Pictures and Problems from London Police Courts — John Shaqi
Pictures and Problems from London Police CourtsHolmes, Thomas
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Pictures and Problems from London Police Courts
Holmes, Thomas
Crime -- England -- London; Poor -- England -- London
For let no one say he knows all about these persons or things; such
knowledge cannot be obtained, not even by a lifetime of patient
observation. Many men, many minds; rather is it true: one man, one
woman, many minds. One individual’s moods and changes, vices and
virtues, strength and weakness, the mind acting on the body and the
body on the mind, now striving after good, now going headlong into
evil--one individual alone presents an unsolved problem. But much worth
the knowing and better worth the doing may be learned; yet it were
well, perhaps, not to learn too much.
A short time ago I was listening to a very notable lady, who probably
had never been in a police court. She was arguing that women were much
better adapted for ‘rescue work’ than men. She may have been right, but
I do not think she was; at any rate, her reason was quite wrong--‘women
can see through people better than men.’ If this is true, the measure
of their knowledge is the measure of their unfitness. Men may be the
more credulous; if so, they have more faith and hope. I can see through
no one. I do not want to. I am not worse than the average male, but I
would not like anyone to see through me; and quite certain am I that
I would not like to rake anyone fore and aft with mental rays. Many a
time I have shut my eyes that I might not see, for I have learned to be
pitiful. And this is the great lesson to be learned in a London police
court. Wonder may be felt, resentment may be raised, but pity, deep and
abiding, is the feeling that is bound to fill the heart of any lover of
men that attends a police court regularly.
The public generally do not know the various uses to which a court is
put; the poor and the unfortunate do know, for it is the rendezvous of
the distressed. Let me give an idea of a day’s routine, not as regards
the duties of the different officials, but merely as the day’s work
reflects the outside world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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