EXPLORING THE WORLD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

THE WHITECHAPEL  MURDER


FURTHER ARRESTS
EXCITING SCENES

From morning till night crowds of people have been lounging about the police office in Commercial-street, in Hanbury street - the scene of the last murder - and in Buck's-row, the scene of the previous murder. A letter-carrier, and, subsequently, a policeman, to whom I expressed a little surprise that crowds of sightseers should have come to Buck's-row so long after the event, both remarked that the sightseers were there "because Monday is a holiday". Monday a holiday, and from all quarters of the "East-end" they have come to celebrate it in these slums of filth and crime. About a hundred people - most of them, it is fair to say, of the loafer class - were clustered round the big gate where Ann Nicholl's body was found. Buck's-row has an evil reputation, apart from it's present notoriety for murder: a fight there last Sunday afternoon flooded the place with the rascality of the neighbourhood - unseen of the police. Walking on to the police-station in Commercial-street I heard a bogus hue-and-cry. This was at half-past one o'clock. The murderer! the murderer! shriek the street urchins, and they scurry round the corner of the police-station; slatternly women, hulking, ruffianly fellows, in greasy raiment,  join in the run. Then there is a noise of laughter, screaming of the small folk, coarse guffawing of the older ones, who ought to know better. I walk up Hanbury-street to the scene of the Saturday morning's murder, No 29. A great crowd stood in front of it, extending a considerable way up and down the street. Nearly one-half of the persons in it were women, most of them bare-headed and unwashed, and a great many with children in their arms. From the windows of upper storeys on both sides of Hanbury-street other women leant out, their elbows or out-stretched palms resting on the window-sills. Not a man could I see in any of those windows, only women, grown up girls and children. They had the air of people who thought their quarter of the world invested with a new importance. What were the crowds gaping and staring at? Nothing. At any rate, nothing which they could not "take in" in a couple of minutes. There  stood the dingy house in the backyard of which the crime took place, the ditto of it's dingy neighbours. A policeman guarded the entrance to the passage, admitting none "except on business". On the ground floor is a cat's meat shop. Nobody, neither constable nor householder nor patient sightseer ("holiday-maker") knew anything about the murder beyond what had been published in the morning papers. The constables at the police-offices in the Whitechapel district were marvels of reticence. Nobody knew anything. The instructions to say nothing had come from Scotland-yard.
From the Daily News
Tuesday September 11th 1888.
The murderer became known as 'Jack the Ripper', and was never caught.

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A POOR HOMELESS ORPHAN

  At the West Ham Police-court on Friday, Alfred Symonds, aged fourteen, a respectable-looking lad, was charged with being found wandering in the Barking-road, without visible means of subsistence. He told the court he came from America, his father being washed overboard and drowned on the voyage. He had not a mother, brother, or sister, and had been lying in carts or anywhere ever since his arrival. He added that he only had a pennyworth of bread since the previous day.
  Prisoner: Please, sir, can I go back to America? The Magistrate: Yes, but we must communicate with the authorities first.

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  The Leicester School Board have just had before them an extraordinary case of punishment of a boy at the Elbow-lane School. It appears that a teacher shut up a boy in a cupboard, and being called away, forgot about the lad, who had to remain closely confined in the cupboard all night. The boy was very much frightened by his very painful imprisonment. The teacher was strongly reprimanded by the Board.

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  The Manchester Stipendiary on Wednesday committed a butcher, named Joseph Shepherd, to gaol for two months, without the option of a fine, for having in his possession nearly three hundred pounds weight of diseased horseflesh. The flesh was intended for sale as food. The magistrate said the case was a very bad one indeed, the flesh being absolutely filthy.

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"GUILTY, SIR,  MY LORD!
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  A WELSHMAN recently arrived in London, entered the dock at Highgate Police Court, on Monday, exhibiting a face which showed all the signs of having been in close proximity to a kerbstone.
  Mr Bodkin (to prisoner): "Is your name John Butcher?"
  Prisoner: "Yes, that it is, my Lord." (Laughter).
  Mr Bodkin: "Well, you are charged with being drunk and incapable - guilty or not guilty?"
  Prisoner: "Oh, guilty, sir, my Lord." (Laughter).
  Police-constable Colvert: "Your worship, at 3.55 yesterday morning I saw the prisoner lying drunk in the gutter a few yards from our station in Tottenham Lane. I went and raised him up to see if I could get him away, but he was too drunk to walk, so I laid him on my arm and helped him to the station."
  Mr Bodkin: "Have you anything to say to this, prisoner?"
  Prisoner: "Yes, sir. You see I had been at work all day, and when I was in Tottenham Lane a young man came up and hit me on the nose and knocked me sensible." (Laughter).
  Mr Bodkin: "It must have been a very hard hit." (Renewed laughter).
  Prisoner: "Yes, it was; and then I laid down. That is all I wish to say, my Lord, but I am very sorry for it."
  Mr Bodkin: "It was not the blow on your nose but the drink which made you drunk."
  Prisoner: "Well, I hope you will be as good as you can for me." (Laughter).
  Mr Bodkin: "Will you promise me that this shall not happen again, and you will not be found blind drunk like a beast in the road?"
  Prisoner: "Never no more , sir."
  Mr Bodkin: "Now you are discharged".
  Prisoner: "Thank you, sir."

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Miss FLORENCE ST. JOHN alias Maud Clifford, Lilian Rothschild, Tottie Fay, or Lily Cohen, whose face is familiar at most of the metropolitan police-courts, was charged at Marlborough Street with disorderly conduct.
  A Constable: "Shortly after midnight I saw the prisoner in Bury Street. She seized several gentlemen by the arm, and they had considerable difficulty in shaking her off. She jumped into a cab, but I followed her and took her into custody."
  'Miss St John': "Am I allowed to speak, sir?"
  Mr Mansfield: "By all means."
  'Miss St John': "On my soul, I never spoke to a soul, except a friend with whom I had a cup of coffee. I walked with him to his chambers, and he was just raising his hat to say good-bye when that wicked man (pointing to the constable) came up and dragged me off like a felon. I give you my word as a lady that I never spoke to anyone else all the evening. Indeed, I would not lower myself to speak to a gentleman unless he first saluted me. I have had a great deal of trouble since I lost my dear mamma, and I only yesterday got over a serious misfortune. It is a cruel shame that I should be exposed to such degradation as this at the hands of a vulgar policeman. Really, sir, it is not safe for a young lady to walk in the streets by herself."
  Sergeant Brewer: "The serious misfortune to which she refers was a sentence of fourteen days' imprisonment she had at Bow Street."
  Mr Mansfield: "Forty shillings or a month."

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 A MAN ATTACKED
BY A BEAR

  An extraordinary affair happened at Franklin's gardens, Northampton, on Saturday afternoon. In the centre of the pleasure grounds is a huge bear pit, and into this, a young man, in looking over the parapet, dropped his hat. A man named   John Gotch,  formerly an attendant at the gardens employed in the feeding of the animals, thought he could trust himself to enter the pit, in the belief that the bears would remember him. As soon, however, as he reached the floor of the pit one of the bears sprang at him from the rear, and commenced to tear savagely at his scalp. Gotch's yells attracted a great crowd of people, and the greatest excitement and confusion soon prevailed. The regular attendants having arrived, Gotch was extricated from his perilous position andtaken by ambulance to the hospital. It was found that the skull had been battered in a horrible manner, and a portion of the scalp had been torn literally from the bone. The bear responsible was named Victoria. The managers say that the bears were excited by the activity and noise  in the gardens, but it is a singular fact that the other bears sat throughout at the top of their poles and gazed in the most unconcerned manner at what was going on in the pit.

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CORRESPONDENCE
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1. Write upon one side of the paper only.
2. Each question or answer should be written upon a separate sheet.
3. Correct name and address should be given, not for publication, as a nom de plume may be used for this purpose, but as a guarantee of good faith.

Evils of Tight Lacing

  More than half the ills from which women suffer are brought about by tight lacing. Yet women will persist in the pernicious and absurd practice. Nor is she contributing to her beauty in so doing, for the various organs of the body are crowded out of their natural position by the undue pressure, with the result that in nine cases out of ten the abdomen appears disproportionately large.
  Those  who possess even the most superficial knowledge of hygiene are aware that one of the first evils that result from tight lacing is the interference with the circulation, which becomes impeded sometimes to a serious degree.
  Another of the ills resulting from tight lacing is the compression of the liver, which often gives rise either to biliousness or haemorrhoids, to say nothing of the hundred and one minor complaints which arise in the form of back ache, head ache, palpitation of the heart, and faintness, and are due to the same cause.
  Therefore, let every woman who values her health and appearance forego  for ever the "painful luxury" of tight lacing.

The Language of the Hankerchief

Drawing across the lips -Desiring a flirtation
Twisting in the left hand -I desire to be rid of you.
Twisting to the right-I am thinking of you.
Winding it around the third finger-I am maried.
Winding it around the forefinger-I am engaged to be married.
Placing it on the right ear-Has your hour changed?
Drawing it across the forehead-Look! we are watched.
Holding opposite corners in both hands-Do wait for me.
Holding by all four corners-I love another.
Drawing it through the hands-I hate you.
Holding it pressed to the right cheek-Yes.
Holding it pressed to the left cheek-No.
Twirling in right hand-I will meet you.
Twirling in left hand-Appointment
Drawing it across the eyes-I am sorry.
Twirling in both hands-Indifference.
Drawing across the cheek-I love you.
Folding it carefully-I wish to speak with you.
Dropping it-I am sure we will be friends.
Waving it over the right shoulder-Follow me.
Waving it over the left shoulder-Farewell.

NOW READY, PRICE ONE PENNY
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THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
OR, THE MYSTERIES OF THE EAST END
A THRILLING ROMANCE
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   This sensational story fully describes all the details connected with these Diabolical Crimes, and faithfully pictures the Night Horrors of this portion of the Great City

G PURKESS, 286, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.
 

   On Saturday, at the Westminster Police-court, David Simms, of Latchmere-street, Battersea, was charged with being drunk in Buckingham Palace-road. Just after midnight prisoner was driving in the most reckless way at the rate of twelve miles an hour, knocked down a gentleman and dislocated his shoulder. The gentleman was much shaken and bleeding. The prisoner tried to get away but did not succeed. He told the magistrate he knew nothing of knocking anyone down. Mr Partridge: If you had been sober you would have known. I shall not give you the option of a fine. You will go to prison for a month with hard labour. (Oct 6th 1888)