The Sister of Charity (Volume 1); Or, from Bermendsey to Belgravia (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857. Excerpt: ... faith in this city of palaces, and his experience of this civilized centralization of happiness. Perhaps the region on the Surrey side of the Thames is never' more demonstrative of its own peculiar life than on a hot summer's evening. The hive then sends forth its myriads; some to breathe the heavily laden air, others to bargain at the shops where the tale of competition is told in the ticketed trash they contain. The clamorous stalls put in their discordant claim to the notice of the passers by on the dusty pavement against which they set up their moveable market of stale fish, and tainted fruit and vegetables. The innumerable gin-palaces and public-houses, are alight with the flaring gas; they stand, as snares, at every corner. Their horrible glare is a delusive brilliance to the many who enter the ever open door; there is scarcely a distinction of sex or age among the hundreds who cross the threshold, or stand about in crowds, sometimes gossiping and sometimes quarrelling, on the pavement outside. The theatres, too, are open and placarded with all that can pander to the diseased appetite of a degraded population. Hero thieves, murderous mothers, convict martyrs;--the morality of the drama is very morbid on this Surrey side the water, and within an easy walk of an Archliishop's palace. And surely if the great Social Eeform deal adequately with the young, there is enough work to do; judging by the hordes of filthy, ill-looking, and ragged urchins hereabouts. They swarm at every turn; sometimes looking out for an opportunity o excercise the only handicraft they have ever learned, or, if giving vent to the joyousness of the young free-born Briton, setting up a shout of exultation or execration, one almost equally discordant with the other, and thereb...