{"product_id":"2940012760333","title":"Crying for the Light Volume I","description":"CONTENTS OF VOL. I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER                                       PAGE\u003cbr\u003e        I.  PARKER’S PIECE, SLOVILLE             1\u003cbr\u003e       II.  THE ACTRESS AND THE WAIF            28\u003cbr\u003e      III.  GOING UP TO TOWN                    53\u003cbr\u003e       IV.  A YOUNG PREACHER                    76\u003cbr\u003e        V.  AFTER THE SERVICE                   91\u003cbr\u003e       VI.  AT SLOVILLE AGAIN                  112\u003cbr\u003e      VII.  THE CHARTISTS                      132\u003cbr\u003e     VIII.  IN BOHEMIA                         162\u003cbr\u003e       IX.  THE OLD, OLD STORY                 197\u003cbr\u003e        X.  UNDER THE STARS                    229\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003ePARKER’S PIECE, SLOVILLE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUpon my word, I don’t know a more desirable residence from the pauper’s\u003cbr\u003epoint of view than Parker’s Piece, an awful spot in the very heart of the\u003cbr\u003erising town of Sloville.  I can’t say, as regards myself, that the place\u003cbr\u003ehas many attractions.  It is too crowded, too dirty, too evil-smelling,\u003cbr\u003etoo much inhabited by living creatures, including insects which delicacy\u003cbr\u003eforbids mentioning.  I like living in the country, where I can hear the\u003cbr\u003ebirds sing their morning anthem.  I like to see the buttercups and\u003cbr\u003edaisies, and the green grass, and the blue sky, and the sunshine, which\u003cbr\u003emakes everyone feel happy; and when winter comes, how much do I love the\u003cbr\u003esparkling diamonds on the frosted trees, and the pure white snow which\u003cbr\u003erobes the earth with a loveliness of which the dweller in towns has no\u003cbr\u003eadequate idea!  I like to breathe fresh air, and not town smoke; and so,\u003cbr\u003eindividually, I had rather not reside in Parker’s Piece; but there are\u003cbr\u003ethose who live there, and much enjoy it.  Mostly they are a ragged\u003cbr\u003elot—tramps and vagrants and the ever growing army of the unemployed—who\u003cbr\u003emake it their headquarters, as it is full of old houses and corners where\u003cbr\u003ethe peelers cannot penetrate, and public-houses where the sot may drink\u003cbr\u003eas long as his or her money lasts out; where, as regards the spot in\u003cbr\u003equestion, there is a special encouragement to do so, seeing how much\u003cbr\u003emoney was left ages ago by a pious founder, who had made money in some\u003cbr\u003eway which was not exactly right, and who thought it just as well, when it\u003cbr\u003ewas of no further use to him, to leave it partly to the priests to pray\u003cbr\u003efor his soul, and partly to the poor, that future generations might call\u003cbr\u003ehim blessed; and as the poor all round were well aware of the fact, there\u003cbr\u003ewas never a house or room that stood empty long—unhealthy as was the\u003cbr\u003eplace, and dilapidated as were the buildings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne building, however, was an exception to the others, as regards age.\u003cbr\u003eOriginally it had been started as a boot and shoe manufactory, but that\u003cbr\u003edid not pay; then it became a depot for pure literature and well-meant\u003cbr\u003epublications, but no one came to buy; then it came into the hands of a\u003cbr\u003eTown Councillor, who, disgusted that the Corporation would not purchase\u003cbr\u003eit at an extravagant rate, to pull it down, vowed that he would never lay\u003cbr\u003eout a penny on the place, only get out of it what rent he could.  As he\u003cbr\u003elet it out in tenements, the rents of which were collected by a somewhat\u003cbr\u003eunscrupulous agent, the fact was, the locality became less respectable\u003cbr\u003eand less cared for every day.  It was avoided by the police as much as\u003cbr\u003epossible.  If there was a quarrel—as there was almost every day—between\u003cbr\u003eits wretched inmates, it was hard to say who was to blame.  Passing down\u003cbr\u003ethere one day, I saw a man savagely assaulting his wife.  To my\u003cbr\u003eremonstrance he replied that if he did not let her know that he was\u003cbr\u003emaster, she would stick a knife into him; and, according to the public\u003cbr\u003eopinion of the place, he was right.  Only on Sunday morning was the place\u003cbr\u003equiet, and that was not because the dwellers there were at church or\u003cbr\u003echapel, but simply because the weary were enjoying an extra hour’s sleep,\u003cbr\u003eor the dissipated had not, as yet, overcome the effect of the previous\u003cbr\u003eevening’s debauch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll at once Parker’s Piece became known far and near.  One night a little\u003cbr\u003eone, happily, died, instead of making a feeble and ineffectual struggle\u003cbr\u003eto live; an inquest was held, and the result was a revelation of misery\u003cbr\u003eand wretchedness which made all Sloville stand aghast.  A London radical\u003cbr\u003enewspaper sent down an artist to give a rude drawing of the place, and a\u003cbr\u003especial correspondent, whose report was as sensational as could be\u003cbr\u003edesired.  Parker’s Piece became as well known to the British community as\u003cbr\u003ethe Mansion House, or St. Paul’s, or Westminster Abbey, or the Houses of\u003cbr\u003eParliament.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47179550621936,"sku":"2940012760333","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012760333_p0.jpg?v=1763571882","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012760333","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}