Tales of Mean Streets

te and shabby costume, usually supplemented by a white apron. Withal she was something of a beauty. That is to say, her cheeks were very red, her teeth were very large and white, her nose was small a

carried his hands in his breeches pockets; and he lived with his mother, who mangled. His conversation with Lizerunt consisted long of perfunctory nods; but great things happened this especial Thursday evening, as Lizerunt, making for home, followed the

tly pleased: “le’ go!” For

er auf t

Le’ go;” and she snatched

he feigned to dodge by him, careful not to b

ing his dance and becoming busine

you go ‘long o’ Beller Daws

e ain’t no good. I’m go

ge peel at her, but went away after a little prancing on the pavement. Sam was a smarter fellow than Billy, and earned his own living; probably his attentions were serious; but one must prefer the bird in hand. As for Billy Chope, he went

he Holly Tree on Whit Monday morning. But through hours on hours of fried fish and half-pints both were conscious of a deficiency. For the hat of Lizerunt was brown and old; plush it was not, and its feather was a mere foot long and of a very rusty black. Now, it is not decent for a factory girl from Limehouse to go bank-holidaying under any but a hat of plush, very high in the crown, of a wild blue or a wilder green, and carrying withal an ostrich feather, pink or scarlet or what not; a feather that springs from the fore-part, climbs the crown, and drops as far down the shoulders as may be. Lizerunt knew this, and, had she had no bloke, would have stayed

with piercing shrieks, until her bloke was left some little way behind, and Sam Cardew, turning up at that moment, and seeing her running alone in the crowd, t

r for a fight than Billy was; but the sum of Billy’s half-pints was large: wherefore the fight began. On the skirt of a hilarious ring Lizerunt, after some small outcry, triumphed alou

flung himself down; and it was like to go hard with him at the hands of the crowd. Punch you may on Wanstead Flats, but execration and worse is your portion if you kick anybody except your wife. But, as the ring closed, the helmets of two po

e was proud of the adventure. Billy was all very well; but Sam was better. She resolved to draw him for a feathered hat before next bank holiday. So the sun went down on her

g, and made off to the sound of her lamentations. She did not see who it was, but she knew; and next day Sam Cardew was swearing he’d break Billy’s back. He did not however, for that same evening a gang of seven or eight fell on him with sticks and belts. (They were Causeway chaps, while Sam was a Brady’s Laner,

izerunt was getting a little tired of bandages. Also, she had begun to doubt and to consider bank holiday — scarce a fortnight off. For Sam was stone broke, and a plush hat was further away than ever. And all through the later of these weeks Billy Chope was harder than ever on his

feather hats, and Lizerunt was lingering hereabouts one evening, when some one t

. She pulled herself away, and backed off

, “I’ll sport yer one

nt once ‘more. “Wot

d the bluest of all the feathers; a hat that challenged all the Flats the next bank holiday, a hat for which no girl need have hesitated to sell her soul. As for

e blessing of a benignant rector, who periodically set aside a day for free wedding

i

interest in the affair, not having seen her daughter for a year, and happening, at the time, to have a month’s engagement in respect of a drunk and disorderly. So that there were but three of them; and Billy Chope got exceedingly ti

Chope her earning capacity would not diminish; and the wages would make a very respectable addition to the precarious revenue, depending on the mangle, that Billy extort

-law, took a little breaking in, and a liberal renewal of the manual treatment once applied in her courting

n occasion lead to discomfort of a material sort. And Billy, to whose comprehension the half-crown opened a new field of receipt, would doubtless have long remained a client of the rector, had not that zealot hastened to discover a vacancy for a warehouse porter, the offer of presentation whereunto alienated Billy Chope forever. But there were meetings an

absurd procedure, as Billy pointed out, since, if they were unable to clothe or feed it, the duty would fall on its grandmother. That was law, and nobo

y’s mother at the mangle for long. This lasted for near a week, when Billy, rising

Wot for?”

t it. None

t,” said Liz

a bleed’

yer

hroat and forced her back over a chair. “I’ll pull yer face

mother ran in and threw her arms about him, dragging him away. “Don’t, Billy!” she said, in terror.

er ‘ands auf me,” he said; “go on, or I’ll gi’ ye somethin’ for y

money,” the mother said. “But don’t go an’ git

a bloomin’ kid? I mean ‘a

’ it for the re

ted the two shillings. “I ain’t settled with you yut, my gal,” he add

nd slow, had got as far as the passage. Mistaking this

she obstructed him, entreating him not to get in trouble, he attempted to kick again in a more telling spot.

howling; but her only articulate c

n his path: for he knew the fate of such processions. With a few others he hung about the nearest tavern for awhile, on the chance of the advent of a flush sailor from St. Katherine’s, disposed to treat out-o’-workers. Then he

gle stood, there were no signs of dinner. And this was at thr

faintly, from her bed

s a measly snipe.” It was a blind, hairless humunculus, short of a foot long, with a skinny face set in a great skul

responded, hazily

id me. You git up; go

r. “Doctor had to slap ’im like anythink

do’ want no more dam

said, at the door. She had begun when h

e? She ain’t no call to stop there no longer, an’ I owe ‘er

Lizer sniveled and said: “You’re a damn b

ctor’s dispenser, a fourth-year London Hospital student of many inches, who had been washing his hands in the kitchen, came in. For a moment he failed to

You touch my ‘usband, ye long pisenin’ ‘ound you! Ow!” And, infirm of aim, she flung a cracked teacup at his head. Billy’s mother said: “Y’ought to be ashamed of yourse

’d have killed her.” Th

f you come near me I’ll corpse

She’ll kill herself. I’ll go. Perhaps the doctor had better Come.” And he we

i

e household where paid help is a rarity that the bitterness of servitude is felt. Also, the uncertainty and irregularity of the returns were a trouble to Billy Chope. He was never sure of having got them all. It might be ninepence, or a shilling, or eighteenpence. Once or twice, to his knowledge, it had been half a crown, from a chance job at a doctor’s or a parson’s, and once it was three shillings. That it

s as a sack’s. At home, the children lay in her arms or tumbled at her heels, puling and foul. Whenever she was near it, there was the mangle to be turned; for lately Billy’s mother had exhibited a strange weakness, sometimes collapsing with a gasp in the act of brisk or prolonged exertion, and often leaning

l fire in the front room smoking his pipe, while his mother folded clothes for delivery. He stamped twice on the hearth, and then, drawing off his boot, he felt inside it. It was a nail. The poker-head made a good anvil, and, looking about for a hammer, B

t, Billy.” And she made a nervous catch at the screw of paper. But Billy fended her off, and tore the package open. It was money, arranged in little columns of farthings, halfpence, and three penny pi

be some money for them things when they go ‘ome —‘ave that. I’m sav

“savin’ it for a good ol’ booze. An’ now you won’t ‘ave on

ppens to me. On’y to put me away decent, Billy, that’s all. We never

’ve got it. You ain’t a dyin’ sort, you ain’t; an’ if you was, the parish

some, an’ then ‘ave the money for the things. There’s ten

t that. ‘Ere — change these ’ere fardens at the draper’s wen you go out: there

she had in her arms. When Billy’s mother, despondent and tearful, had tramped out into the rain with a pile of clothe

. “You shutcher ‘ead,” he said, “I got this any’ow. She can make it up out o’ my rent if she likes.” This last remark was a joke, and he chu

runk in the front room by the mangle, and the eldest child lay in a floor-bed near her. Early in the morning Lizer awoke at a sudden outcry of the little creature. He clawed at the han

!” was all the child could say; and when he

aightway came a scream from her also. “Oh, oh

wed in Lizer’s wake. He blundere

ce, strained in an upward stare of painful surprise, stood sharp and meager against the black of the grate b

or, recoiled from the corpse, and gl

croaked, faintly

r head across the body, presently broke into a storm of hysterical blubberin

s a bad change for the worse. There was the mangle, but who was to work it? If Lizer did there would be no more charing jobs — a clear loss of one third of his income. And it was not at all certain that the people who had given their mangling to his mother would give it to Lizer. Indeed, it was prett

idea of a collection among the jury, which Billy communicated, with pitiful representations, to the coroner’s officer, was brutally swept a

mong the local widows. Neglect the children as Lizer might, she could no longer leave them as she ha

“‘Ere,” he said, one night, “I’ve ‘ad enough

“Oh, yus. That’s easy, ain’t it?

don’t car

ith wide eyes, “d’ye think I can

Plenty others d

lly! wot

you ain’t so bleed’n’ innocent as all th

e child’s floor-bed, rose to her f

ean that. I’ll go round to the fact’ry in the

the fa

n — you git me some money, if ye don’

ws, a few broken words, and a sob. Then the door slammed,