"Then come on, if you are not afraid," said the boy--and followed by his companion, he cautiously began to descend into the dark and dreary chasm.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: It is a fact by no means generally known that there was, beneath the section of New York called the "Five Points," a vast subterranean cavern, known as the _dark vaults_. There mysterious pa.s.sages run in many directions, for a great distance, far beneath the foundations of the houses. Some have supposed that the place was excavated in time of war, for the secretion of ammunition or stores, while others think it was formerly a deep sewer of the city. In these dark labyrinths _daylight_ never _shone_: an eternal night prevailed.
Yet it swarmed with human beings, who pa.s.sed their lives amid its unwholesome damps and gloomy horrors. It served as a refuge for monstrous crimes and loathsome wretchedness. The Police rarely ventured to explore its secret mysteries--for Death lurked in its dark pa.s.sages and hidden recesses. The horrors of this awful place have never heretofore been thoroughly revealed; and now the author of this work will, for the first time, drag forth the ghastly inmates of this charnel-house into the clear light of day.]
CHAPTER VI
_The Dark Vaults--Scenes of Appalling Horror--The Dead Man--The Catechism--arrangements for a Burglary._
Down, down, they went, far into the bowels of the earth; groping their way in darkness, and often hazarding their necks by stumbling upon the steep and slippery steps. At length the bottom of the "forty-foot cave"
was reached; and the boy grasping the hand of his follower, conducted him thro" a long and circuitous pa.s.sage. Intense darkness and profound silence reigned; but after traversing this pa.s.sage for a considerable distance, lights began to illumine the dreary path, and that indistinct hum which proceeds from numerous inhabitants, became audible. Soon the two explorers emerged into a large open s.p.a.ce, having the appearance of a vast vault, arched overhead with rough black masonry, which was supported by huge pillars of brick and stone. Encircling this mighty _tomb_, as it might be properly called, were numerous small hovels, or rather _caves_, dug into the earth; and these holes were swarming with human beings.
Here was a _subterranean village_! Myriads of men and women dwelt in this awful place, where the sun never shone; here they festered with corruption, and died of starvation and wretchedness--those who were poor; and here also the fugitive murderer, the branded outlaw, the hunted thief, and the successful robber, laden with his booty, found a safe asylum, where justice _dare not_ follow them--here they gloried in the remembrance of past crimes, and antic.i.p.ated future enormities. Men had no secrets here;--for no treachery could place them within the grasp of the law, and every one spoke openly and boldly of his long-hidden deeds of villainy and outrage.
"Come", said the boy to the stranger--"let us go the rounds and see what"s going on."
They drew nigh a large, shelving aperture in the earth, on one side of the vault, and looking in saw a man, nearly naked; seated upon a heap of excrement and filthy straw. A fragment of a penny candle was burning dimly near him, which showed him to be literally daubed from head to foot with the vilest filth. Before him lay the carcase of some animal which had died from disease--it was swollen and green with putrefaction; and oh, horrible! we sicken as we record the loathsome fact--the starved wretch was ravenously devouring the carrion! Yes, with his finger nails, long as vultures" claws, he tore out the reeking entrails, and ate them with the ferocity of the grave-robbing hyena! One of the spectators spoke to him, but he only growled savagely, and continued his revolting meal.
"Oh, G.o.d!" said the stranger, shuddering--"this is horrible!"
"Pooh!" rejoined the boy--"_that"s_ nothing at all to what you will see if you have the courage and inclination to follow me wherever I shall lead you, in these vaults."
In another cavern an awful scene presented itself. It was an Irish _wake_--a dead body lay upon the table, and the relations and friends of the deceased were howling their lamentations over it. An awful stench emanating from the corpse, indicated that the process of decomposition had already commenced. In one corner, several half-crazed, drunken, naked wretches were fighting with the ferocity of tigers, and the mourners soon joining in the fray, a general combat ensued, in the fury of which, the table on which lay the body was overturned, and the corpse was crushed beneath the feet of the combatants.
Leaving this appalling scene, the boy and the stranger pa.s.sed on, until they stood before a cave which was literally crammed with human beings.
Men and women, boys and girls, young children, negroes, and _hogs_ were laying indiscriminately upon the ground, in a compact ma.s.s. Some were cursing each other with fierce oaths; and horrible to relate! negroes were lying with young white girls, and several, unmindful of the presence of others, were perpetrating the most dreadful enormities.
These beings were vile and loathsome in appearance, beyond all human conception; every one of them was a ma.s.s of rags, filth, disease, and corruption. As the stranger surveyed the loathsome group, he said to his guide, with a refinement of speech he had not before a.s.sumed--
"Had any one, two hours ago, a.s.sured me that such a place as this, containing such horrible inmates, existed in the very heart of the city, I would have given him the lie direct! But I see it for myself, and am forced to believe it."
"These wretches," said the boy--"are many of them related to each other.
There are husbands and wives there; mothers and children; brothers and sisters. Yet they all herd together, you see, without regard to nature or decency. Why the crime of _incest_ is as common among them as dirt! I have known a mother and her son--a father and his daughter--a brother and sister--to be guilty of criminal intimacy! Those wretched children are many of them the offspring of such unnatural and beastly connections. In my opinion, those hogs have as good a claim to humanity, as those brutes in human form!"
"And how came those hogs to form part of the inhabitants of this infernal place?" asked the stranger.
"You must know," replied the boy,"that these vaults communicate with the common street _sewers_ of the city; well, those animals get into the sewers, to devour the vegetable matter, filth and offal that acc.u.mulate there; and, being unable to get out, they eventually find their way to these vaults. Here they are killed and eaten by the starving wretches.
And would you believe it?--these people derive almost all their food from these sewers. They take out the decayed vegetables and other filth, which they actually eat; and the floating sticks and timber serve them for fuel. You remember the man we saw devouring the dead animal; well, he took that carcase from the sewer."
"And what effect does such loathsome diet produce upon them?" asked the other.
"Oh," was the reply--"it makes them insane in a short time; eventually they lose the faculty of speech, and howl like wild animals. Their bodies become diseased, their limbs rot, and finally they putrify and die."
"And how do they dispose of the dead bodies?" asked the stranger.
"_They throw them into the sewer_," answered the boy, with indifference.
His listener shuddered.
"Come," said the young guide--"you have only seen the wretched portion of the Dark Vaults. You are sick of such miseries, and well you may be--but we will now pay a visit to a quarter where there are no sickening sights. We will go to the _Infernal Regions_!"
Saying this, he led the way thro" a long, narrow pa.s.sage, which was partially illumined by a bright light at the further end. As they advanced loud bursts of laughter greeted their ears; and finally they emerged into a large cavern, brilliantly illuminated by a mult.i.tude of candles, and furnished with a huge round table. Seated around this were about twenty men, whose appearance denoted them to be the most desperate and villainous characters which can infest a city. Not any of them were positively ragged or dirty; on the contrary, some of them were dressed richly and expensively; but there was no mistaking their true characters, for villain was written in their faces as plainly as though the word was branded on their faces with a hot iron.
Seated upon a stool in the centre of the table was a man of frightful appearance: his long, tangled hair hung over two eyes that gleamed with savage ferocity; his face was the most awful that can be imagined--long, lean, cadaverous and livid, it resembled that of a corpse. No stranger could view it without a shudder; it caused the spectator to recoil with horror. His form was tall and bony, and he was gifted with prodigious strength. This man, on account of his corpse-like appearance was known as "the Dead Man." He never went by any other t.i.tle; and his real name was unknown.
The stupendous villainy and depravity of this man"s character will appear hereafter. Upon the occasion of his first introduction in this narrative, he was acting as president of the carousals; he was the first one to notice the entrance of the boy and the stranger; and addressing the former, he said--
"How now, _Kinchen_--who have you brought with you? Is the cove _cross_ or _square_--and what does he want in our _ken_?"
"He is a _cross cove_," answered the boy--"he is just from _quay_; and wishes to make the acquaintance of the knights of the Round Table."
"That being the case," rejoined the Dead Man, "he is welcome, provided he has the blunt to pay for the _lush_ all round."
The stranger, understanding the import of these words, threw upon the table a handful of money; this generosity instantly raised him high in the estimation of all present. He was provided with a seat at the table, and a b.u.mper of brandy was handed him, which he merely tasted, without drinking.
The boy seated himself at the side of the stranger, and the Dead Man, addressing a person by the name of the "Doctor," requested him to resume the narration of his story, in which he had been interrupted by the two newcomers.
The "Doctor," a large, dark man, very showily dressed, complied, and spoke as follows:--
"As I was saying, gentlemen, I had become awfully reduced--not a cent in my possession, not a friend in the world, and clothed in rags. One night, half-crazed with hunger, I stationed myself at the Park, having armed myself with a paving stone, determined to rob the first person that came along, even if I should be obliged to dash out his brains.--After a while, a young gentleman approached my lurking place; I advanced towards him with my missile raised, and he drew a sword from his cane, prepared to act on the defensive--but when I mentioned that three days had elapsed since I had taken food, the generous young man, who might easily have overcome me, weak and reduced as I was--took from his pocket a fifty dollar bill, and gave it to me. This generous gift set me on my legs again, and now here am I, a Knight of the Round Table, with a pocket full of rocks, and good prospects in antic.i.p.ation. Now, the only wish of my heart is to do that generous benefactor of mine a service; and if ever I can do a good action to him, to prove my grat.i.tude, I shall be a happy fellow indeed."
"Posh!" said the Dead Man, contemptuously--"don"t talk to me of grat.i.tude--if a man does _me_ a service I hate him for it ever afterwards. I never rest till I repay him by some act of treachery or vengeance."
As the hideous man gave utterance to this abominable sentiment, several females entered the apartment, one of whom led by the hand a small boy of five years of age. This woman was the wife of the Dead Man, and the child was his son.
The little fellow scrambled upon the table, and his father took him upon his knee, saying to the company--
"Pals, you know the blessed Bible tells us to "train up a child in the way he should go;" very good--now you will see how well I have obeyed the command with this little _kid_. Attend to your catechism, my son.
What is your name?"
"Jack the Prig," answered the boy without hesitation.
"Who gave you that name?"
"The Jolly Knights of the Round Table."
"Who made you?" asked the father.
"His Majesty, old Beelzebub!" said the child.
"For what purpose did he make you?"
"To be a bold thief all my life, and die like a man upon the gallows!"