Mr. Hall's knowledge of the Highway, as it was called,
enabled him to be of occasional service to the police, hence
he was on the most cordial terms of friendship with them. He
could swoop plain-clothes men through intricacies which
flashed with the flames of crime, without exciting the
slightest suspicion of the object he had in view. He could
talk, swear, and drink in accurate harmony with his
acquaintances, and was looked upon with favour by a circle
of estimable friends. Members of the constabulary were
always considerate and accommodating towards him during his
periodic outbursts of alcoholic craving. He owed much to the
care they took of him during his fits of debauchery; and he
was not unmindful of it when he had the wherewithal to
compensate them. Like most of those wayward inebriates who
followed the sea as a calling, he was a perfect sailor; and
even his capricious sensual habits did not prevent him being
sought to rejoin vessels he had sailed in.
Jimmie Hall was only one among thousands of fine fellows who
were encouraged to go to bestial excesses by gangs of
predatory vermin (men and women) who infested Wapping and
Ratcliffe Highway.
Pages:
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154