yet the place is its
counterpart, the only difference being that the Five Points, as it is
called, is two degrees worse than the Seven Dials that's, all!

[Illustration]

Standing at these misnamed crossways, I noticed hurrying past an Italian
woman bearing a load of household furniture on her back, and followed by
a man--her husband, I was told--cursing her.

"They always move at night," said my guide. "The women do all the
carrying, and this is in a country where woman reigns _soo_preme, too!"

Next comes a youth with a crutch.

"One of the cleverest thieves in the city. No one suspects him--guess
his crippling is his fortune."

I should like to tell you of other interesting people I saw, of my
perambulations through Baxter Street, the Jewish quarter, of the visits
to the joss house, opium joint, grocery stores, halls of dazzling
delight, and dens of iniquity I made that night. I had my sketches and
notes before me to continue this chapter, when I received a New York
paper. In it I discovered an illustrated article headed "In His Own
Black Art," purporting to be an account of my visit to the slums with a
detective. After reading it I laid down my pen and took up my scissors,
I felt it impossible to disclose any more. The rest I leave to my
shadower on that occasion, reproducing also some of the sketches this
"faithful copper-fastened distorter of features" set down, with many
thanks to him and a sincere wish that his headache is better.

[Illustration: IN AN OPIUM JOINT.]

"IN HIS OWN BLACK ART.

* * * * *

"Mr. Furniss writes very cleverly, it should be said. He writes
good London English, for he, like many of 'the infernally good
fellows' of Fleet Street, 'don't you know,' believes that the
vernacular is only written in its virgin purity in that city.
However, let that pass.

[Illustration]

"But there was one thing that I couldn't consent, even as his
friend, to overlook. Mr. Furniss was determined to go 'slumming.'
He had letters to several members of the police department, but the
friends who had given these valuable credentials had evidently
selected only the captains of the highly respectable precincts. Of
course, they could not imagine that Mr. Furniss would want to visit
the joss house and opium joints of Chinatown. Nobody would, to
look at him. And yet, in his tireless study of 'Amer