A change, however, passed over the place as the class of customers gradually altered. The depraved became fewer in number, while the skilled criminal class increased. Magsmen and well-dressed pickpockets were more frequently to be seen there, while the thieves, among themselves, spoke of the woman as a good "fence" (i.e., a person who stands between the thieves and receivers, and renders detection more difficult). The following incident will show the class of customers:—
One night a Clergyman, who is now a dignitary of the Church, visited there with the Missionary. The shop was unusually full of youths and men of the criminal class, but in the farther corner sat a party of three persons who appeared to be separated from the rest of the company,—a man, woman, and little girl of twelve years. They were leaning forward as if asleep, but were aroused by the laughter produced by the pleasant remark the Missionary made concerning "the wisdom of the owls of night."
"What are you doing here with that child?" inquired the Clergyman.
"Please, sir," replied the woman, "we has been very unlucky, cos as how my husband has been ill, and all our sticks was took for the bit of rent, and we begged sixpence, and has had some tea and is stayin' here till it's light; and if my old man doesn't get work to-morrow we shall go next day to the Union over Battersea."
"You had better go there at once," he replied; "but don't expose the child to the night air. If you will promise me to save enough for a lodging, should you be out to-morrow night, I will give you half-a-crown."
The promise was made and the money given, though the quick eye of the experienced visitor saw by the glances interchanged between the company that deceit was being practised. The money was not, however lost, as that congregation of the ungodly listened with deep feeling to the clear, loving utterances of Divine truth which fell from the lips of that good minister of Christ Jesus.
Next evening the Missionary called in and inquired of the "missus" what was done with the half-a-crown.
"We had a bottle of gin with it," she replied, "but some of the fools wouldn't have any and went out, and said it was a shame to cheat such a good Missionary-man as him was that gived it."
"Now tell me," he continued, "who that man, woman, and child were? I am certain that they are not vagrants."
"I should think not," the woman replied laughing: "why they are smashers (i.e., makers of counterfeit money), and they sends the girl in first, who has bags of bad money under her frock, and one of 'em comes in, and if it's all serene the t'other comes, and then they does business. When you com'd to the door I tipped 'em the wink, affore opening it, as they was then a-sellin' to them chaps. One was a buying six-pennorth of shillings, and another a shilling's worth of half-crowns, according to quality, as the saying is."