Transcribed from the [1869] edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] [Picture: Yours truly James Greenwood (picture of Greenwood)] THE SEVEN CURSES OF LONDON. * * * * * BY JAMES GREENWOOD, The “Amateur Casual.” * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * LONDON: STANLEY RIVERS AND CO. CONTENTS. I. Neglected Children. CHAPTER I. STARTLING FACTS. The Pauper Population.—Pauper Children.—Opinions page 1 concerning their proper Treatment.—A Hundred Thousand Children loose in London Streets.—Neglected Babies.—Juvenile “Market Prowlers” CHAPTER II. RESPECTING THE PARENTAGE OF SOME OF OUR GUTTER POPULATION. Who are the Mothers?—The Infant Labour-Market.—Watch p. 13 London and Blackfriars Bridges.—The Melancholy Types.—The Flashy, Flaunting “Infant.”—Keeping Company.—Marriage.—The Upshot CHAPTER III. BABY-FARMING. “Baby-Farmers” and Advertising “Child-Adopters.”—“F. X.” p. 29 of Stepney.—The Author’s Interview with Farmer Oxleek.—The Case of Baby Frederick Wood CHAPTER IV. WORKING BOYS. The London Errand-Boy.—His Drudgery and Privations.—His p. 58 Temptations.—The London Boy after Dark.—The Amusements provided for him CHAPTER V. THE PROBLEM OF DELIVERANCE. Curious Problem.—The best Method of Treatment.—The “Child p. 76 of the Gutter” not to be entirely abolished.—The genuine Alley-bred Arab.—The Poor Lambs of the Ragged Flock.—The Tree of Evil in our midst.—The Breeding Places of Disease and Vice II. Professional Thieves. CHAPTER VI. THEIR NUMBER AND DIFFICULTIES. Twenty Thousand Thieves in London.—What it means.—The p. 85 Language of “Weeds.”—Cleverness of the Pilfering Fraternity.—A Protest against a barbarous Suggestion.—The Prisoner’s great Difficulty.—The Moment of Leaving Prison.—Bad Friends.—What becomes of Good Resolutions and the Chaplain’s Counsel?—The Criminal’s Scepticism of Human Goodness.—Life in “Little Hell.”—The Cow-Cross Mission. CHAPTER VII. HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE BRITISH THIEF. The Three Classes of Thieving Society.—Popular p. 108 Misapprehensions.—A True Picture of the London Thief.—A Fancy Sketch of the “Under-ground Cellar.”—In Disguise at a Thieves’ Raffle.—The Puzzle of “Black Maria.”—Mr.