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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE It was a chilly October night in a notorious den beyond the water?since closed by the police. Half a dozen gross gas-jets lit up the long, low room, making a procession of queer-shaped shadows dance restlessly about the walls: here and there, dotted about, crudely coloured chromos of the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and one or two half- naked prize-fighters. It was a Saturday night, so the place was quite full?bargemen with grimy furrows across their bronzed faces; plenty of typical river casuals sucking stumpy clay-pipes; in a corner a group of pasty-faced youths quarrelling over their greasy cards; and scattered about the room some riverside prostitutes, their cheap finery all bedraggled with mud. A veritable Babel rose from these dregsof a population?hoarse laughter, snatches of songs and oaths. It was hot, a foul, unhealthy heat; the very walls were sweating, and a bluish haze was filling the room up to the blackened ceiling. I was vainly looking about me for a seat, when a mason, whose corduroys were still white with lime, pulled my arm and motioned me to a place next him, at the same time lifting the woman who was occupying it on to his knees. Then he began again to beat the table, with an empty pewter-pot, to the refrain of a popular song. At intervals he would stop, grin across at me, and hug his companion. She, too, was young: perhaps she had been striking-looking once; at least her eyes were still fine, but the lips were shapeless, the voice was hoarse and overpitched, and the complexion was muddy-coloured. I was watching this typical couple, when suddenly I heard a plaintive voice behind me. A girl stood there, death-white, with dark rings round her eyes. The corners of her bloodless lipswere quivering, as though she ...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217148023 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217148026 |
| Weight | 0.38 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.26 In |
| List Price | $14.14 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 108 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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