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LONDON'S UNDERWORLD
by Thomas Holmes
(Secretary of the Howard Association)
(1912)
*
PREFACE
I am hopeful that some of the experiences given in the following
chapters may throw a little light upon some curious but very
serious social problems. Corporate humanity always has had, and
always will have, serious problems to consider.
The more civilised we become the more complex and serious will be
our problems--unless sensible and merciful yet thorough methods
are adopted for dealing with the evils. I think that my pages
will show that the methods now in use for coping with some of our
great evils do not lessen, but considerably increase the evils
they seek to cure.
With great diffidence I venture to point out what I conceive to
be reasons for failure, and also to offer some suggestions that,
if adopted, will, I believe, greatly minimise, if not remove,
certain evils.
I make no claim to prophetic wisdom; I know no royal road to
social salvation, nor of any specific to cure all human sorrow
and smart.
But I have had a lengthened and unique experience. I have
closely observed, and I have deeply pondered. I have seen,
therefore I ask that the experiences narrated, the statements
made, and the views expressed in this book may receive earnest
consideration, not only from those who have the temerity to read
it, but serious consideration also from our Statesmen and local
authorities, from our Churches and philanthropists, from our men
of business and from men of the world.
For truly we are all deeply concerned in the various matters
which are dealt with in "London's Underworld."
THOMAS HOLMES.
12, Bedford Road,
Tottenham, N.
*
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I MY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES
II LONDON'S UNDERWORLD
III THE NOMADS.
IV LODGING-HOUSES
V FURNISHED APARTMENTS
VI THE DISABLED
VII WOMEN IN THE UNDERWORLD
VIII MARRIAGE IN THE UNDERWORLD
IX BRAINS IN THE UNDERWORLD
X PLAY IN THE UNDERWORLD
XI ON THE VERGE OF THE UNDERWORLD
XII IN PRISONS OFT
XIII UNEMPLOYED AND UNEMPLOYABLE
XIV SUGGESTIONS.
*
LONDON'S UNDERWORLD
CHAPTER I
MY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES
The odds and ends of humanity, so plentiful in London's great
city, have for many years largely constituted my circle of
friends and acquaintances.
They are strange people, for each of them is, or was, possessed
of some dominating vice, passion, whim or weakness which made him
incapable of fulfilling the ordinary duties of respectable
citizenship.
They had all descended from the Upper World, to live out strange
lives, or die early deaths in the mysterious but all pervading
world below the line.
Some of them I saw, as it were, for a moment only; suddenly out
of the darkness they burst upon me; suddenly the darkness again
received them out of my sight.
But our acquaintance was of sufficient duration to allow me to
acquire some knowledge, and to gain some experience of lives more
than strange, and of characters far removed from the ordinary.
But with others I spent many hours, months, or years as
circumstances warranted, or as opportunities
permitted. Some of them became my intimates; and though seven
long years have passed since I gave up police-court duties, our
friendship bears the test of time, for they remain my friends and
acquaintances still.
But some have passed away, and others are passing; one by one my
list of friends grows less, and were it not that I, even now,
pick up a new friend or two, I should run the risk of being a
lonely old man. Let me confess, however, that my friends have
brought me many worries, have caused me much disappointment, have
often made me very angry. Sometimes, I must own, they have
caused me real sorrow and occasionally feelings of utter despair.
But I have had my compensations, we have had our happy times, we
have even known our merry moments.
Though pathos has permeated all our intercourse, humour and
comedy have never been far away; though sometimes tragedy has
been in waiting.
But over one and all of my friends hung a great mystery, a
mystery that always puzzled and sometimes paralysed me, a mystery
that always set me to thinking.
Now many of my friends were decent and good-hearted fellows; yet
they were outcasts. Others were intelligent, clever and even
industrious, quite capable of holding their own with respectable
men, still they were helpless.
Others were fastidiously honest in some things, yet they were
persistent rogues who could not see the wrong or folly of
dishonesty; many of them were clear-headed in ninety-nine
directions, but in the hundredth they were muddled if not
mentally blind.
Others had known and appreciated the comforts of refined life,
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