The real reason I bought "London's Underworld"

When I was looking at the book for the first time, I came across this table of statistics:

Number of disorderly prostitutes taken into Custody during the years 1850-1860, and their trades:

1850 -- 2,502
1851 -- 2,573
1852 -- 3,750
1853 -- 3,386
1854 -- 3,764
1855 -- 3,592
1856 -- 4,303
1857 -- 5,178
1858 -- 4,890
1859 -- 4,282
1860 -- 3,734

After some search I have been enabled to give the trades and occupations of those women.

74 were Hatters and trimmers.
418 were Laundresses.
646 were Milliners, etc.
400 were Servants.
249 were Shoemakers.
58 were Artificial flower-makers.
215 were Tailors.
33 were Brushmakers.
42 were Bookbinders.
8 were Corkcutters.
7 were Dyers.
2 were Fishmongers.
8 were General and marine-store dealers.
24 were Glovers.
18 were Weavers.

The remainder described themselves as having no trade or occupation.

There's just no way for me not be interested in stats like that - I mean, 646 Milliners? I didn't even know what a milliner was (Wikipedia has it as "the profession or business of designing, making, or selling hats, dresses, and hat trim to women." - I guess that's different from hatters in that hatters sell to men?).

Also, as promised, here's the Table of Contents for the 'Thieves and Swindlers' section:

The Sneaks, or Common Thieves

• Stealing from the Tills
• Stealing from the Doors and Windows of Shops
• Stealing from Children
• Child Stripping
  
• Stealing from Drunken Persons
• Stealing Linen, etc., exposed to dry
• Robberies from Carts and other Vehicles
• Stealing Lead from Housetops, Copper from Kitchens, etc.
• Robberies by False Keys
• Robberies by Lodgers
• Robberies from Servants
• Area and Lobby Sneaks
• Stealing by Lifting Up Windows or Breaking Glass
• Attic or Garret Thieves
• A Visit to the Rookery of St. Giles and its Neighbourhood
• Narrative of a London Sneak, or Common Thief

Pickpockets and Shoplifters

• Omnibus Pickpockets
• Railway Pickpockets
• Shoplifters
• A visit to the Thieves' Dens in Spitalfields
• Narrative of a Pickpocket

Horse and Dog Stealers
Highway Robbers
Housebreakers and Burglars
Felonies on the River Thames

• The Mudlarks
• Sweeping Boys
• Sellers of Small Wares
• Labourers on Board Ship, etc.
• Dredgemen and Fishermen
• Smuggling
• Felonies by Lightermen
• The River Pirates
• Narrative of a Mudlark

Receivers of Stolen Property

• Dolly Shops
• Pawnbrokers, etc.
• Narrative of a Returned Convict

Coining

• Forgers
• Bank Notes
• Cheques
• Forged Acceptance
• Forged Wills

Cheats

• Embezzlers
• Magsmen or Sharpers
• The Card Tricks
• Skittles
• Thimble and Pea
• The Lock
• Swindlers

This section proves to be just as interesting as the last was.

Park Women, or Those Who Frequent The Parks at Night And Other Retired Places

(From the book "London's Underworld", a 19th-century expose on London's seedier side; my current bedside reading)

"Park women, properly so called, are those degraded creatures, utterly lost to all sense of shame, who wander about the paths most frequented after nightfall in the Parks, and consent to any species of humiliation for the sake of acquiring a few shillings. You may meet them in Hyde Park, between the hours of five and ten (till the gates are closed) in winter. In the Green Park, in what is called The Mall, which is a nocturnal thoroughfare, you may see these low wretches walking about sometimes with men, more generally alone, often early in the morning. They are to be seen reclining on the benches placed under the trees, originally intended, no doubt, for a different purpose, occasionally with the head of a drunken man reposing in their lap. These women are well known to give themselves up to disgusting practices, that are alone gratifying to men of morbid and diseased imaginations. They are old, unsound, and by their appearance utterly incapacitated from practising their profession where the gas-lamps would expose the defects in their personal appearance, and the shabbiness of their ancient and dilapidated attire. ... The unfortunate women that form this despicable class have in some cases been well off, and have been reduced to their present condition by a variety of circumstances, among which are intemperance, and the vicissitudes natural to their vocation."

Seriously, the whole book is like that. It's hilarious. Here's part 1 of the table of contents (the portion dealing with prostitution):

Introduction
Foreword
Prostitution in London
General Remarks
Seclusives, or those that live in private houses and apartments
The prostitutes of the Haymarket
Board Lodgers
Those who live in low lodging houses
Sailors' women
Soldiers' women
Thieves' women
Park Women
The Dependents of Prostitutes
Bawds
Followers of Dress Lodgers
Keepers of accommodation houses
Procuresses, Pimps, and Panderrs
Fancy-men
Bullies
Clandestine Prostitutes
Female Operatives
Maid-Servants
Ladies of Intrigue and Houses of Assignation
Cohabitant Prostitutes
Criminal Returns
Traffic in Foreign Women


Next time: Thieves!

As if You Care about ... Cocaine

A few entries back, I mentioned a series of guest posts on the Freakonomics blog about how real life thugs view "The Wire", and I said I'd probably read Sudhir Venkatesh's book. Well, I did. It is probably the first book I've read in less than a week in a very long time - usually I'm splitting reading time between a lot of books, or not really reading at all for a few months at a time. This account held me captivated - it deals not only with the conditions of a poor black housing project, but with the economics of running a crack cocaine gang, and the other sub-rosa economics of car repair, prostitution, stealing cable, bribing housing officials, clergy, police, and everyone else. Also, I was sick a bit this week, and had more time to read than usual.

It took something I knew a little tiny bit about, and gave me a lot of fascinating details I would never have thought of. It focuses not just on how the gangs work in and of themselves, but also how they essentially function as a partial government in a place where there is none, along with empowered old ladies who control the buildings themselves and make sure when a woman is beaten that the culprit is rounded up and likewise beaten, or who take a cut of all the hairdressers' and candy-sellers' incomes as a sort of tax, the same way the gangs tax male hustlers in the buildings.

Now, that doesn't change the fact that there's a negative side to all of this: we're still talking about people in the most abject poverty, many of whom are selling drugs that destroy other people's lives. It's not exactly uplifting stuff. Recommended for those of you who are entreprenurial in nature, with the hope that you direct your energies into another field.

Then, today, I read about a town in Nicaragua where almost nobody works, but where bales of cocaine discarded by smugglers fleeing interdiction wash up on the shore. It makes for a fascinating story, and it's here. So its been kind of a theme this week.