THE
SEVEN CURSES OF LONDON.

I.  Neglected Children.

CHAPTER I.
STARTLING FACTS.

The Pauper Population.—Pauper Children.—Opinions concerning their proper Treatment.—A Hundred Thousand Children loose in London Streets.—Neglected Babies.—Juvenile “Market Prowlers”

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CHAPTER II.
RESPECTING THE PARENTAGE OF SOME OF OUR GUTTER POPULATION.

Who are the Mothers?—The Infant Labour-Market.—Watch London and Blackfriars Bridges.—The Melancholy Types.—The Flashy, Flaunting “Infant.”—Keeping Company.—Marriage.—The Upshot

p. 13

CHAPTER III.
BABY-FARMING.

“Baby-Farmers” and Advertising “Child-Adopters.”—“F. X.” of Stepney.—The Author’s Interview with Farmer Oxleek.—The Case of Baby Frederick Wood

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CHAPTER IV.
WORKING BOYS.

The London Errand-Boy.—His Drudgery and Privations.—His Temptations.—The London Boy after Dark.—The Amusements provided for him

p. 58

CHAPTER V.
THE PROBLEM OF DELIVERANCE.

Curious Problem.—The best Method of Treatment.—The “Child of the Gutter” not to be entirely abolished.—The genuine Alley-bred Arab.—The Poor Lambs of the Ragged Flock.—The Tree of Evil in our midst.—The Breeding Places of Disease and Vice

p. 76

II.  Professional Thieves.

CHAPTER VI.
THEIR NUMBER AND DIFFICULTIES.

Twenty Thousand Thieves in London.—What it means.—The Language of “Weeds.”—Cleverness of the Pilfering Fraternity.—A Protest against a barbarous Suggestion.—The Prisoner’s great Difficulty.—The Moment of Leaving Prison.—Bad Friends.—What becomes of Good Resolutions and the Chaplain’s Counsel?—The Criminal’s Scepticism of Human Goodness.—Life in “Little Hell.”—The Cow-Cross Mission.

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CHAPTER VII.
HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE BRITISH THIEF.

The Three Classes of Thieving Society.—Popular Misapprehensions.—A True Picture of the London Thief.—A Fancy Sketch of the “Under-ground Cellar.”—In Disguise at a Thieves’ Raffle.—The Puzzle of “Black Maria.”—Mr. Mullins’s Speech and his Song

p. 108

CHAPTER VIII.
JUVENILE THIEVES.

The Beginning of the Downhill Journey.—Candidates for Newgate Honours.—Black Spots of London.—Life from the Young Robber’s Point of View.—The Seedling Recruits the most difficult to reform.—A doleful Summing-up.—A Phase of the Criminal Question left unnoticed.—Budding Burglars.—Streams which keep at full flood the Black Sea of Crime.—The Promoters of “Gallows Literature.”—Another Shot at a Fortress of the Devil.—“Poison-Literature.”—“Starlight Sall.”—“Panther Bill”

p. 124

CHAPTER IX.
THE THIEF NON-PROFESSIONAL.

The Registered and the Unregistered Thieves of the London Hunting-ground.—The Certainty of the Crop of Vice.—Omnibus Drivers and Conductors.—The “Watchers.”—The London General Omnibus Company.—The Scandal of their System.—The Shopkeeper Thief.—False Weights and Measures.—Adulteration of Food and Drink.—Our Old Law, “I am as honest as I can afford to be!”—Rudimentary Exercises in the Art of Pillage

p. 144

CHAPTER X.
CRIMINAL SUPPRESSION AND PUNISHMENT.

Lord Romilly’s Suggestion concerning the Education of the Children of Criminals.—Desperate Criminals.—The Alleys of the Borough.—The worst Quarters not, as a rule, the most noisy.—The Evil Example of “Gallows Heroes,” “Dick Turpin,” “Blueskin,” &c.—The Talent for “Gammoning Lady Green.”—A worthy Governor’s Opinion as to the best way of “Breaking” a Bad Boy.—Affection for “Mother.”—The Dark Cell and its Inmate.—An Affecting Interview

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CHAPTER XI.
ADULT CRIMINALS AND THE NEW LAW FOR THEIR BETTER GOVERNMENT.

Recent Legislation.—Statistics.—Lord Kimberley’s “Habitual Criminals” Bill.—The Present System of License-Holders.—Colonel Henderson’s Report.—Social Enemies of