Pictures and Problems from London Police CourtsHolmes, Thomas
History
Pictures and Problems from London Police Courts
Holmes, Thomas
Crime -- England -- London; Poor -- England -- London
After a couple of hours’ sleep Hurley woke up. She knew where she was,
and said to me, ‘You see, I have come. What are you going to do with
me?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘when you have had a wash we are going to give
you some tea. Take her upstairs, mamma.’ And she was taken to her own
room. She gave my wife the letter, which had been carefully preserved
for two months in her stocking, from which safe hiding-place she took
it. A complete change of clothing was given her, and she came down to
tea. She had no airs or graces like Cakebread, so the tea passed off
quietly; but I could see plainly that my wife felt a little bit afraid
of her. In appearance Hurley was enough to frighten a delicate woman,
but in reality she was most tractable, exceedingly well-behaved, and
one of the best workers I ever knew; there was no holding her back:
work was her glory and her joy. For the first time in our married life
my wife began to have an easy time, for Hurley anticipated everything,
and left but the lightest work undone. She was almost too industrious,
for while standing on some steps cleaning a window, she slipped and
fell, and all at once the house rang with horrid imprecations. My wife
rushed to see what was the matter. Hurley was just gathering herself
up, cursing as only such a woman can curse, and between times calling
out: ‘It’s out again! it’s out again!’ The matter was that her right
arm had been dislocated so often in her struggles with the police and
others, that it did not take much to put it out of joint, and, as
she had fallen on it, this result had ensued. Fortunately, Tottenham
Hospital was close at hand, and there my wife took her, Hurley using
bad language all the way. After a few hours’ detention she came back to
us, with her arm and shoulder so tightly bandaged that she could not
use it in the least. Being her right arm, it prevented her doing much
work, and this rather upset her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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