Part 17 (2/2)
1 Lady-bird--A das.h.i.+ng Cyprian.
2 The term friend is in constant use among accessible ladies, and signifies their protector or keeper.
~140~~”'Tis a very delightful tragedy indeed, but performed in the most comical manner I ever witnessed in my life.”
”Pshaw!” said Bob, ”very few indeed, except the critics and the plebs, come here to look at the play; they come to see and be seen.”
”Egad then,” said Bob, ”a great many have been gratified to-night, and perhaps I have been highly honoured, for every person that has pa.s.sed me has complimented me with a stare.”
”Which of course you did not fail to return?”
”Certainly not; and upon my soul you have a choice show of fruit here.”
”Yes,” continued Tom, ”London is a sort of hot-house, where fruit is forced into ripeness by the fostering and liberal sun of Folly, sooner than it would be, if left to its natural growth. Here however, you observe nothing but joyful and animated features, while perhaps the vulture of misery is gnawing at the heart. I could give you histories of several of these unfortunates,{1}
1 A life of prost.i.tution is a life fraught with too many miseries to be collected in any moderate compa.s.s. The mode in which they are treated, by parties who live upon the produce of their infamy, the rude and boisterous, nay, often brutal manner in which they are used by those with whom they occasionally a.s.sociate, and the horrible reflections of their own minds, are too frequently and too fatally attempted to be obliterated by recourse to the Baccha.n.a.lian fount. Reason becomes obscured, and all decency and propriety abandoned. Pa.s.sion rules predominantly until it extinguishes itself, and leaves the wretched victim of early delusion, vitiated both in body and mind, to drag on a miserable existence, without character, without friends, and almost without hope. There is unfortunately, however, no occasion for the exercise of imagination on this subject.
The annals of our police occurrences, furnish too many examples of actual circ.u.mstances, deeply to be deplored; and we have selected one of a most atrocious kind which recently took place, and is recorded as follows:--
_Prost.i.tution_.
”An unfortunate girl, apparently about eighteen years of age, and of the most interesting and handsome person, but whose attire indicated extreme poverty and distress, applied to the sitting magistrate, Richard Bimie, Esq. under the following circ.u.m-stances:--It appeared from the statement, that she had for the last three weeks been living at a house of ill fame in Exeter-street, Strand, kept by a man named James Locke: this wretch had exacted the enormous sum of three guineas per week for her board and lodging, and in consequence of her not being able to pay the sum due for the last week, he threatened to strip her of her cloaths, and turn her naked into the street. This threat he deferred executing until yesterday morning (having in the mean time kept her locked up in a dark room, without any covering whatever,) when in lieu of her cloaths, he gave her the tattered and loathsome garments she then appeared in, which were barely sufficient to preserve common decency, and then brutally turned her into the street. Being thus plunged into the most abject wretchedness, without money or friends, to whom she could apply in her present situation, her bodily strength exhausted by the dissipated life she had led, and rendered more so by a long abstinence from food; her spirits broken and overcome by the bitter and humiliating reflection, that her own guilty conduct debarred her from flying to the fostering arms of affectionate parents, whom she had loaded with disgrace and misery; and the now inevitable exposure of her infamy, it was some time ere her wandering senses were sufficiently composed to determine what course she should pursue in the present emergency, when she thought she could not do better than have recourse to the justice of her country against the villain Lock, who had so basely treated her; and after extreme pain and difficulty, she succeeded in dragging her enfeebled limbs to the Office. During the detail of the foregoing particulars, she seemed overwhelmed with shame and remorse, and at times sobbed so violently as to render her voice inarticulate. Her piteous case excited the attention and sympathy of all present; and it was much to the general satisfaction that Mr. Bimie ordered Humphries, one of the conductors of the Patrol, to fetch Lock to the Office. On being brought there, the necessary proceedings were gone into for the purpose of indicting the house as a common brothel.
”It was afterwards discovered that this unhappy girl was of the most respectable parents, and for the last six years had been residing with her Aunt. About three months ago, some difference having arisen between them, she absconded, taking with her only a few s.h.i.+llings, and the clothes she then wore. The first night of her remaining from home she went to Drury-lane Theatre, and was there pick'd up by a genteel woman dressed in black, who having learned her situation, enticed her to a house in Hart-street, Covent-garden, where the ruin of the poor girl was finally effected. It was not until she had immersed herself in vice and folly that she reflected on her situation, and it was then too late to retract; and after suffering unheard of miseries, was, in the short s.p.a.ce of three months, reduced to her present state of wretchedness.
”The worthy Magistrate ordered that proper care should be taken of the girl, which was readily undertaken on the part of the parish.
”The Prisoner set up a defence, in which he said, a friend of the girl's owed him 14L. and that he detained her clothes for it--but was stopped by Mr. Bimie.
”He at first treated the matter very lightly; but on perceiving the determination on the part of the parish to proceed, he offered to give up the things. This however he was not allowed to do.”
(who are exercising all their arts to entrap customers) apparently full of life and vivacity, who perhaps dare not approach ~142~~their homes without the produce of their successful blandishments. But this is not a place for moralizing--a truce to Old Care and the Blue Devils--Come on, my boy, let us take a turn in the Lobby--
”Banish sorrow, griefs a folly; Saturn, bend thy wrinkled brow; Get thee hence, dull Melancholy, Mirth and wine invite us now.
Love displays his mine of treasure, Comus brings us mirth and song!; Follow, follow, follow pleasure, Let us join the jovial throng.”
Upon this they adjourned to the Lobby, where a repet.i.tion of similar circ.u.mstances took place, with only this difference, that Tally ho having already been seen in the Saloon, and now introduced, leaning upon the arm of his Cousin, the enticing G.o.ddesses of pleasure hung around them at every step, every one anxious to be foremost in their a.s.siduities to catch the new-comer's smile; and the odds were almost a cornucopia to a cabbage-net that Bob would be hook'd.
Tom was still evidently disappointed, and after pacing the Lobby once or twice, and whispering Bob to make his observations the subject of future inquiry, they returned to the Saloon, where Sparkle met them almost out of breath, declaring he had been hunting them in all parts of the House for the last half hour.
Tom laugh'd heartily at this, and complimented Sparkle on the ingenuity with which he managed his affairs. ”But I see how it is,” said he, ”and I naturally suppose you are engaged.”
”'Suspicion ever haunts the guilty mind,' and I perceive clearly that you are only disappointed that you are not engaged--where are all your _golden_{1} dreams now?”
”Pshaw! there is no such thing as speaking to you,” said Tom, rather peevishly, ”without feeling a lash like a cart-whip.”
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