stitch. The proposition was agreed to with alacrity, and is still in high favour. The "class," through the limited accommodation, is restricted to thirty; and as in no case are the boys found to be in possession of a spare garment of the sort that so sorely needs repair, it is a strictly private class, to which nobody is admitted except on business. Any boy guilty of "larking," or in any way disturbing the sober propriety so essential to the existence of the class, is instantly banished; and to the credit of the poor, little, ragged tailors, it is said that such expulsions are rare.

It is, perhaps, only natural that the care and perplexity attending the stitching together of rags that will scarcely bear the weight of a needle should at times incline the operators to meditate on the advantage of being altogether independent of artificial covering.

"Wouldn't it be fine to do without altogether, Jack!" Mr Orsman heard an enthusiastic youth of eight remarking to his friend. "Couldn't you get lots of browns from the coves on the homblibustes! They allers pitches at yer where your trowsis is tore. They'd pitch more if you give 'em more to pitch at, I'll be bound." "Ah!" rejoined the other, "so they might; but where'd you put the browns wot they pitched yer, if you didn't have no pockets on?" An argument that effectually silenced the young philosopher, and reconciled him to his job of adapting the sleeves of his father's old jacket as legs to the still trustworthy "upper part" of his corduroys.

It has been said that such was the confidence reposed in the missionary, even by the very worst of the inhabitants, that even the "tramps' kitchens" were open to him. This statement, however, should be qualified. There are lodging dens in this lane of horrors which no

decent man dare enter. In one such place, on some desperately urgent occasion, the attempt was made, and swiftly followed by the expulsion of the rash peacemaker, roughly handled, and with his hat smashed. Two policemen were outside the door, and witnessed the ejection; and one of them remarked, "Hallo! you like it better than we do you wouldn't catch us in there for a trifle!"

Terrible stories are still whispered about the worst of these Golden-lane lodging-houses, of which there are seven that, in the aggregate, "make up" about five hundred beds every night. I am informed on good authority that occasionally the scenes to be witnessed in at least one of these houses—I should be happy to tell the police authorities which one-are appalling. This is after the police have made their last inspection for the night, in accordance with the terms of the Lodging-house Act. The most favourite entertainment at this place is known as a "buff ball," in which both sexes -innocent of clothing-madly join, stimulated with raw whisky and the music of a fiddle and a tin whistle. The proprietor of one of these tramps' lodging-houses is a blind man—a terrible fellow, fierce, and old, and Irish. He was the principal figure in a pretty picture that might have been seen in Golden-lane some time ago. His old domicile had grown so ruinous, that it was found necessary to turn him out, and pull it down. But "Blind Con" had an affection for the venerable pile, and was loth to budge. Drunk and furious he seized the leg of a bedstead, and, standing on his imperilled threshold, swung the formidable weapon round his sightless head, shrieking forth his determination to dash out the brains of any blank, blank, double blank policeman who dared approach him.

Improved as these places are said to be of late, the

best of them are still far from perfect. Accompanied by my friend, at ten o'clock at night I visited one of the most creditably conducted. It was as easy of access as a common public-house. The street-door was wide open, and at the end of the long passage we found the "kitchen," a room between thirty and forty feet long and, say, fifteen wide, provided with a few forms. and tables, and with a vast fire-place, round which were clustered a crowd of supper-cookers, each one superintending his own fork or skewer, and "doing" to his liking his rasher or "bloater." About thirty persons were present a few girls and women, but the majority of the male sex; and there was not very much objection ́able behaviour visible. Of course the place was evil smelling, and the floor was not quite so white as driven snow; but it was easy enough to see how, under lax supervision, it might in a week become ten times worse. The common lodging-house is not like the casual ward, although, perhaps, the class of lodgers is pretty much the same. At the former place, before an applicant for a bed is admitted to the sleeping ward, he must undergo the ordeal of the bath; moreover, his clothes are taken from him, and kept in a closet till the morning; but at the Golden-lane establishments a lodger is privileged to go to bed as dirty as he likes, and as a rule he avails himself to the full of the considerate arrangement. In this one lodging-house ninety occupants of beds were nightly provided for.

I went upstairs, and into the many floors of the great rambling old house-at one time a mansion of considerable pretensions, judging from the width and rich carving of the oaken stairs—and peeped into the various dormitories. Paid inspectors visit these places now, and it is to be presumed that they properly attend to

their duties, and that everything is as it should be. I very much question, however, if Mr Inspector would care to pass a night there himself. To be sure, we were unfortunate in happening on a night when clean sheets were over-due, in consequence of the landlady's indisposition; but there were other matters to which a scrupulous person might object-an accumulation of black grease covering the head-board of his bedstead, for instance, and the existence of eight bedsteads in an ordinary-sized room.

The different floors are apportioned to single men, single women, and married "couples;" and I certainly cannot approve of the "partitioning" system which, as I am informed, is universally practised in these places as regards the sleeping accommodation of the "married." Economy of space is the first and foremost consideration with the Golden-lane lodging-house keeper: at the same time, he should not too flagrantly defy the law which declares that every married couple must be accommodated with a chamber in which to sleep by themselves. He does not actually defy this decent enactment, but he holds on by the feather edge of it. He slices up a big room into six, say-each compartment being just large enough to contain the narrowest of truckle bedsteads, and may be eighteen inches to spare for standing room.

But the partitions, which are mere matchboard, do not extend from the floor to the ceiling. They are no higher than those which divide box from box in an ordinary coffee-room, and at bottom there is a space through which an adult could pass with perfect ease. It is a farce to call them separate chambers. Eightpence is the price of one of these double beds, and "children must be paid for." "But supposing the child is a mere baby?" "Well, it counts as one," replied

the obliging young person who "showed us over"—a regulation that must come very hard at times on an outcast young couple, with their only ragged fledgling.

But the licensed lodging-houses of Golden Lane, with all their ingrained, home-bred nastiness and unwholesomeness, and the undoubted facilities which they afford the predatory tribes of London for continuance in their nefarious ways, are by no means the most abominable sleeping-places to be found in this delectable neighbourhood. Here may also be obtained for the seeking a kind of accommodation that, so far as my experience goes, is unknown even by name in any other of Squalor's head-quarters.

The houses which affect the peculiar branch of the lodging business in question are known as "hot-water houses;" and, though they drive a roaring trade, it is unlicensed and illegal, and might be put down at a single day's notice, or at no notice at all, did the police authorities think it worth while to move in the matter. They are, as a rule, small houses, some containing only three rooms; and for the benefit of our sanitary guardians who may plead ignorance of the existence of these horrid places, it may be mentioned that they are to be found in Little Cheapside, Cow-heel Alley, Reform Place, and Hot Water Court-the last being a double row of little houses that possibly claims the honour of having originated the cheap and terribly nasty system which I am now about to explain.

They have no sort of special convenience, excepting perhaps that the cooking utensils are somewhat more capacious and numerous than are commonly found in a human habitation, which boasts of, say, a kitchen, and four rooms ten feet by twelve. They are not provided with beds or bedsteads. It would be regarded as a