WEEK.
CHAPTER XII. ONE NOISE SUBSTITUTED FOR ANOTHER.--THE CLAMOURS OF STRIFE
EXCHANGED FOR THE SONGS OF PEACE.
CHAPTER XIII. THE CLOSE OF THE NIGHT.
FLASH DICTIONARY.
THE SIXTY ORDERS OF PRIME COVES.

THE

Dens of London

EXPOSED.

CHAPTER I.

COMMON LODGING HOUSES, CADGERS, &c., &c.

These two subjects are, perhaps now the only ones remaining, in what
is termed the "walks of life," of which a correct description has not
yet been given. All the old topics, such as the beauties of the
country, and the ancient stories of love and heroism, which have
afforded so much employment to the pencil, the muse, and the worker-up
of novels, have long been considered as the beaten track; and the
relaters of fiction, at least those who lay claim to any thing like
originality, have been fain to leave the romantic path, with its old
castles and wondrous deeds, and so forth, and seek for heroes behind a
counter, amidst the common-place details of business, and for scenes
amongst the intricate windings of lanes and alleys. In short, novelty
is the grand charm for this novel-writing age.

Independent of the hosts of "Military and Naval Sketches of Mr.
Such-a-one," "the Author of So-and-So's Reminiscences," &c., with the
usual abundance of matter, that daily crowd from the press, we may
notice amongst the really useful works that have lately appeared, the
"Old Bailey Experience," "Essays on the Condition of the People," "the
Dishonest Practices of Household Servants," and "the Machinery of
Crime in England, or the Connection between the Thieves and Flash
Houses;" but, valuable as these articles are, and they are certainly
of some importance to society, has there any one, we might ask, ever
entered into the Common Lodging House,--the Vagabond's Home,--a place
that abounds in character and crime? The only information which we
have had in these dens of poverty and vice, has been merely through
the Police Reports, when some unfortunate defaulter had been taken out
of one of those skulking-holes. On such occasions we are told, amongst
the usual remarks, that the accommodation in those houses were
exceedingly cheap, and that the lodgers herded together
indiscriminately, &c.; but how such houses were really conducted, and
of the manners and characters of most of the people who frequented
them, the public may be said to be almost in perfect ignorance. In
like manner with that fraternity called "Cadgers," our knowledge