Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXIX., October, 1852Various
Religion
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXIX., October, 1852
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
There is inquiry made, at various houses, for a boy named Jo. As few
people are known in Tom-all-Alone's by any Christian sign, there is
much reference to Mr. Snagsby whether he means Carrots, or the Colonel,
or Gallows, or Young Chisel, or Terrier Tip, or Lanky, or the Brick.
Mr. Snagsby describes over and over again. There are conflicting
opinions respecting the original of his picture. Some think it must be
Carrots; some say the Brick. The Colonel is produced, but is not at all
near the thing. Whenever Mr. Snagsby and his conductors are stationary,
the crowd flows round, and from its squalid depths obsequious advice
heaves up to Mr. Bucket. Whenever they move, and the angry bull's-eyes
glare, it fades away, and flits about them up the alleys, and in the
ruins, and behind the walls, as before.
At last there is a lair found out where Toughy, or the Tough Subject,
lays him down at night; and it is thought that the Tough Subject may
be Jo. Comparison of notes between Mr. Snagsby and the proprietress of
the house--a drunken, fiery face tied up in a black bundle, and flaring
out of a heap of rags on the floor of a dog-hutch, which is her private
apartment--leads to the establishment of this conclusion. Toughy has
gone to the Doctor's to get a bottle of stuff for a sick woman, but
will be here anon.
"And who have we got here to-night?" says Mr. Bucket, opening another
door, and glaring in with his bull's-eye. "Two drunken men, eh? And two
women? The men are sound enough," turning back each sleeper's arm from
his face to look at him. "Are these your good men, my dears?"
"Yes, sir," returns one of the women. "They are our husbands."
"Brickmakers, eh?"
"Yes, sir."
"What are you doing here? You don't belong to London."
"No, sir. We belong to Hertfordshire."
"Whereabouts in Hertfordshire?"
"Saint Albans."
"Come up on the tramp?"
"We walked up yesterday. There's no work down with us at present; but
we have done no good by coming here, and shall do none, I expect."
"That's not the way to do much good," says Mr. Bucket, turning his head
in the direction of the unconscious figures on the ground.
"It an't, indeed," replies the woman with a sigh. "Jenny and me knows
it full well."
The room, though two or three feet higher than the door, is so low
that the head of the tallest of the visitors would touch the blackened
ceiling if he stood upright. It is offensive to every sense; even the
gross candle burns pale and sickly in the polluted air. There are a
couple of benches, and a higher bench by way of table. The men lie
asleep where they stumbled down, but the women sit by the candle. Lying
in the arms of the woman who has spoken, is a very young child.
"Why, what age do you call that little creature?" says Bucket. "It
looks as if it was born yesterday." He is not at all rough about
it; and as he turns his light gently on the infant, Mr. Snagsby is
strangely reminded of another infant, encircled with light, that he has
seen in pictures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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