The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 295: what you’re looking at

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

268 THE COURT OF LONDON a stone-mason was in contrast with that of a sweep. The characteristic apparel of a parish beadle hung next to the mud-besmeared garb of a peasant; and the rough dress of a sailor was close to the modest uniform of a postman. In fine, the dresses of all grades and classes, as well as of both sexes, were comprised in this perfect museum of costume; and it was quite clear that the individual possessing such an extraordinary collection could at any moment transform himself into the semblance of a peer or a peasant, a parson or a postman, a sportsman or a soldier, a tailor or a tinker, a gentleman or a gipsy, a mariner or a pickpocket, a rollick- ing highwayman or a mean petty thief, a substantial farmer or a needy mendicant, a costermonger or a ballad singer, a fortune-teller or a match-woman, a fish-fag or a gipsy, or, in fine, any member of any grade, class, or section of society. But these transformations were not to be made only by means of the various dresses suspended around; other auxiliaries and accessories were likewise at hand in this apartment. Thus, upon a long shelf stood a row of barber’s blocks, each surmounted with a wig; and as a matter of course these wigs were of different colours, shapes, and qualities, affording specimens of all the varieties of the peruke species. Then, on another shelf, there were false whiskers, mustachios, and beards, — yes, and even false eyebrows; and on a third shelf were pots of rouge, hair- powder, paints, colours, and dyes of all shades, degrees, and descriptions. There was one more feature of interest in this room which came in for a due share of the Hangman’s attention; and this was an enormous book, as large as a church Bible, and the contents of which were divided into three specific departments. The first was a list of all the bad characters, male and female, infesting the metropolis; and against every name was affixed the date of its entry in that book, thereby showing how long each individual in the category had been under the surveillance of Mr. Lawrence Sampson. The second compartment contained a list of all the flash cribs, boozing-kens, fence-shops, low lodging-houses, and places of vile resort in which the metropolis abounded; and so complete was the information given by this list, that to every den thus specified was added the name of the CONNIE OOOLKS (E(0)