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The Goulston St. graffiti (“The Juwes are not the men….”) often thought to be a message left by JtR on the night of the so-called “double event” isn’t one of my main interests. In recent months I haven’t had much opportunity to follow the message boards either, so, it may well be that someone else has already posted the following. If that is the case, my apologies.
The question has often been aired on the message boards about how common graffiti was in those areas. I recently found a couple of interesting references in the booklet “Into the Abyss” by W.J. Fishman. In it, Fishman takes a short look at the life and work of G.R. Sims (the well-known journalist and playwright who is perhaps best known for his maudlin “It is Christmas Day in the Workhouse” (1879)). Sims was also renowned for his “massive record in social realism, contained in his three volume survey of Living London in 1906.”
In two of the excerpts which Fishman draws from that work, there are implications about the frequency of graffiti in the East End. One case specifically mentions Wentworth Street which, as we know, intersects with Goulston St. just a few yards from where the graffiti was found. “On every side (of Wentworth St.) un-English faces, un-English wares, un-English writings on the walls….” Later, he adds the following excerpt; “If you would understand the immortal agony of Jewry, go into the East End colony…. Its humour, the very Yiddish jargon itself, which is scrawled on the walls….”
For those of you familiar with Martin Fido’s analysis of the source of the Goulston St. graffiti (dissatisfaction with a product purchased close by) Fishman provides an additional comment of interest. This refers to Jews vendors in the same area who “long after the shadows have long retired in the Ghetto, they (the Jewish vendors) are still vouching by their own lives on the kindness of the Shem Yishoroch (God) to Israel for the quality of their wares.”
Of course, “Living London” was published 18 years after the Ripper year of 1888, but there is no reason to assume that any basic element of the street scenes described in it had changed significantly in the years between.
Hope this sheds some light on the question of the ubiquity of graffiti out East.
PB
The question has often been aired on the message boards about how common graffiti was in those areas. I recently found a couple of interesting references in the booklet “Into the Abyss” by W.J. Fishman. In it, Fishman takes a short look at the life and work of G.R. Sims (the well-known journalist and playwright who is perhaps best known for his maudlin “It is Christmas Day in the Workhouse” (1879)). Sims was also renowned for his “massive record in social realism, contained in his three volume survey of Living London in 1906.”
In two of the excerpts which Fishman draws from that work, there are implications about the frequency of graffiti in the East End. One case specifically mentions Wentworth Street which, as we know, intersects with Goulston St. just a few yards from where the graffiti was found. “On every side (of Wentworth St.) un-English faces, un-English wares, un-English writings on the walls….” Later, he adds the following excerpt; “If you would understand the immortal agony of Jewry, go into the East End colony…. Its humour, the very Yiddish jargon itself, which is scrawled on the walls….”
For those of you familiar with Martin Fido’s analysis of the source of the Goulston St. graffiti (dissatisfaction with a product purchased close by) Fishman provides an additional comment of interest. This refers to Jews vendors in the same area who “long after the shadows have long retired in the Ghetto, they (the Jewish vendors) are still vouching by their own lives on the kindness of the Shem Yishoroch (God) to Israel for the quality of their wares.”
Of course, “Living London” was published 18 years after the Ripper year of 1888, but there is no reason to assume that any basic element of the street scenes described in it had changed significantly in the years between.
Hope this sheds some light on the question of the ubiquity of graffiti out East.
PB
(Hi Lynn 
)
but I suppose it is possible that whoever wrote the letters (and it certainly weren't Jack) they might well have seen the name and thought it would make a great signature.
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