The experiences related in this volume fell to me in the summer of 1902. I went down into the under-world of London with an attitude of mind which I may best liken to that of the explorer. I was open to be convinced by the evidence of my eyes, rather than by the teachings of those who had not seen, or by the words of those who had seen and gone before. Further, I took with me certain simple criteria with which to measure the life of the under-world. That which made for more life, for physical and spiritual health, was good; that which made for less life, which hurt, and dwarfed, and distorted life, was bad.
The People of the Abyss
The chief priests and rulers cry:—
“O Lord and Master, not ours the guilt,
We build but as our fathers built;
Behold thine images how they stand
Sovereign and sole through all our land.
“Our task is hard — with sword and flame,
To hold thine earth forever the same,
And with sharp crooks of steel to keep,
Still as thou leftest them, thy sheep.”
Then Christ sought out an artisan,
A low-browed, stunted, haggard man,
And a motherless girl whose fingers thin
Crushed from her faintly want and sin.
These set he in the midst of them,
And as they drew back their garment hem
For fear of defilement, “Lo, here,” said he,
“The images ye have made of me.”
James Russell Lowell.
The People of the Abyss
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Preface
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Chapter 1 The Descent
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Chapter 2 Johnny Upright
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Chapter 3 My Lodging and Some Others
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Chapter 4 A Man and the Abyss
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Chapter 5 Those on the Edge
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Chapter 6 Frying-Pan Alley and a Glimpse of Inferno
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Chapter 7 A Winner of the Victoria Cross
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Chapter 8 The Carter and the Carpenter
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Chapter 9 The Spike
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Chapter 10 Carrying the Banner
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Chapter 11 The Peg
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Chapter 12 Coronation Day
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Chapter 13 Dan Cullen, Docker
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Chapter 14 Hops and Hoppers
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Chapter 15 The Sea Wife
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Chapter 16 Property Versus Person
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Chapter 17 Inefficiency
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Chapter 18 Wages
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