Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London LifeKirwan, Daniel Joseph
History
Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London Life
Kirwan, Daniel Joseph
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- Social life and customs
I have here only recounted facts well known in England, and I set them
down without malice or extenuation.
The salary or income of Queen Victoria is, I believe, about five
thousand two hundred dollars a day, including Sundays, for which she
also receives her regular stipend. Like other sovereigns, she does not
toil or spin, yet the people must pay the bills all the same. Being
of a very economical and thrifty disposition, it is supposed that
her Majesty will leave a fortune of many millions of pounds to her
scapegrace son when she dies, that is to say, if he has common decency
enough too wait for her decease, and ceases to outrage her feelings to
much.
Queen Victoria was born May 24th, 1819, and is consequently in her
fifty-second year.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V.
HIDDEN DEPTHS.
FINDING it necessary to have a companion with me who had a perfect
knowledge of the English Metropolis, I paid a visit to the headquarters
of the police in the Old Jewry, and procured from Inspector Bailey, the
Chief of Police, the aid of a detective to accompany me in my nightly
adventures. Shortly after midnight Sergeant Moss and myself passed
through Gracechurch into Fenchurch street, by towering warehouses, and
along Aldgate into High street, Whitechapel. Until we got well up into
Whitechapel we had not met more than three or four persons, and they
were principally individuals who had taken more ale or strong liquor
than was good for their equilibrium. One person, who was evidently
out of his latitude, accosted the detective and demanded of him, in a
menacing but rather ludicrous way:
"I s'ay ole fel', whish ish Goodman's Feelsh? I wansh to go to
Somshseet sthreeths. Goodman's Feelsh, ole boy. Show we waysh and give
shixpensh, ole fel?"
"Go along and turn off to your left, and when you get home eat an
onion, and it will do you good p'raps," said he, as he tried to dodge
the drunken fellow, who seemed well dressed, and had some jewelry on
his person.
"Eesh an onionsh. Sir, yer a gentlesmansh--ole boy. Blesh you. Blesh
you," and he staggered away into the darkness, rolling like a yawl-boat
in the breakers.
We turned off the Whitechapel road into Baker street, up Charles into
Wellington street. The neighborhood was a poor desolate one, and every
building, and every stone in the street, with the offal in the gutters,
spoke of poverty and wretchedness.
Now and then a policeman spoke to us and looked sharply at me, but
always they seemed civil and obliging.
The district we were now traversing was a kind of debatable land
between Whitechapel and Bethnal Green. The streets, or rather lanes,
ran across and along at angles and in circles of a perfect maze tending
to confound ways that were well calculated to puzzle a stranger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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