{"id":"01KG8AKTZCQS2C2J1P42TXFYPC","cid":"bafkreifyl2tuk5xsldronyiu5eptxvfot3i5n2q2yqchgcwpxbswyytmni","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7343,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7275,"text":"CHAPTER XXXVIII.\r\nTHE DOCK-WALL BEGGARS\r\n\r\n\r\nI might relate other things which befell me during the six weeks and\r\nmore that I remained in Liverpool, often visiting the cellars, sinks,\r\nand hovels of the wretched lanes and courts near the river. But to tell\r\nof them, would only be to tell over again the story just told; so I\r\nreturn to the docks.\r\n\r\nThe old women described as picking dirty fragments of cotton in the\r\nempty lot, belong to the same class of beings who at all hours of the\r\nday are to be seen within the dock walls, raking over and over the\r\nheaps of rubbish carried ashore from the holds of the shipping.\r\n\r\nAs it is against the law to throw the least thing overboard, even a\r\nrope yarn; and as this law is very different from similar laws in New\r\nYork, inasmuch as it is rigidly enforced by the dock-masters; and,\r\nmoreover, as after discharging a ship’s cargo, a great deal of dirt and\r\nworthless dunnage remains in the hold, the amount of rubbish\r\naccumulated in the appointed receptacles for depositing it within the\r\nwalls is extremely large, and is constantly receiving new accessions\r\nfrom every vessel that unlades at the quays.\r\n\r\nStanding over these noisome heaps, you will see scores of tattered\r\nwretches, armed with old rakes and picking-irons, turning over the\r\ndirt, and making as much of a rope-yarn as if it were a skein of silk.\r\nTheir findings, nevertheless, are but small; for as it is one of the\r\nimmemorial perquisites of the second mate of a merchant ship to\r\ncollect, and sell on his own account, all the condemned “old junk” of\r\nthe vessel to which he belongs, he generally takes good heed that in\r\nthe buckets of rubbish carried ashore, there shall be as few rope-yarns\r\nas possible.\r\n\r\nIn the same way, the cook preserves all the odds and ends of pork-rinds\r\nand beef-fat, which he sells at considerable profit; upon a six months’\r\nvoyage frequently realizing thirty or forty dollars from the sale, and\r\nin large ships, even more than that. It may easily be imagined, then,\r\nhow desperately driven to it must these rubbish-pickers be, to ransack\r\nheaps of refuse which have been previously gleaned.\r\n\r\nNor must I omit to make mention of the singular beggary practiced in\r\nthe streets frequented by sailors; and particularly to record the\r\nremarkable army of paupers that beset the docks at particular hours of\r\nthe day.\r\n\r\nAt twelve o’clock the crews of hundreds and hundreds of ships issue in\r\ncrowds from the dock gates to go to their dinner in the town. This hour\r\nis seized upon by multitudes of beggars to plant themselves against the\r\noutside of the walls, while others stand upon the curbstone to excite\r\nthe charity of the seamen. The first time that I passed through this\r\nlong lane of pauperism, it seemed hard to believe that such an array of\r\nmisery could be furnished by any town in the world.\r\n\r\nEvery variety of want and suffering here met the eye, and every vice\r\nshowed here its victims. Nor were the marvelous and almost incredible\r\nshifts and stratagems of the professional beggars, wanting to finish\r\nthis picture of all that is dishonorable to civilization and humanity.\r\n\r\nOld women, rather mummies, drying up with slow starving and age; young\r\ngirls, incurably sick, who ought to have been in the hospital; sturdy\r\nmen, with the gallows in their eyes, and a whining lie in their mouths;\r\nyoung boys, hollow-eyed and decrepit; and puny mothers, holding up puny\r\nbabes in the glare of the sun, formed the main features of the scene.\r\n\r\nBut these were diversified by instances of peculiar suffering, vice, or\r\nart in attracting charity, which, to me at least, who had never seen\r\nsuch things before, seemed to the last degree uncommon and monstrous.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRM0ZKTWBK3WTY03DCB7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTZC9N52VBAGNNVA0T8B","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.388Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.133Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}