{"id":"01KG8AKTZCQBMK23XDXM6VCHBZ","cid":"bafkreiaj43kw43w5emrsq2oyyd2qkqroq4nxvfxsjkoeswb3dqrhpqtnbq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7526,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7479,"text":"thing about this ballad-singer was one of his arms, which, while\r\nsinging, he somehow swung vertically round and round in the air, as if\r\nit revolved on a pivot. The feat was unnaturally unaccountable; and he\r\nperformed it with the view of attracting sympathy; since he said that\r\nin falling from a frigate’s mast-head to the deck, he had met with an\r\ninjury, which had resulted in making his wonderful arm what it was.\r\n\r\nI made the acquaintance of this man, and found him no common character.\r\nHe was full of marvelous adventures, and abounded in terrific stories\r\nof pirates and sea murders, and all sorts of nautical enormities. He\r\nwas a monomaniac upon these subjects; he was a Newgate Calendar of the\r\nrobberies and assassinations of the day, happening in the sailor\r\nquarters of the town; and most of his ballads were upon kindred\r\nsubjects. He composed many of his own verses, and had them printed for\r\nsale on his own account. To show how expeditious he was at this\r\nbusiness, it may be mentioned, that one evening on leaving the dock to\r\ngo to supper, I perceived a crowd gathered about the _Old Fort Tavern;_\r\nand mingling with the rest, I learned that a woman of the town had just\r\nbeen killed at the bar by a drunken Spanish sailor from Cadiz. The\r\nmurderer was carried off by the police before my eyes, and the very\r\nnext morning the ballad-singer with the miraculous arm, was singing the\r\ntragedy in front of the boarding-houses, and handing round printed\r\ncopies of the song, which, of course, were eagerly bought up by the\r\nseamen.\r\n\r\nThis passing allusion to the murder will convey some idea of the events\r\nwhich take place in the lowest and most abandoned neighborhoods\r\nfrequented by sailors in Liverpool. The pestilent lanes and alleys\r\nwhich, in their vocabulary, go by the names of Rotten-row,\r\nGibraltar-place, and Booble-alley, are putrid with vice and crime; to\r\nwhich, perhaps, the round globe does not furnish a parallel. The sooty\r\nand begrimed bricks of the very houses have a reeking, Sodomlike, and\r\nmurderous look; and well may the shroud of coal-smoke, which hangs over\r\nthis part of the town, more than any other, attempt to hide the\r\nenormities here practiced. These are the haunts from which sailors\r\nsometimes disappear forever; or issue in the morning, robbed naked,\r\nfrom the broken doorways. These are the haunts in which cursing,\r\ngambling, pickpocketing, and common iniquities, are virtues too lofty\r\nfor the infected gorgons and hydras to practice. Propriety forbids that\r\nI should enter into details; but kidnappers, burkers, and\r\nresurrectionists are almost saints and angels to them. They seem\r\nleagued together, a company of miscreant misanthropes, bent upon doing\r\nall the malice to mankind in their power. With sulphur and brimstone\r\nthey ought to be burned out of their arches like vermin.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS9WA8Y2C5NE7P4RWM95","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTZBBD711D6EZ5SEFW1P","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.388Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.381Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}