THE STREET PROWLERS OF LONDON.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 634, 10 February 1870, Page 4

THE STREET PROWLERS OF LONDON.

Itmay be mentioned as a contribution towards solving the riddle, "How do these hundred thousand street prowlers contrive to exist 1" that they draw a considerable amount of their " sustenance : fFOm-; the : markets. And really it would seem that* by some miraculous dispensation of Providence, garbage was for their ;sake robbed of its poisonous properties, and endowed with virtues, such as .wholesome food possesses, Did the reader ever seethe young, market-hunters at Bnch a " feed" say in the month, .of August or- September. ? It is a'spectacle only to be witnes3od : byearly risers who can set as far as CQjsent Garden by the time that the wholesale dealing in ' the op^n. fa^Hs slack.— which will be .about eiigh't o'clock ; arid it is not to be believed unless it is seen. They will gather about a : mtick-lieap and gobble iip pluiris,ia sweltering mass of decay, and oranges and ; apples that .have quite .lost their original shape and color, with the avidity of ducks oi'ipigs. I speak according to my knowledge, tor 1 have seeri-them atit. ; I have seen one of these gaunt, wolfish little children with his tattered cap full of plUina of a sor', one of which I would not have permitted a child of mine to eat for all the money in the Mint, and thia at a Baason when; the saiiiiary authorities, in : their desperate alarm at the spread of cholera, have tnrnedibill-stickers, and were begging and imploring the people to abstain from this, that, and the othor, aud especially to bewar6 of fruit unless perfectly sound arid. ripe. Judging from the . eatneßtne^*- Svith which this last provision was urged, there must have been cholera enough to have, .slain a dozen Strong "men in treats littler ragamuffin's cap, and yetjhe munched o*- till that frowsy reqaptiicle was empty, fin illy licking his" fingers with a, relish. It wa3 not for me ' ityf^rcibly-di^iosseks^ the boy of a prize that made h.im the envy of his plumleas companions, but I spoke to the market beadle about it, asking hiri> if it would not be possible, knowing the propensities of the p«>or little wretches, ao to dispc se of theppisonoufj offal that Irtjey could not get, at. it;; but he ; i')Bplied : that; it:- l:ad : nothing to di) \vitli ; lumwliat'th^eat so long m they kept thpir handa from pick

ing and stealing ; furthermore, he politely intimated that "unless I had nothing better to do," there was no call for we to trouble myself about, the "little warmint," whom nothing would hurt. He oonfided to me his private 1 belief that they were " made inside something after the orsestrech, and nails wouldn't come amiss to.Senfyjjl t^jfqotilcl only get 'em down." . Ho*Qyer» and although the eviderice was rather' in. theaagatious market beadla's favor^. t "waa unconverted from my original ; ppinionv and here take the liberty of, urging on any official of Oovent Gai den .or Fiirringdon market . : wh> may happen to raad these pager, tie policy of adopting my suggestion a,a to the safe bestowal of fruit offal during the sickly season. That great danger is incurred by allowing it to be consumed as it now is there cannot be a question. Perhaps it is. too much to assume that the poor little beings whom hunger prompts to feed off garbage do so with impunity, It is not improbable that, in ; uiany cases, they slink home to die in" their holes as poisoned rats do. That they are never missed from the market is no proof of the contrary. Their identification is next to for they are as like each other as apples in & seive; or peas in apod. Moreover, to tell their number is out of the question. It is' as incomprehensible as is their nature, .^They^ swarm as : bees do, and arduous indeed' would be the task of the individual who undertook to reckon up the small fry of a single alley of the hundreds that abound in Squalor's regions, They are of as small account in the public estimation as stray, street curs, and, like therr^ it is only where they evince a propensity for barking and biting that their existence is recognised. Should death to-morrow morning make a clean sweep of the unsightly little scavengers who grove! for. a meal amongst the market offal!, next day would ace the said heaps just as industriously surrounded.— "The Seven Curses of London," rby James Greenwood, the Amateur Casual.