Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II.
“Dear creatures, we can't do without them,
They're all that is sweet and seducing to man,
Looking, sighing about, and about them,
We doat on them--do for them, all that we can.”
The play being over, brought a considerable influx of company into
the Saloon. The regular covies paired off with their covesses, and the
moving panorama of elegance and fashion presented a scene that was truly
delightful to Bob.
The Ladybird, who had been so attentive to the gouty customer, now
wished him a good night, for, said she, “There is my friend,{2} and so I
am off.” This seemed only to increase the agony of his already agonized
toe, notwithstanding which he presently toddled off, and was seen no
more for the evening.
“What's become of Sparkle,” enquired Tom. “Stole away,” was the reply.
“Tipp'd us the double, has he,” said Dashall. “Well, what think you of
Drury-lane?”
1 Lady-bird--A dashing 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 passed 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 prostitution is a life fraught with too many
miseries to be collected in any moderate compass. 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 associate, and the horrible reflections of
their own minds, are too frequently and too fatally
attempted to be obliterated by recourse to the Bacchanalian
fount. Reason becomes obscured, and all decency and
propriety abandoned. Passion 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 circumstances, deeply to be deplored; and
we have selected one of a most atrocious kind which recently
took place, and is recorded as follows:--
_Prostitution_.
“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 circum-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 shillings, 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 space 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 repetition of similar
circumstances 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 goddesses of pleasure hung
around them at every step, every one anxious to be foremost in their
assiduities 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.”
1 This was a touch of the satirical which it appears did not
exactly suit the taste of Dashall, as it applied to the
Ladybird who had attracted his attention on entering the
house.
~143~~“Merely in return,” continued Sparkle, “for the genteel, not to
say gentle manner, in which you handle the horse-whip.”
“There is something very mulish in all this,” said Bob, interrupting the
conversation, “I don't understand it.”
“Nor I neither,” said Tom, leaving the arm of his Cousin, and stepping
forward.
This hasty dismissal of the subject under debate had been occasioned by
the appearance of a Lady, whose arm Tom immediately took upon leaving
that of his cousin, a circumstance which seemed to restore harmony to
all parties. Tallyho and Sparkle soon joined them, and after a few turns
for the purpose of seeing, and being seen, it was proposed to adjourn
to the Oyster-shop directly opposite the front of the Theatre; and with
that view they in a short time departed, but not without an addition of
two other ladies, selected from the numerous frequenters of the Saloon,
most of whom appeared to be well known both to Tom and Sparkle.
The appearance of the outside was very pleasing--the brilliance of the
lights--the neat and cleanly style in which its contents were displayed
seemed inviting to appetite, and in a very short time a cheerful repast
was served up; while the room was progressively filling with company,
and Mother P----was kept in constant activity.
Bob was highly gratified with the company, and the manner in which they
were entertained.
A vast crowd of dashing young Beaux and elegantly dressed Belles,
calling about them for oysters, lobsters, salmon, shrimps, bread
and butter, soda-water, ginger-beer, &c. kept up a sort of running
accompaniment to the general conversation in which they were engaged;
when the mirth and hilarity of the room was for a moment delayed upon
the appearance of a dashing Blade, who seemed as he entered to say to
himself,
“Plebeians, avaunt! I have altered my plan, Metamorphosed completely,
behold a Fine Man! That is, throughout town I am grown quite the rage,
The meteor of fashion, the Buck of the age.”
He was dressed in the extreme of fashion, and seemed desirous of
imparting the idea of his great importance to all around him: he had
a light-coloured great-coat with immense mother o' pearl buttons
and double ~144~~capes, Buff or Petersham breeches, and coat of
_sky-blue_,{1} his hat cocked on one side, and stout ground-ashen stick