The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 89: what you’re looking at

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| Gaan=_a To why not bad Iuraciites as well as good ones? We will even go farther—end we will affimm that within the range of our own oxperience, we havo met persone professing Christianity of a viler stamp of rascality, and capable of more unmiti- 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 olothing mart. He had epent thousands and thousands of pounds in ad- vertising it, and had puffed himself up into an anasing notoriety. Not a wooden hoarding about London that was not covered with his placards. If yon tuok your seat in an omnibus, a shower of little books, neatly stitched, would suddenly rain in upon you: and on picking one up, you imme- diately recognised the superb frontage of Mr. Samuel Emanuel’s establishment in the form of a wood-cut upon the cover. If you went for a walk in the fields in tho environs of London, your eye would catch the name, calling, and address of Mr. Samuel Ewanuoel upon every fence and on every dead wall. If you looked in the advertising calumns of newspapers, your eye would suddenly rest on a string of ill-measured lines, by courtesy called “ poetry ;” and if you had the curiosity or patience to read the wretched doggrel, you would | disposal, thenco evolve a series of the most extravagant 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 personage in the realm, he entertained the pleasing conviction that he himsclf was the second. Talk of your firstrate authors—your eminent artists, or your great eculptors—talk of your renowned warriors by sea or by land—what was any one of these in comparison with the far- faned Mr. Sarnuel Emanuel ? And yet, if you walked into his establishment and beheld this great personage, you would find him to be as unprepoeseasing a fellow as you could possibly mcct in a day’s walk. Scarcely. of the middie hejgut—ill made and ungainly—he sought to act himself uff by all the accessories of his gwn tailoring craft. No trouser-pattern in his own window would bo more outrageous than the one selected fur his pantaloons. He would wear a dress-coat, with rich velvet collar and lappels, as early as eight o'clock in the morning; and his waistcoat wuuld be of the gaudiest silk pattern. as for bis neckerchief, it would be sure to cor- respond in its flaunting vulgarity with the rest of his attire, and would be fastened in front with some incunceivably outrageous breast-pin—perhaps an enormous carbuncle clutched in a golden fist. ‘Festouning over his gaudy waistcoat, there would be three or four watch-chains of different fashions and degrees of massiveness ; and his dirty, stumpy, ul-shaped fingers, with very horrible nails, would be decorated with enough rings to fill a small tray, such as those whose contents purchasers are in- vited to inspect in jewellers’ shops. As for his cuuntenance, i had all the promineacy of profile characteristic uf his race,—but with an expression of mingled bardness and meanness, of low paltry cunning and avaricious greed—together with a faculty for the sudden assumption of « coarse vul- gar insolence, that might readily be suppused to characterize euch an individual. His wiie was a perfect giantcss, with large THE MYSTEGIZS OF THE COURT. coarae 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 his detriment. In respect to the establishment itself, we need only observe that it was splendidly fitted up—that the shop-windows wero of the largest sised plate- glass—that the lamps were almost endlessly mul- tiplied—and that as the show-rooms were crammed with goods, so the various shopmen were well nigh countless in each particular department. But 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 pur- chaser could possibly possess himself of: they were very much after tie same description as Peter Pindar’s rasors, which were made to sell, and not to cut: for Mr. Emanuel’s garments were made for 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 so 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 so contrived as to show off 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: sabe was overwhelmed with bachfulness— there was a sickening sensation at her heart—for she felt as if she were there under almost mendi- cant circumstances. I¢ was no wonder that the 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 and tranquillise her feelings. She thus unavoidably became « jistener to some portion of the discourse which was going on bebind the array of dressing-gowns. * Well, Mr. Solomons,” said a coarse masculine voice, speaking with the half patronizing, half stern accents of authority, “so far so 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 onco 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 be in the street presently to bang a large brick-bat right against the glass.” (COIMUC DOO CS (COL