Chapter 286: A Wonderful Journey (K4)

Chapter 285 A Wonderful Journey (5K4)

Whitechapel, Towers Hamlets, East London.

Business at Martin’s Tavern was booming as usual today.

Perhaps because the business here was so booming, not long ago the owner, Mr. Martin, took the grocery store next door along with him, and also meticulously redecorated the tavern.

Now, the former counterfeiting merchant can proudly announce to everyone that Mr. Martin’s Tavern is the most beautiful landmark in Brick Lane.

Unfortunately, the customers of Martin’s Tavern don’t care about the interior, they just know that Martin’s beer is not only plentiful but also cheap.

And those who did care about the décor wouldn’t stoop to a slum pub filled with brickyard dust and abattoir sewage to get a few mouthfuls of horse piss.

But as the saying goes, every bird has its place in the forest, and Martin’s not only attracts warblers, but also the occasional owl, which is a raptor but is actually quite herbivorous.

In the evening, Mr. Owl pushed open the door of the tavern and brought up the wind chime hanging in front of the door.

Only heard a pleasant ringing sound, Mr. Owl gently raised the brim of his hat with his fingers, and softly spoke: “Mr. Martin, I always thought that you are a rough style of England’s hard man. I didn’t realize you were still interested in these little objects?”

Martin saw Arthur coming and hurriedly greeted him with a smile on his face, “Mr. Hastings, where do I have the heart to fiddle with these trinkets? Just counting the accounts every day is already enough trouble for me. This wind chime is what Anne was clamoring for, I see that it’s not too expensive, and it can also give us a wake-up call when guests enter, so I bought it.”

Arthur took off his hat and fanned himself, he looked at the noisy hall full of drinkers and two busy fellows, he leaned over an empty table and casually chatted with Martin, “Why haven’t you seen Annie today? Let me guess, you found her a good home and finally married the big girl off?”

Martin smiled and shook his head, “It would be nice if it was really like you said, that little girl Annie doesn’t have such good luck. But a while ago, there was a scoundrel who had his eye on her, and he coaxed her with sweet words to the point where she was almost tricked into the hands of that donkey-day bastard. If I hadn’t found her in time, she’d probably be crying out for help from her Uncle Martin with a big belly.”

Arthur spoke up, “No way? This girl Annie usually seems quite shrewd, and she spends all day in the tavern dealing with the ruffians, hasn’t she seen the nature of those ruffians?”

Martin sighed, “Mr. Hastings, you don’t know, that’s just the way girls are. When she doesn’t see eye to eye, she’s shrewder than anyone else, but once she’s been lulled into a state of ecstasy, it’s not much use even if you chain her up.

I’ve seen too many of these women in the East End. They’ve never seen the world, and they can’t be fooled by a couple of words, a bottle of wine, or a pretty dress. After six months or a year, when they get tired of her, they kick her into the gutter.

If this woman had a conscience, she would have to spend her life pulling the little bastard she had with no one, while doing odd jobs like washing clothes to make ends meet.

If the woman has no conscience, she’ll have to do a little washing, not to mention the rest of her life. You know, Mr. Hastings, that a few dead babies are fished out of the Thames now and then, and that’s basically where all the mouths in the poorhouse come from.

Alas …… my God! You open your eyes and see, what kind of sins have been created! I can’t control other people’s nieces, but my nieces can’t bear these sins that deserve to go to hell.

She must marry an honest man, and if she dares to run away with that smooth-talking rascal, she’ll never set foot in my tavern again. Let whoever’s seed she carries in her womb be responsible for it, and the Martin’s money is not for any unashamed fellow to spend.”

Saying this, Martin’s face was red from anger. It was obvious that he seemed to be very angry at Annie for almost crossing the line.

Hearing this, Arthur could only say a few words of relief, “Mr. Martin, you don’t need to lose your temper. Hasn’t Annie already been persuaded back by you? When people are young, there will always be times when they are careless and make mistakes, as long as they don’t really make a big mistake, then the past will be the past.”

Hearing this, Martin just helplessly said, “You don’t know, that girl just admitted her fault with me on her lips, but I can see that she is not convinced in her heart. She always felt that I was bluffing her, and she didn’t believe that the words I said were true. Alas …… just, anyway, I should say all said, if she prefer to go to the hard life then let her go. I guarantee that as long as she and that bastard thing hooked up together, not two or three years time, she will have to become yellow hair, rough skin and then take a bucket waist of yellow face, she really think that looking for someone to partner life is so easy? She thinks she’s going to be a countess in some big family!”

Hearing this, Arthur pondered for a while, “Although I don’t know if that lad who hooked up with Annie is really that bad, but if his character is indeed bad to the point of no return. Please don’t forget, Mr. Martin, that you have a friend on your side.”

When Martin heard this, he first froze, and then rejoiced, “Mr. Hastings, I can’t believe you’re actually willing to go through the trouble for such a trivial matter. How on earth should I thank you? Damn! It is truly a supreme honor to be friends with you! What would you like to eat today, I will go to the back kitchen and prepare it for you.”

Martin couldn’t help but yell at the top of his lungs at the back kitchen as he said, “Annie! Anne! Mr. Hastings is here, grape pudding and tomato meatloaf, Mr. Hastings’ favorite meals, can be prepared!”

Martin shouted half a dozen times, but there was a delay in hearing a response, he slapped his head and cursed in a low voice, “This little ninny must be slacking off, she must have gotten carried away while delivering wine to the penny house again. Mr. Hastings, don’t you worry, I’ll go there and pull her out.”

Arthur didn’t really care about the slow serving, anyway, he didn’t come here today specifically to drink and eat. Compared to the grape pudding and tomato meatloaf, he was obviously more interested in the penny house that Martin was talking about.

“What’s a penny house?”

“You don’t know about penny houses?”

Martin smiled as he explained, “But it’s only natural that you don’t, it hasn’t been fashionable for very long and it’s mainly an entertainment for the girls. My large male customers wouldn’t want to pay a penny for a couple of ditties, they’d rather have a couple of full size mugs of ale for that kind of money.”

At this point, Martin pointed to a room at the back of the tavern separated from the main hall by a blue cloth curtain and said, “Do you see that room? That’s the penny room I’ve set aside for the girls, where for the price of a penny they can be entertained all night.

Although our productions are not as elegant as those in the regular theaters, or as thrilling as those in the small theaters on the south bank of the Thames, the penny room at Martin’s Tavern is not without its merits.

We have one of the best singers in the East End, and you won’t find a better guy who can sing for four hours from six to ten, as long as there’s enough beer to go around. And our midget entertainers here, do you know how hard it is to get through the ring of fire and back again? Especially in that cramped little setting in the penny house, that’s not easy.”

Arthur couldn’t help but be interested in traveling to the penny house to find out what it was all about when he heard Martin describe it so interestingly.

He fished a coin out of his pocket and flicked it into Martin’s hand with the top of his fingernail, then got up and said, “I hope the penny house will bring some fun to my boring waiting time while my guests are still here.”

“Mr. Hastings, how can I take your money?”

Without thinking, Martin was about to shove the penny back into Arthur’s hand, but Arthur pushed his hand back, “Mr. Martin, it is your God-given right to make money in business. Besides, this penny is only an appetizer compared to what I’m going to spend next, so just take it.”

With those words, Arthur took a step toward the penny house.

He lifted the dark blue curtains of the room, and the secret world of the tavern was suddenly visible to him.

Perhaps because the miserly Mr. Martin feared that someone might peek into the Penny Room from the outside, there were no windows in the room, and the only illumination was provided by two kerosene lamps that swung from the ceiling.

Under the dim, yellowish and somewhat warm light, the room was filled with smoke, and Arthur gently sniffed the room’s odor, which he quickly determined to be a combination of beer, tobacco and a variety of cheap perfumes.

It was not a wonderful smell, but compared to the stench of sweat and the lingering aftertaste of vomit that emanated from the drunks in the main hall, Arthur didn’t think it was too bad.

He scanned the scene and layout of the room, which was rather spartan, with only two improvised curtains made from floral drapes, and even the stage for the show was cobbled together from a few wooden beer crates.

On this stage, which can only accommodate four adults standing side by side, there is a wandering singer holding bagpipes, his hair is a bit messy, and his shirt is washed white, but it doesn’t stop him from rolling up his sleeves and puffing out his cheeks, intending to have a great time. For no other reason than this was his venue. And the audience, sitting or standing on stage, was exactly as Martin had introduced them, a group of young girls in their late teens and early twenties. It was also from them that the odor of perfume and tobacco mixed with beer that Arthur had smelled earlier had emanated.

Perhaps because the space in the room was so small, or perhaps because Martin wanted to charge a few more tickets, he didn’t even bother to set up too many tables here, and there was only one large communal round table in the room for the girls to set up their beer mugs and dinner plates.

As a well-known Scotland Yard detective, Arthur could easily analyze the girls’ occupations, experiences, and pasts from the way they dressed and spent their money.

Those who stood against the wall and listened to the songs were mostly rough-fingered laundresses wearing patched black dresses and headscarves. Their incomes were not good, and spending a penny a night for entertainment was already a high expense, so naturally they could not afford to order more drinks or a few pieces of bread and half a sausage.

Those who carried their plates in their hands, and ate as if they were afraid to swallow their slender white fingers in one mouthful, were the maids and governesses employed. Their incomes were a little better than those of the laundresses, and as they were also provided with lodgings by their employers, they were naturally much better off, and the occasional extravagance was perfectly acceptable to them.

Those who sat around the round table, sipping their glasses of beer in the manner of the high society’s taste for wine, and occasionally taking a sip from a long, slender female cigarette holder, exhaling a string of smoke so thick that it couldn’t be melted, were the beautiful people wearing a variety of fashionable wide-brimmed hats.

As for their identities, naturally, there was no need to say more, after all, there were only so many professions that ladies could engage in these days. In just this short while, Arthur had seen several girls he had seen around Fiona.

The girls seemed to have noticed that someone was checking them out as well, they looked back and just happened to meet Arthur’s gaze, a few of them froze for a moment, then immediately recognized Arthur’s appearance as well.

When Arthur saw this situation, he could only take off his hat, slightly apologized and nodded at them, even if it was a greeting.

Who knows that the girls saw Arthur greetings, but the reaction is different, some of the same smile with him to see the salute, some are pulling the side of the partner gusts of snickers, there are also unsuspecting wink at him, seems to be waiting to see his jokes.

Just when Arthur did not understand why, he suddenly heard a bout of singing from a wandering singer on the stage.

“I’m a vagabond, and just last summer I heard that the Manchester Railroad was opened.

After three months of picking up horse manure and stealing two geese from the village. I was, at last, entitled to be a first-class passenger.

I boarded the train with trepidation, the train whistle rumbled, the steam whisked across the station platform and blew the long skirts of the ladies wide open.

From this point on, I finally knew why bees love colorful flowers, because they are yellow, white, red, purple, colorful, colorful.

I tapped on the car window and yelled at them, I whistled at them. I shouted, “Ma’am, please stand there and be good, O me in the guise of a bee, I’m about to swoop down and get some honey!”

Here the wandering singer sang, and drew a burst of unbridled laughter from the ladies in the tavern, only to hear a clinking of glasses as they gulped down their mugs of ale.

Perhaps it was the effect of the alcohol, or perhaps it was the need to relieve the stress of life, there were still girls on the stage shouting at the wandering singer from time to time: “Edward, are you picking honey for a week in a row? You don’t sing as loud today as you did last week!”

Edward, the wandering singer, wasn’t willing to show his weakness either, and he screamed at the audience, “All of you wannabes, get a grip on yourselves! This is just the beginning of the day! I’m warning you, don’t be so fucking quick to flood! Don’t you guys think the house smells bad enough?”

However his shouting was nothing more than another joke to the audience, after all, interacting with the singer was one of the options for entertainment in the penny house.

“Edward, fuck you, if you ask me, you’re not going to make a few pennies a night selling that mouth of yours, selling your ass for money is definitely faster than singing!”

Anyone who saw this scene would have been skeptical, and I’m afraid everyone wondered where all the weak ladies were that could be found on the streets of London.

Martin, who came immediately after Arthur, could not help but feel embarrassed when he saw this scene, he rubbed the back of his head and said: “Mr. Hastings, why don’t you go to the private room on the second floor to sit down first? In fact, my penny house is not always like this, today it is just not a coincidence. Of course, our performances here are in the end no better than those musicals you often listen to.”

Martin had thought that Arthur would have to be embarrassed beyond measure, even if he wasn’t angry.

To his surprise, Arthur just took out a matchbox and gently struck a fire, leaned against the door and smoked a cigarette, saying, “This song actually sounds okay, and the flavor of life is quite strong. And I’ve been listening to sermons, prayers, and hymns at Scotland Yard today and I’ve gotten a little carried away, so listening to the bees picking honey is just the thing to wake me up. Otherwise it’s always a serious business, and I can’t talk business with guests later.”

“Talking business with guests?”

Martin’s heart flinched when he heard this, he pondered for a moment, and instantly seemed to understand something, he spoke with a smile on the corner of his eyes and a sweaty forehead, “Mr. Hastings, if I may say so, even if a person of your status wants to talk business, he should go to the West End. The girls in the East End are really not a good match for you, and it’s not safe or confidential here, and it’s easy for you to get into trouble afterwards.”

Said here, Martin again busy rushed to the counter, from the cabinet under the fumble for a while, pulled out a tattered pamphlet, and then walked to Arthur’s side mysteriously handed it to Arthur’s hand.

“What is this?”

Martin glanced around, then lowered his voice and said, “Don’t ask so many questions. This is something good, and it’s definitely a decisive guide for a novice like you.”

Arthur looked down and flipped open the cover, which was already blurred to the point of not recognizing the exact words, only to see a line of title written glowingly on the title page – “Bernie Harrison’s Fantastic Journey Chart”.

As soon as Arthur saw the title, he immediately remembered that there was a similar one in Scotland Yard’s list of censored publications, and if he remembered correctly, the name of that banned publication was – “Harris’s List of Covent Garden Green Houses”.

It was quite a long history when it came to this magazine, as an annual magazine that issued its first edition in 1760, it sold more than two hundred and fifty thousand copies over a period of more than thirty years, and it was only in 1794 that it was forced to cease publication under the strong censorship of Parliament.

Except that although the Harris’s Covent Garden Green House List no longer continues to be updated, similar underground publications pop up almost every so often, and no matter how much effort Scotland Yard puts into it, something always slips through the cracks.

Only this one, which Martin had handed to Arthur, was particularly interesting; after all, the name Bernie Harrison had struck him as too much.

Arthur thought for a while, but finally put this magazine into his bosom without moving, and then showed an encouraging look at Martin: ”Mr. Martin, next time you have this kind of good stuff, remember to save it for me. This thing is not only needed by me, I’m sure my guest who will be arriving soon will also need it.”

Martin smiled and asked, “Is that so? That guest of yours is also a novice?”

Arthur just smiled as he gently shook his head, “I don’t know, but I guess he wouldn’t be a novice.”

Martin sniffed curiously, “Why do you say that?”

Arthur raised an eyebrow, “Simply because he’s a Frenchman and from Paris. As bad as London is at the moment, as far as I know, it doesn’t rank in front of Paris for the time being.”

“Ah. ……”

Martin came to a realization, and he whirled around and laughed, “Why else would you be a Superintendent of Police? It is true that you still think well.”

(End of chapter)