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'A LADY'S LETTER FROM LONDON.
[By Elise].
Loxdon*, October 1 1 . Duaii Mr Editor. -The cold weather has set in unusually early, and we arc evidently going to experience another long and bitter winter. What will happen if the Vi hitcchapel murderer or murdorers are not caught before " thesombrous c eason of fogs •wraps London in its Cimmerian iolds," I dread to think. Cold, hungor, and darkness am bad enough for the poor East End unfortunates to have to bear, without an ever - haunting fear of murder and suddon death superadded. They say the bye-ways of Whitechapel have been quite deserted since the lasfc crime, or crimes. The miserable women who used to frequent them dare, not leave the well-lighted main streets. As for rescue homo* and Magdalen institutions, they hae,filied to overflowing. The womeiuwill not scay in thorn lonir. Both matrons and rlergy know that This era en fear can overcome even the love of gin for a time, bub diiectiy it fades or the murderer is caught the. miserable creature? will rebel. They are far beyond reclamation. 1 anrglud, nevertheless, to feel that some kindly soul means to erect temporary shelter, halls' in the neighbourhood of the murders, which will be open to women o nly, and where a me and tables and benches, with, in extreme rases, bread and water, will be piovided. This pla-i sounds at once sensible and philanthropic. As a rule, what, arc known as '"Doss Hou>o Philanthropists " make their quest- a gtoat deal too comfortable, with the i'Cmiilg that they are imposed on by scores of sturdy beggarsj who otherwise -would be paying for their '" doss " at the rate of 4d a day, or 2s a week, in the common eating-houses. Tom attended the Berners-street inquest on business one day last week. Pic says you happy colonists can form only the vaguest idea of the sort of human beings the lowest strata at the East End are. The sister of the poor woman Stride was a ginsodden'ed virago, and identified her mutilated relative with ghoulish relish. From first to last this woman's transparent object was to turn the cataslrope to account somehow. So obvious did the past become that the coroner coubted whether she /'•««. the deceased's sister. Others, too, were sceptical on the point, but the story she told in the main proved accurate Xot one word of honest pity for the dead woman's shocking fats crossed her lips. Her own goodness and generosity to her poor sister was the never-ending theme of her discourse, or would have been, if the coroner had not cut her short. But enough of these horrid subjects. What do you think is the latest thing in automatic machines here ? In return for one perm} r we have silent vendors which will (when their internal economies are all right) send you a box of matches, a post card, a cigarstte, a pencil, a box of sweets, a drop of scent, a bad cigar, or a nots book. These we all know, but the new machine which distributes glasses of iced and distilled water in return for the nimble halfpenny we had not seen.'
My apologies for the poor transcription, a computer did it.
[By Elise].
Loxdon*, October 1 1 . Duaii Mr Editor. -The cold weather has set in unusually early, and we arc evidently going to experience another long and bitter winter. What will happen if the Vi hitcchapel murderer or murdorers are not caught before " thesombrous c eason of fogs •wraps London in its Cimmerian iolds," I dread to think. Cold, hungor, and darkness am bad enough for the poor East End unfortunates to have to bear, without an ever - haunting fear of murder and suddon death superadded. They say the bye-ways of Whitechapel have been quite deserted since the lasfc crime, or crimes. The miserable women who used to frequent them dare, not leave the well-lighted main streets. As for rescue homo* and Magdalen institutions, they hae,filied to overflowing. The womeiuwill not scay in thorn lonir. Both matrons and rlergy know that This era en fear can overcome even the love of gin for a time, bub diiectiy it fades or the murderer is caught the. miserable creature? will rebel. They are far beyond reclamation. 1 anrglud, nevertheless, to feel that some kindly soul means to erect temporary shelter, halls' in the neighbourhood of the murders, which will be open to women o nly, and where a me and tables and benches, with, in extreme rases, bread and water, will be piovided. This pla-i sounds at once sensible and philanthropic. As a rule, what, arc known as '"Doss Hou>o Philanthropists " make their quest- a gtoat deal too comfortable, with the i'Cmiilg that they are imposed on by scores of sturdy beggarsj who otherwise -would be paying for their '" doss " at the rate of 4d a day, or 2s a week, in the common eating-houses. Tom attended the Berners-street inquest on business one day last week. Pic says you happy colonists can form only the vaguest idea of the sort of human beings the lowest strata at the East End are. The sister of the poor woman Stride was a ginsodden'ed virago, and identified her mutilated relative with ghoulish relish. From first to last this woman's transparent object was to turn the cataslrope to account somehow. So obvious did the past become that the coroner coubted whether she /'•««. the deceased's sister. Others, too, were sceptical on the point, but the story she told in the main proved accurate Xot one word of honest pity for the dead woman's shocking fats crossed her lips. Her own goodness and generosity to her poor sister was the never-ending theme of her discourse, or would have been, if the coroner had not cut her short. But enough of these horrid subjects. What do you think is the latest thing in automatic machines here ? In return for one perm} r we have silent vendors which will (when their internal economies are all right) send you a box of matches, a post card, a cigarstte, a pencil, a box of sweets, a drop of scent, a bad cigar, or a nots book. These we all know, but the new machine which distributes glasses of iced and distilled water in return for the nimble halfpenny we had not seen.'
My apologies for the poor transcription, a computer did it.
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