coarse features—an enormously stout shape—and an air of brazen effrontery which she seldom took the trouble to subdue. There was a certain showi- ness about her—a sort of Flemish mare kind of handsomeness, which to some little extent was striking ; and Mr. Emanuel! considered her one of the finest specimens of the female sex. For this uxoriousness he was rather to be honoured than otherwise ; and therefore we record it as no impu- tation to hia detriment. In respect to the establishment itself, we need only observe that it was splendidly fitted up—that the shop-windows were of the largest sized plate- giase—that the lamps were almost endlessly mul- tiplied—and that asthe show-rooms were crammed with goods, so the various shopmen were weil nigh countless in each particular department. Bat truth compels us to add that the garments which Mr. Samuel Emanuel had for sale, were verv much like himself—dashing and fine, but intrinsically mean and trumpery., Indeed, the cheapest of his articles would prove the dearest bargain that a par- chaser could possibly possess himself of: they were very much after tie sane description es Peter Pindar’s razors, which were made to sell, and not to cut: for Mr. Emanuel’s garments were made for disposal, and not for wear. To this establishment was it that, at about eleven in the forenoon of the day after the twins’ removal to their new lodging, Christina bent her way, in company with her brother. He however remained outside while she entered: but just within the door she stopped short, under the influence of a sudden timidity which seized upon her. At the same moment she heard voices speaking : but those who were thus engaged in conversation, were concealed from her view, as she was hidden from their’s, by an array of gaudy dressing-gowns for gentlemen, hung upon frames 40 contrived as to show of the particular fit and appearance of the several ente. Christina could not for the life of her move another step forward at the in- stant: she was overwhelmed with ba:hfulness— there was a sickening sensation at her heart—for she felt as if she were there under almost mendi- cant circumstances. It was no wondcr that tho delicate sensibilities of the young girl were thus poignantly touched by the new position to which Mr. Preston’s flight had reduced her; and tears starting into her eyes, she was compelled to linger where she was in order to control aud tranquillise her feelings. She thus unavoidably became a jistener to some portion of the discourse which was going on bebind the array of dressing-gowns. “Well, Mr. Sulomons,” said a cuarse masculine voice, speaking with the half patronizing, half stern accents of authority, “eo far so good. But we must think of at least a hundred other means of keeping the Emporium incessantly before the public. Ah! by the bye, have you seen about some ragged boy or wretched-looking woman, to fling a stone at the pane which got accidentally cracked yesterday ?” “ Yes, sir—it is all right,” answered Mr. Solo- mons, who, we may as well at once inform our readers, was Mr. Emanuel’s principal and confiden- © tial clerk. “I succeeded yesterday in getting hold of the most pitiable object that ever was seen in fe- male shape ; and she will bo in the atreet presently to bang a large brick-bat right against the glass.” __ (COLL (C DOO (GO)