PORNIC PICCADILLY.

NZ Truth, Issue 56, 14 July 1906, Page 3

PORNIC PICCADILLY.

London's Terrible Night Scenes.

Main Streets Shunned by Decent People.

Flouted by Frail Foreigners.

(Judging by the correspondence m various London papers, things are pretty warm m some of the principal streets, and respectable women cannot go within miles of them, or the übiqiuitous Johns haul them up on serious charges. 'The scandal has grown so grave that general indignation is being aroused. The trouble has arisen through droves of foreign "lydies" of pleasure practically monopolising Piccadilly and Regent-street- The. following correspondence m "Reynold's" show how acute this ..'•-' PUBLIC NUISANCE HAS GROWN ; "Queen's : Club Gardens, S/W; '■ N "Sir,— The case of Mrs D'Angely, who was arrested m Regent-street on a most terrible charge, "for which there was not the slightest foundation, will, I hope, lead the £.iithprlties to take action with regard to the scandalous state of the chief Westend streets after dusk. I . have not the slightest hesitation m saying that there could be no more dangerous places for respectable people to be m than Piccadilly and Regent-street at night.. ; "Recently, while walking from >a theatre with my wife to take an omnibus home, I became separated from her m the crowd m Piccadilly. She turned round to look for me, and instantly a policeman touched npr, on the shpulder, with a gruff command to 'move on. ' To my indignant ■ remonstrance he replied, threateninely, that if there was 'any more nonsense you'll have' to come inside. ' Knowing ; what I do of the reputation of the West-end police, I said no more. At the eairnest wish of my wife, who could not bear the idea of any publicity, I refrained from taking any subsequent steps m the matter. But the case of Mrs D'Angely only confirms my fear that frequently women of unblemished character who, through ignorance of the locality's reputation, venture into Regent-street or Piccadilly after dark, may share that lady's fate, . OR EVEN WORSE. "That means that the two most important thoroughfares m the West-end must, after nightfall, be abandoned to disreputable alien women, who have become what they are before leaving their own country. What & monstrous idea I Even leave out altogether the question of public morality, and consider the matter soitely on material grounds. Surely it is the duty of the Municipal Council, as custodians of the ratepayers' interests, to see that the, latter are not deprived of a most .ORDINARY RIGHT OF CITIZEN. SHlPnamely, the right of safe passage through their own streets. "What have the restaurant and the-

atre proprietors, who do not sane- 1 tion the presence oi this class of wo- ! men, to say ? Or the tobacconists and' other shopkeepers who keep open late ? They lose heavily owing to respectable people having to shun these streets. ''We' have m power a Democratic Government, whose immediate duty it should be to eradicate this horrible blemish, and make what should be our best streets at least as respectable as* those of other great cities. In this way London, I am told, is at present incomparably the worst of the capitals of the .worlds ■''.'.' "M.8." A' -GRAVE EVIL. The above letter is by no means the only one on the subject that "Rey-nolds's-Newspaper" has received. We give it prominence because the scandal to which ,the writer alludes Has become' more acute than ever, and must be put a stop to at once. A special representative of * 'Reynolds's" has had interviews with prominent' police officials and others, which show that the evil is far greater than even our correspondent, states. The'magistrates are constantly commenting ron the magnitude, of the scandal, but nothing, practical is done. Every flay- a troop of foreign women passes m and out of the dock at Marlboroughstreet. The fines are paid, and the women are parading the streets again at night. » MR DENMAN'S VIEWS. "I v don't -know what the London streets are coming to," said Mr, Den-, man, the Marlborough-street magistrate, qnlv the, other day, when several* foreign women' were brought before, him. '" I. get string after string of these women, with nothing to say when charged, no regret, no expression of sorrow, and back again time after time,, doin^ the sariie thing." It was this magistrate * who tried the case of Mrs D'Angely. She and her husband . 'who are French , only came to London m February. Mrs D'Angely/ was m the habit of meeting her husband m Regent-street, and while waiting for him on the evening of April 24 was arrested on a charge of riotous and indecent behavior. Subsequent inquiries proved that both Mr and Mrs D'Angely bore high characters for respectability, and when the lady appeared m court last Tuesday on remand, the magistrate ordered ■ i HER IMMEDIATE DISCHARGE. This, is what he ordered the inter- j preter to say to her :— "When she had been m London a little loneer she would find out that no respectable married woman would walk and wait about Regent-street at that time of night. The only thing the police could go by was whether persons had some real business there ,at sthat time of night. The lady .would be well advised not . to go out alone m that sort of neighborhood at night." So the official police view, as given by this magistrate, is that the streets of the West-end are to be reserved for the use of disreputable j persons. No one who,., has ever pass- I ed through this part of London after I dark needs to be told that "the alien women of low. character;, take full ad- : vantage of their oppbrtuhties. From Oxford-circus to the bottom of Lower Regent-street, from Leicester- J square to Burlington House, there is ho escape for the pedestrian. At every yard a French, German, or Austrian woman, who, if there is no policeman m view, shamelessly seeks to importune the passer^-b^ is .to be met. In- a lesser degree this is true also of Shaftasbury-avenue, Charing-cross-road, and parts of Oxfordstreet. People leaving the theatres and music halls and wishing to walk to a restaurant or vehicle, however short the distance may be. are compelled to rub shoulders with these women, whose identity cannot be mistaken. THEATRE-GOERS IN THE THRONG. The state of affairs at the closing .time of the restaurants m the streets running out of Piccadilly-circus is intolerable. Theatre-goers and others who have been having a late supper have to mingle with the cosmopolitan throng promenading the pavements, even if 'they have no farther to go' than from the restaurant door to ' a cab at the kerb-stone. From the various cafes and other establishments which court natronage of this class, crowds of women .flock forth, practically monopolising the pavement. In one case m particular it is the recognised thing for some half-a-dozen police officers to- marshal the women leaving the establishment at closing time, and to escort them for several hundred yards along the street, until they disperse into „ {•£;; TWOS AND THREES. This place is one of the sights of London. Visitors are taken there as they would have been taken m the old days to the Moulin Rouge m Paris. The scene within has few parallels. There are several large supper rooms, elaborately decorated and fitted with numerous small tables, at which are seated 1 women of every nationality.-