last year london lost two of its quaintest characters—robertson, of australia, that pathetic old man who haunted the strand and carried in his hat a clumsily scrawled card announcing that he was searching for his errant daughter, and "please do not give me money"; and "spring onions," the thames police court poet.
now the race of london freaks seems ended. craig, the poet of the oval cricket ground; spiv bagster; the chiswick miser; onions and robertson; all are gone. hunnable is confined; and g. n. curzon isn't looking any too well. even that prolific poet, rowbotham, self-styled "the modern homer," has been keeping quiet lately. it took a universal war, though, to make him nod.
i met "spring" (privately, mr. w. g. waters) once or twice at stepney. he was a vagrant minstrel of the long line of villon and cyrano de bergerac. his anniversary odes were known to thousands of newspaper readers. he was the self-appointed laureate of the nation.[pg 90] he celebrated not only himself, his struggles and successes, but the pettier happenings of the day, such as the death of a king, the accession of a king, or the marriage of some royal couple. you remember his lines on the coronation of edward vii:—
the king, his majesty, and may him heaven bless,
he don't put no side on in his dress.
for, though he owns castles and palaces and houses,
he wears, just like you and me, coats and waistcoats and trousis.
the character of the genial edward in four lines. could it have been better said?
not to know spring argues yourself unknown. he might have stepped from the covers of dekker's gull's hornbook. he was a child of nature. i can't bring myself to believe that he was born of woman. i believe the fairies must have left him under the gooseberry—no, under the laurel bush, for he wore the laurel, the myrtle, and the bay as one born to them. he also, on occasion, wore the vine-leaf; and surely that is now an honour as high as the laurel, since all good fellowship and kindliness and conviviality have been sponged from our social life. we have been made dull and hang-dog by law. i wonder what spring would have said about that law in his[pg 91] unregenerate days—spring, who was "in" thirty-nine times for "d. and d." he would have written a poem about it, i know: a poem that would have rung through the land, and have brought to camp the numerous army of boltists, thresholdists, and snortists.
oh, spring has been one of the boys in his time, believe me. but in his latter years he was dull and virtuous; he kept the pledge of teetotalism for sixteen years, teetotalism meaning abstention from alcoholic liquors. this doesn't mean that he wasn't like all other teetotalers, sometimes drunk. the pious sages who make our by-laws seem to forget that it is as easy to get drunk on tea and coffee as on beer; the only difference being that beer makes you pleasantly drunk, and tea and coffee make you miserably drunk.
if you knew spring in the old days, you wouldn't have known him towards the end—and i don't suppose he would have known you. for in his old age he was a person. he was odd messenger at thames police court. in november, 1898 spring, who was then the local reprobate, took to heart the kindly admonitions of sir john dickinson, then magistrate at thames, and signed the pledge of total abstinence. ever [pg 92]afterwards, on the anniversary of that great day. spring would hand to the magistrate a poem in celebration of the fact that he had "kept off it" for another year.
i visited spring just before his death in his lodging—lodging stranger than that of any montmartre poet.
the thames police court is in arbour square, stepney, and spring lived near his work. through many mean streets i tracked his dwelling, and at last i found it. i climbed flights of broken stairs in a high forbidding house. i stumbled over steps and unexpected turns, and at last i stood with a puffy, red-faced, grey-whiskers, stocky old fellow, in a candle-lit garret whose one window looked over a furtively noisy court.
it was probably his family name of waters that drove him to drink in his youth, since when, he has been known as the man who put the tea in "teetotal." in his room i noticed a bed of nondescript colour and make-up, a rickety chest of drawers (in which he kept his treasures), two doubtful chairs, a table, a basin, and bits of food strewn impartially everywhere. a thick, limp smell hung over all, and the place seemed set a-jigging by the flickering light of the candle.[pg 93] there i heard his tale. he sat on the safe chair while i flirted with the other.
it was on the fortieth occasion that he yielded to sir john dickinson's remonstrances and signed the pledge, and earned the respect of all connected with that court where he had made so many appearances. all through that christmas and new year he had, of course, a thin time; it was suffocating to have to refuse the invitation: "come on, spring—let's drink your health!" but what did spring do? did he yield? never. when he found he was thirsty, he sat down and wrote a poem, and by the time he had found a rhyme for burton, the thirst had passed. then, too, everybody took an interest in him and gave him work and clothes, and so on. oh, yes, it's a profitable job being a reformed vagabond in stepney.
he was employed on odd messages and errands for the staff at thames police court, and visited the police-stations round about to do similar errands, such as buying breakfast for the unfortunates who have been locked up all night and are about to face the magistrate. whatever an overnight prisoner wants in the way of food he may have (intoxicants barred), if he cares to[pg 94] pay for it, and spring was the agile fellow who fetched it for him; and many stray coppers (money, not policemen) came his way.
all these things he told me as i sat in his mephitic lodging. spring, like his brother villon, was a man of all trades; no job was too "odd" for him to take on. holding horses, taking messages from court to station, writing odes on this and that, opening and shutting doors, and dashing about in his eightieth year just like a newsboy—spring was certainly a credit to stepney. on my mentioning that i myself made songs at times, he dashed off the following impromptu, as i was falling down his crazy stairs at midnight:—
oh, how happy we all should be,
if none of us ever drank anything stronger than tea.
for how can a man hope to write a beautiful song
when he is hanging round the public-houses all day long?
"spring onions" apart, stepney is a home for all manner of queer characters, full of fire and salt; from peter the painter, of immortal memory, to those odd-job men who live well by being jacks of all trades, and masters of them, too.
there are my good friends, johnny, the scavenger, mr. 'opkinson, the cat's-meat man, 'erb, the boney, fat fred, who keeps the baked-potato[pg 95] can, and that lovable personality "my uncle toby," gate-man at one of the docks.
there's 'orace, too, the minder. ever met him? ever employed him? probably not, but if you live near any poor market-place, and ever have occasion for his services, i cordially recommend him.
'orace is the best minder east of the pump. what does he mind? your business, not his. haven't you ever seen him at it in the more homely quarters? at a penny a time, it's good hunting; and 'orace is the only man i know who blesses certain recent legislation.
his profession sprang from the children act, which debarred parents from taking children into public-houses. now, there are thousands of respectable couples who like to have a quiet—or even a noisy—drink on market-night; and the effect of the act was that they had to go in singly, one taking a drink while the other stood outside and held the baby.
there was 'orace's opportunity, and he took it. why not let father and mother take their drink together, while 'orace sang lullabies to his majesty?
admirable idea. it caught on, for 'orace has a[pg 96] way with babies. he can talk baby guff by the hour, and in the whole of his professional career he has never had to mind a baby that did not "take" to him on sight.
the fee is frequently more than a penny. if the old dad wants to stay for a bit, he will stand 'orace a drink (under the rose) and a pipe of 'baccy. sundays and holidays are his best days. he selects his public-house, on the main road always, and works it all day. often he has five or six kiddies at a time to protect; and he gave me a private tip towards success as a "minder": always carry a number of bright things in your pockets—nails, pearl buttons, bits of coloured chalk, or, best of all, a piece of putty.
outside his regular pitch, the public-house owns a horse-trough, but as no horses now draw up, the trough is dry, and in this he places his half-dozen or so protégés, out of danger and as happy as you please.
then there's artie, the copper's nark. what shall be said of artie? shall i compare him to a summer's day? no, i think not; rather to a cobwebbed stepney twilight. i don't commend artie. indeed, i have as little regard for him as i have for those poisonous weeds that float on the[pg 97] thames near greenwich at flood. he is a thoroughly disagreeable person, with none of the acid qualities of the really bad man or the firelight glow of commonplace sinners like ourselves. he is incapable of following any other calling. he has been, from boyhood, mixed up with criminal gangs, but he has not the backbone necessary for following them on their enterprises. always he has wanted to feel safe; so he cringes at the feet of officialism. he is hated by all—by the boys whose games he springs and by the unscrupulous police who employ him. his rewards are small: a few pence now and then, an occasional drink, and a tolerant eye towards his own little misbehavings.
often the police are puzzled as to how artie gets his information. if you were to ask him, he would become orientally impassive.
"ah, you'd like to know, wouldn't yer?"
but the truth is that he does not himself know. in a poor district—walworth, hoxton, or notting dale—everybody talks; and it is in these districts that artie works. he is useless in big criminal affairs; he can only gather and report information on the petty doings of his associates. the moment any small burglary is planned, two or[pg 98] three people know about it, for the small burglar is always maladroit and ill-instructed in his methods, and is bound to confide in some one. artie is always about like a predatory bird to snatch up crumbs of other people's business.
are you married, and were you married at a registry office? if so, it's certain that you've met my dear old friend. stepney syd, the congratulator, one of our most earnest war-workers; as "unwearied" as lady dardy dinkum.
congratulations, spoken at the right moment, in the right way, to the right people, are a paying proposition. the war has made no difference in the value of those mellifluous syllables, unless it be in an upward direction. it's a soft job, too. syd never works after three in the afternoon. he cannot, because his work is the concluding touch to the marriage service. it consists in hanging about registry-offices—that in covent garden is very popular with young people in a hurry—and waiting until a cab arrives with prospective bride and bridegroom. when they leave, syd is there to open the door for them, and respectfully offer felicitations; and so fatuous and helpless is man when he has taken a woman for life that he dare not ignore this happy omen.
[pg 99]
thus, syd comes home every time on a good thing, and, by careful watching of the weekly papers in the free library, and putting two and two together, he contrives, like some of our politicians, to anticipate events, and to be where the good things are.
strolling round montagu street the other night, i met, in one of the little russian cafés, a man who pitched me a tale of woe—a lean, ferrety little man, with ferrety eyes and fingers that urged me to button my overcoat and secure all pockets.
but i was shocked to discover that he was an honest man. diamonds and honesty seldom walk hand-in-hand, and precious stones and virtue do not yet publicly kiss each other; and he talked so much of diamonds that my first apprehensions were perhaps justified. i learnt, however, that his was a sad case. he was a diamond-cutter by trade, and in those war days one might as usefully have diamonds in amsterdam (as maudi darrell's song went) as have them in london.
i had not before met a man who so casually juggled with the symbols of revue-girlhood, so i bought him some more vodka and tea-and-lemon, and led him on to talk. stones to the[pg 100] value of ￡20,000 passed through his hands every day, but none of them stuck. this fact greatly refreshed my dimming faith in human nature, until he qualified it by adding that it wasn't worth a cutter's while to steal. every worker in the trade is known to every branch, and he would have no second chance.
apprenticeship to the trade of diamond-cutting costs ￡200: and, once out of his indentures, the apprentice must join the union, for it would be useless for him, however proficient in his business, to attempt to obtain a post without his union ticket.
the diamond-mechanic earns anything from ￡3 to ￡8 per week. the work calls for a very considerable knowledge of the characters of stones, for very deft fingers, and for exceptionally shrewd judgment; since every diamond or brilliant, however minute, has sixty-four facets, each of which has to be made and polished on a lathe.
the stones are handed out in the workshop practically haphazard, and in the event of the loss of a stone, no disturbance is caused. the staff simply look for it; the floor of the shop is swept up with a fine broom, and the dust sifted[pg 101] until it is found. the explanation of this laxity is the international diamond cutters' union.
in the process of diamond-cutting, of course, the stone loses about 60 per cent. of its weight; and the cutter told me that the filings that come from the stone, mixed with the oil of the lathe, make the finest lubricant for a razor-strop. the making of his smooth cheeks was the perfect razor sharpened with diamond filings!
before we parted, he showed me casually a green diamond. this is the most rare form of stone, and there are only six known examples in the world. no, he didn't steal it. it had just been handed to him for setting, and he was carrying it in his waistcoat-pocket in the careless manner of all stone-dealers.
after he and a sure thousand pounds had vanished into the night, i sat for awhile in the café listening to the chatter of the cigarette-girls of the quarter.
it was all of war. of stefan, who had been repatriated; of abramovitch, who had evaded service by bolting to ireland with a false green form for which he had paid ￡100; of sergius, who had been hiding in a cellar.
when one thinks of cigarette-girls one thinks at[pg 102] once of marion crawford's cigarette-maker's romance and of martin harvey's super-sentimental performance in that play, so dear to the streatham flapper. but sonia karavitch, though soaked in the qualities of her race—dark beauty, luxurious curls, brooding temper, and spiritual melancholy—would, i fear, repel those who only know her under the extravagantly refining rays of the limelight. but those who love humanity in the raw will love her.
sonia karavitch is seventeen. she wears a black frock, with many sprigs of red ribbon at her neck and in her raven hair. her fingers are stained brown with tobacco; but, though she has heavy eyes and lounges languorously, like a drowsy cat in the sunshine, she works harder than most other factory-girls.
from six o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock at night she is at her table, rolling by the thousand those hand-made cigarettes which command big prices in piccadilly. when she speaks she has a lazy voice with a curious lisp, and it is full of sadness.
yet she is not sad. she has a pleasant little home in one of the big tenements, where she lives with her mother and little brother, and, in her[pg 103] own demonstrative way, is happy. the harder she works, the more money there is for luxuries for the little brother. often of an evening her friends come home with her, and drink tea-and-lemon with her, and make music.
sonia karavitch is very shy, and never mixes with the folk who are not of her own colony. she was born in stepney of russian parents, and she never goes out of stepney. and why should she? for in the half-dozen streets where she lives her daily life she can speak the language of her parents, can buy clothes such as her mother wore in odessa, and can find all those little touches that mean home to the homeless or the exiled.
every morning she goes straight to the factory; at noon she goes home to dinner; and in the evening she goes straight home again. sometimes on saturday afternoons—which is her sunday, for sonia is of jewish faith—she takes a walk in whitechapel high street, because, you see, there is much life in whitechapel high street; there are her compatriots, and there are street-organs, and violets are a penny a bunch.
when she has had a good week she sometimes takes her mother and brother for kvass to one of[pg 104] the many russian restaurants in osborn street and little montagu street.
sometimes you see sonia karavitch at a table, sipping her tea, and listening to the talk, and you may wonder why that sad, far-away look in her eyes. she is not in stepney. her soul has flown to her native land—to the steppes, to the cold airs of russia, whither a certain russian lad, who used to work by her side in the cigarette factory in osborn street, was dispatched by a repatriation order.
but then she remembers mother and little brother, and stops her dreamings, and hurries on to work.
many wild folk have sat in these cafés and discoursed on the injustices of civilization; and at one time private presses in the neighbourhood gave forth inflammatory sheets bearing messages from international warriors in the cause of freedom.
if ever you are tired of the solemn round of existence, don't take a holiday at the seaside, don't go to the war. edit an anarchist news-sheet, and your life will be full of quick perils and alarms.
another of my stepney friends is jane, the flower-girl, who tramps every day from stepney[pg 105] to covent garden, and sells her stock from a pitch near leicester square. here's another ardent war-worker.
some worthy people may not think that the selling of violets comes properly under the fine exclusive label of war work; but these are the neurotics whose only idea of doing their bit is that of twisting their soiling fingers about anything that carries a message of grace; who fume at a young man because he isn't in khaki, and, when he is in uniform, kill him with a look because he isn't in hospital blue, and, when he is in hospital, regard him askance because he isn't eager to go back.
"flowers!" they snort or wheeze. "fiddling with flowers in war-time! it ought to be stopped. look at the waste of labour. look at the press on transport. will the people never realize," etc.
yet, good troglodytes, because the world is at war, shall we then wipe from the earth everything that links us, however lightly, to god—and save germany the trouble? must everything be lead and steel? old man—dost thou think, because thou art old, that glory and loveliness have passed away with the corroding of thy bones?[pg 106] nay, youth shall still take or make its pleasure; fair girls shall still adorn their limbs with silks, and flowers shall still be sweet to the nose.
old man—on many occasions when i could get no food—not even war-bread—the sight and smell of bunches of violets have furnished sustenance for mind and body. so fill thy belly, if thou wilt, with the waxy potato; put the army cheese where the soldier puts the pudding; shovel into thy mouth the frozen beef and offal that may renew thy energies for further war-work; but, if there be any grace of god still left in thee, if there be any virtue, any charity—leave, for those who are shielding thy senescent body, the flower-girls about piccadilly circus on a may morning.
"vi'lerts! swee' vi'lerts! pennyer bunch!"
good morning, jane! how sweet you and your violets look in the tangle of traffic that laces and interlaces itself about alfred gilbert's mercury.
morning by morning, fair or foggy, she stands by the fountain; and if you give her more than a passing glance you will note that her tumbled hair is of just the right shade of red, and in her eyes are the very violets that she holds to your [pg 107]indifferent nose, and under her lucent skin beat the imperious pulses of youth.
jane is fourteen, and jane is always smiling; not because she is fourteen, but because it's such fun to be alive and to be selling flowers. indeed, she looks herself like a little posy, sweet and demure. times may be bad, but they are not reflected in jane's appearance.
of education she has only what the council school gave her in the odd hours when she choose to attend; of religion she has none, but she has a philosophy of her own, which, in a sentence, is to get all the fun you can out of things.
that's why jane's smile is a smile that certain people look for every morning as they alight from their bus in the circus. but you must not imagine that jane is good in the respectable sense of the word. let anyone annoy her, or try to "dish" her of one of her customers. then, when it comes to back-chat, jane can more than hold her own in the matter of language; and once i saw an artillery officer's face turn livid during a discussion between her and a rival flower-girl.
the war has hit jane very badly. the young bloods who frequented her stall in the old days, and bought the most expensive buttonholes every[pg 108] morning, are now in khaki, and a thoughtless army order forbids an officer to decorate his tunic with a spray of carnations or a moss-rose.
there are only the old bounders remaining, and their custom depends so much on such a number of things—the morning's news, the fact that they are not ten years younger, the weather, and the state of their digestions.
jane always reads the paper before she starts work, because, as she says, then you know what to expect. she doesn't believe in meeting trouble halfway, but she believes in being prepared for it. when there's good news, stout old gentlemen will buy a bunch of violets for themselves, and perhaps a cluster of blossoms for the typist. but when the news is bad, nobody is in the mood for flowers. they want to band themselves together and tell one another how awful it is; which, as jane says, is all wrong.
"if they'd only buy a bunch of violets and stick it in their coats, other people would feel better by looking at them, and they'd forget the bad news in the jolly old smell in their buttonhole."
yes, jane's fourteen years have given her much wisdom, and she is doing as fine war-work as any admiral or field-marshal.
[pg 109]
while in stepney we mustn't forget good mrs. joplin. mrs. joplin lives up a narrow court of menacing aspect, and in her window is a printed card, bearing the cryptic legend—"mangling done here"—which, to an american friend of mine, suggested that atrocities of a german kind were going on downstairs. but i calmed his fears by assuring him that mrs. joplin's business card was a simple indication of her willingness to receive from her neighbours bundles of newly-washed clothes, and put them through a machine called a mangle, from which they were discharged neatly pressed and folded. the remuneration for this service is usually but a few coppers—beer-money, nothing more; so to procure the decencies of existence mrs. joplin lets her basement rooms for—what's that? yes, i daresay you've had a few pewter half-crowns and florins passed on you lately, but what's that to do with me—or mrs. joplin? do you want me to suggest that good mrs. joplin is a twister; a snide-merchant? never let it be said. good mrs. joplin, unlike so many of her neighbours, has never seen the inside of a police-court, much less a prison.
speaking of prisons, it was in stepney that i was told how to carry myself if ever i came within[pg 110] the grip of the law on frequent occasions. the english prison is not an establishment to which one turns with anticipation of happiness; but there is one prison which is as good as a home of rest for those suffering from the pain of the world. there is but one condition of eligibility: you must be a habitual criminal.
if you fulfilled that condition, you were dispatched to the camp hill detention prison in the isle of wight.
a most comfortable affair, this camp hill. it stands in pleasant grounds, near newport; and the walls are not the grey, scowling things that enclose holloway, or reading, or wandsworth, but walls of warm brown stone, such as any good fellow of reputable fame might build about his mansion. close-shaven lawns and flower-beds delight the eye, and the cells are roomy apartments with real windows. the guests do not dine in solitude; they are marched together to the dining-hall, and there nourished, not with skilly or stew, with its hunk of bread and a pewter platter, but with meat and plum-duff, sometimes fish, greenstuffs, and cocoa. this, of course, in peace-time; the menu has no doubt suffered variations in these latter days. the tables are covered. after[pg 111] the meal the good fellows may sit for a few minutes and enjoy a pipe of tobacco, even as the respectable citizen. a fair number of marks for good behaviour carries with it the privilege of smoking after the night meal as well, and one of the most severe punishments is the docking of this smoking privilege.
also, a canteen is provided. not only do they wallow in luxury; they are paid for it. twopence a day is given to each prisoner for exceptional conduct, and one penny of this may be spent at the canteen. this is by way of payment for work done—the work being of a much lighter kind than that given to ordinary "second division" prisoners. in cases where conduct fulfils every expectation of the authorities, the good lad is rewarded, every six months, with a stripe. six stripes entitle the holder to a cash reward, half of which he may spend, the other half being banked. the canteen sells sweets, mineral waters, cigarettes, apples, oranges, nuts etc. those inclined to the higher forms of nourishment may use the library. there are current magazines, novels of popular "healthy" writers (it would be unfair to give their names; they might not appreciate the epithet), and—uplifting thought—the works of[pg 112] spencer, huxley, darwin, and some french highbrows.
on special occasions bioscope shows of an educative kind are given. oh, i do love my virtue, but i wish i were a habitual criminal. why wasn't i born in stepney, and born a vagabond?
whether the prison is still running on the old lines i know not. most likely the british habitual convicts have been served with ejectment notices to make room for german prisoners. i wouldn't wonder.
