登陆注册
5170500000024

第24章

The street on which we stood, from wall to wall, was barely twenty feet wide.The sidewalks were three feet wide.It was a residence street.At least workmen and their families existed in some sort of fashion in the houses across from us.And each day and every day, from one in the afternoon till six, our ragged spike line is the principal feature of the view commanded by their front doors and windows.One workman sat in his door directly opposite us, taking his rest and a breath of air after the toil of the day.His wife came to chat with him.The doorway was too small for two, so she stood up.Their babes sprawled before them.And here was the spike line, less than a score of feet away- neither privacy for the workman, nor privacy for the pauper.About our feet played the children of the neighborhood.To them our presence was nothing unusual.We were not an intrusion.We were as natural and ordinary as the brick walls and stone curbs of their environment.They had been born to the sight of the spike line, and all their brief days they had seen it.

At six o'clock the line moved up, and we were admitted in groups of three.Name, age, occupation, place of birth, condition of destitution, and the previous night's 'doss,' were taken with lightning-like rapidity by the superintendent; and as I turned I was startled by a man's thrusting into my hand something that felt like a brick, and shouting into my ear, 'Any knives, matches, or tobacco?' 'No, sir,' I lied, as lied every man who entered.As Ipassed downstairs to the cellar, I looked at the brick in my hand, and saw that by doing violence to the language it might be called 'bread.'

By its weight and hardness it certainly must have been unleavened.

The light was very dim down in the cellar, and before I knew it some other man had thrust a pannikin into my other hand.Then I stumbled on to a still darker room, where were benches and tables and men.The place smelled vilely, and the sombre gloom, and the mumble of voices from out of the obscurity, made it seem more like some anteroom to the infernal regions.

Most of the men were suffering from tired feet, and they prefaced the meal by removing their shoes and unbinding the filthy rags with which their feet were wrapped.This added to the general noisomeness, while it took away from my appetite.

In fact, I found that I had made a mistake.I had eaten a hearty dinner five hours before, and to have done justice to the fare before me I should have fasted for a couple of days.The pannikin contained skilly, three-quarters of a pint, a mixture of Indian corn and hot water.The men were dipping their bread into heaps of salt scattered over the dirty tables.I attempted the same, but the bread seemed to stick in my mouth, and I remembered the words of the Carpenter: 'You need a pint of water to eat the bread nicely.'

I went over into a dark corner where I had observed other men going, and found the water.Then I returned and attacked the skilly.It was coarse of texture, unseasoned, gross, and bitter.This bitterness which lingered persistently in the mouth after the skilly had passed on, I found especially repulsive.I struggled manfully, but was mastered by my qualms, and half a dozen mouthfuls of skilly and bread was the measure of my success.The man beside me ate his own share, and mine to boot, scraped the pannikins, and looked hungrily for more.

'I met a "towny," and he stood me too good a dinner,' I explained.

'An' I 'aven't 'ad a bite since yesterday mornin',' he replied.

'How about tobacco?' I asked.'Will the bloke bother with a fellow now?'

'Oh, no,' he answered me.'No bloody fear.This is the easiest spike goin'.Y'oughto see some of them.Search you to the skin.'

The pannikins scraped clean, conversation began to spring up.

'This super'tendent 'ere is always writin' to the papers 'bout us mugs,' said the man on the other side of me.

'What does he say?' I asked.

'Oh, 'e sez we're no good, a lot o' blackguards an' scoundrels as won't work.Tells all the ole tricks I've bin 'earin' for twenty years an' w'ich I never seen a mug ever do.Las' thing of 'is I see, 'e was tellin' 'ow a mug gets out o' the spike, wi' a crust in 'is pockit.An' w'en 'e sees a nice ole gentleman comin' along the street 'e chucks the crust into the drain, an' borrows the old gent's stick to poke it out.An' then the ole gent gi'es 'im a tanner'

[sixpence].

A roar of applause greeted the time-honored yarn, and from somewhere over in the deeper darkness came another voice, orating angrily:-'Talk o' the country bein' good for tommy [food].I'd like to see it.I jest came up from Dover, an' blessed little tommy I got.They won't gi' ye a drink o' water, they won't, much less tommy.'

'There's mugs never go out of Kent,' spoke a second voice, 'an' they live bloomin' fat all along.'

'I come through Kent,' went on the first voice, still more angrily, 'an' Gawd blimey if I see any tommy.An' I always notices as the blokes as talks about 'ow much they can get, w'en they're in the spike can eat my share o' skilly as well as their bleedin' own.'

'There's chaps in London,' said a man across the table from me, 'that get all the tommy they want, an' they never think o' goin' to the country.Stay in London the year 'round.Nor do they think of lookin' for a kip [place to sleep), till nine or ten o'clock at night.'

A general chorus verified this statement.

'But they're bloody clever, them chaps,' said an admiring voice.

'Course they are,' said another voice.'But it's not the likes of me an' you can do it.You got to be born to it, I say.Them chaps 'ave ben openin' cabs an' sellin' papers since the day they was born, an'

their fathers an' mothers before 'em.It's all in the trainin', I say, an' the likes of me an' you 'ud starve at it.'

This also was verified by the general chorus, and likewise the statement that there were 'mugs as lives the twelvemonth 'round in the spike an' never get a blessed bit o' tommy other than spike skilly an'

bread.'

'I once got arf a crown in the Stratford spike,' said a new voice.

同类推荐
  • 瓶粟斋诗话五编

    瓶粟斋诗话五编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说前世三转经

    佛说前世三转经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 辛弃疾词全集

    辛弃疾词全集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 阴符经讲义

    阴符经讲义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Ayrshire Legatees

    The Ayrshire Legatees

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 君临天下女皇路

    君临天下女皇路

    辞职旅行的林若夏意外魂越异世绑定一艘星际探索舰,在星舰的帮助下一路习武功,破阴谋吃美食顺带撩撩帅哥纵横异世古代世界的故事.”十年太长,我不想等,我想要的我自会去取“
  • 晁氏水浒

    晁氏水浒

    “咱也来个煮酒论英雄,先说神力。这江湖之上,要说神力,第一当属倒拔垂杨柳的花和尚鲁智深,两膀若无千斤之力,怎能动的树木。”“这便是你孤陋寡闻了,岂不闻小霸王力扛东京数千斤闸门,四路反王这才安然逃出东京,怎是凡人可比。”新书《义气水浒》
  • 谁动了朕的弃后

    谁动了朕的弃后

    她是最不受宠的皇后,大婚之日就被皇帝打入冷宫,受尽欺凌。后来,他动了真情,黑夜里热情地向她索取,“摇光,朕要你,只想要你。”她却冷冷笑道,“谢陛下厚爱,可惜,我不想要你!
  • 被风吹走的爱情(中国好小说)

    被风吹走的爱情(中国好小说)

    人只有在生死攸关的当口,才能看清什么才是真正重要的。疾病让马丁重新认识了自己,让他对从前颓废的生活后悔不已。他开始理解他人,愿意记住他们的美好。正是青春的我们,没有理由怨天尤人,埋怨生活,因为我们还有爱的能力,还能够去爱一切可以爱的。
  • 魔兽剑圣纵横漫威

    魔兽剑圣纵横漫威

    深陷低谷的老实人,被刚睡醒的大能失误丢进漫威的悲惨故事!“其实我都清楚,只是我遵守底线。千万别惹我,老实人发起火谁都顶不住!”——张桐
  • 斗鬼

    斗鬼

    薄暮中,一辆黑色的警车缓缓地驶过清寂的巷子,停在了一盏坏掉的路灯下。司机走下车,绕过车头来到另一边的后座,打开车门弯腰摇醒熟睡的杜仲。“杜先生,您到了。”仰头睡在后座的杜仲猛地一惊,因为他刚好做了一个噩梦。不,那不是噩梦。身为职业侦探的杜仲比一般人更善于分辨什么是巧合什么不是。他十分笃定,刚才发生在半路上的那件事情绝不是意外,根本就是有人要置他于死地。所以,他乘坐的小汽车才会被山顶突如其来滚下的巨石砸了个粉碎。好在司机和他都逃过一劫。
  • 武林纪元

    武林纪元

    《神殤》一款自2010年诞生的游戏,经过十年的时间依旧位列世界网游前三,也成为网游世界当中唯一一款以主流东方设计少数融入西方元素的世界,让玩家自己创造属于自己的传奇。武林征战十年业,烟雨长亭待君来。《神殤》新时代篇章拉开了序幕,呈现出一次又一次的精彩纷呈的世界。夜羽,一位通过高三考试踏入大学校园的学生,在游戏方面有着极高的造诣,但因三年高中放下了自己喜欢的游戏世界,《神殤》无疑吸引了他的注意…就这样,一个关于电竞传奇的故事就此展开。
  • 特殊搜查支援科

    特殊搜查支援科

    特殊搜查支援科,简称支援科。是公安部内部为了一群有着不同能力的警务人员而特别设立的部门。
  • 溪蛮丛笑

    溪蛮丛笑

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 宅斗之正妻不下堂

    宅斗之正妻不下堂

    遭阴谋陷害,她嫡出正妻的身份变成填房。夫君腹黑,兄弟不合,妯娌相争,长辈为老不尊,姐妹明争暗斗,外加妾室争宠不休,这一大家子,怎一个乱字了得?她没有改变这个世界的能力,也没有统治这个世界的野心,却被步步紧逼,终成腹黑心机女,决计铲除阴谋,横扫贱人。