The People of the Abyss

the East End of London. "You had better see the police for a guide," they added, on second thought, painfully endeavouring

ast End and see things for myself. I wish to know how those people are living there, and why t

isapprobation writ large upon their faces. "Why, it is said

es I wish to s

u know," was the u

tled by their incomprehension. "I am a stranger here, and I want you to tell me

omewhere." And they waved their hands vaguely in the dire

go to Cook's

with relief. "Cook's

t aid to bewildered travellers-unhesitatingly and instantly, with ease and celerity, could you send me to Darkest Africa or

n emporium of routes and fares at Cook's C

e are not accustomed to taking travellers to the East End; we receive no cal

is flood of negations. "Here's something you can do for me. I wish you to understand in

rdered, we would be in posit

aver stretched upon a slab where cool waters trickle ceaselessly, and him I saw bending over and

t into a scrape with the 'bobbies.'" This last I said wit

atter for the considerat

ted, you know," he a

d. "We make it a rule," he explained, "to g

the client who requests you to give

hemmed

anticipated, "I know it

steadily, "it is unprecedented, and I d

ss." There was no hemming and hawing, no lifted brows, open incredulity, or blank amazement. In one minute I explained myself and my project, which he accepted as a matter of course. In th

of which nobody seemed to know anything. But at once I encountered a new difficulty in the shape of my cabby, a

he East End," I ord

e demanded with

t End, anyw

en came to a puzzled stop. The aperture above my head was

id, "wot plyce

owhere in particular. Just

the haddr

. "Drive me down to the

erstand, but he withdrew his head,

ed or beer-sodden appearance. We rolled along through miles of bricks and squalor, and from each cross street and alley flashed long vistas of bricks and misery. Here and there lurched a drunken man or woman, and the air was obscene with sounds of jangling and squabbling. At a market, tottery old men and women we

I could see were the solid walls of brick, the slimy pavements, and the screaming streets; and for the first time in my life the fear of the crowd smote me. It was like the

pney Station," the

nd he had driven desperately to it as the one famil

," I

able. "I'm a strynger 'ere," he managed to articulate. "An' if yer

out for a shop where old clothes are sold. Now, when you see such a sh

long afterwards he pulled up to the curb and informed me th

pleaded. "There's se

nd it would be the l

he last I see of you if yer

gathered around the cab, and I laughed aga

bring to light heaps of old ones, looking mysterious the while and hinting darkly. This he did with the palpable intention of letting me know that he had "piped my lay," in order to bulldose me, through f

he end I selected a pair of stout though well-worn trousers, a frayed jacket with one remaining button, a pair of brogans which had plainly seen service where coal was shovelled, a thin leather

or the outfit. "Blimey, if you ain't ben up an' down Petticut Lane afore now. Yer trouseys is wuth five bob to hany man, an

nly. "I paid you ten bob for the lot, and I'll sell th

ugh I had made a good bargain, I was unple

, turned away and left the cabby to wax mutinous by himself. And not a step would he budge till I paid him the seven shillings and sixpence owing him. Whereupon

for their lightness and comfort), and my soft, grey travelling suit, and, in fact, all my clothing; and proceeded to array myself in the clothes of t

t myself. And then I sat down and moralised upon the fair years and fat, which had made my skin soft and brought the nerves close to the surface; for the s

et my feet into them at all. Then, with a few shillings, a knife, a handkerchief, and some brown papers and flake tobacco stowed away in my pockets, I thumped down the stairs and said good-bye to my foreboding friends. As I paused out

rtisement of my class, which was their class. It made me of like kind, and in place of the fawning and too respectful attention I had hitherto received, I now shared with them a comradeship. The man in corduroy and dirty neckerchief no longer addressed me as "sir" or "governor." It was "mate" now-and a fine and hearty word, with

om the States, who is not a Croesus, speedily finds himself reduced to a chronic state of self-conscious sordidness by the hordes of cr

f equality. Nay, before the day was out I turned the tables, and said, most gratefully, "Tha

cles, and it was strikingly impressed upon me that my life had cheapened in direct ratio with my clothes. When before I inquired the way of a policeman, I was usually a

were. When loungers and workmen, at street corners and in public-houses, talked with me, they talked as one man to another, and they

unted me. I had become a part of it. The vast and malodorous sea had welled up and over me, or I had slipp