THE NIGHT SIDE OF LONDON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8418, 10 December 1894, Page 3

THE NIGHT SIDE OF LONDON.

.< (Dnnedin Star Correspondent) ■ ' Lonboit, October 20. " 'In ' ita ' vigorous orusade against the 1 Prowling Prudes whose nasty minds havi led to tha dosing up of the Empire Theatre ' the Daily Telegraph puts its hand boldly on tha inpper or Hell-and-Tommy olnbs whioh vte the teal onrse and scandal of ' .Welt Central ' London. The' writer* acquaintance with the*e haunts seems I feel bound to remark extensive 'and peonliar. He '«ays :~Within » radius of one hundred yards of the Empire Theatre at tha present 1 moment then .exist ' at least k doxen of thesf night hells, where some of the members say good evening with aa Ofttb, and good morning with' a 'champagne bottle. Hero you can, unfettered by County Council meddling, become a memtut of tha olub by payment of a fee at the door. Here you can dande with the best and the finest of the demi-monde to the 'strains of a more or less efficient orchestra, with vitrolised drink's supplied to you at fabulous 'pricw, while the' master of the ceremonies will dome up to you with suggestions *oot to be repeated. Here, if you \ Me that way inclined, you oaa have amuiio 'hall song and dance turn supplied to . you 'between the waltzes, if you are of a- "variety" loVing turn of, mind, .ta& from here yon oan be taken home to come of the souteneur robbing dens of Soho 'it yon are noticaiefulj and 1 need not say what ii in store for you if you are not in • the' company of one who knows." It is from jf. place of this description that yon 1 oan be lured where you will soon find that ■11 your money can be stolen from you in a few hours. It was in a resort of this deaoriptiou that a Government engineer whom I -knew found himself in in the hands of a gtnf of blackmailers, with the remit that he had to use a water jug as • weapon of celfdofei.ee, whioh enlured his appeafance at a police court. The men who had him arrested, tad who should have prosecuted him, fled the country, at one of the gang had just received a grant from the State o( 21 years' penal ittrvitade, and the poor engineer goaded to death by the publicity of the affair, blew hit brains out. It was it one of these places, kept by a man who has ' done time ' twice, that I saw a poor fast woman felled to the ground with a blow from the fist of a pugilist. 'Itit at these dens," adds the correspondent, ' that the licensing laws are openly defied, that tbe lowest form of human sown v allowed to gather, under the legalising isgis of a club and the purity polioy of a goody-goody council. And he aikf : 'Are we, then, to be driven to this ?' "

The new stern wheel steamer Manuwai will make her first trip to Pipinki tomorrow leaving Bett's wharf at ? a.tn. A general meeting of tbe Wanganni Trotting Club is called for at 8 o'olook this evening at the Rutland Hotel. A full attendance is requested, as some important bnsiness is to bo transacted. For continuation, of Reading Matter see Fourth Page,