Their eyes were flashing under the
influence of intoxication, and from their pretty lips were issuing
blasphemies which made him shudder. Old women, with a long record of
shame and immorality behind them, and with their bold faces covered with
cosmetics to hide the ravages of time. Rough men, with their flannel
shirts and their trousers tucked into their high, mud-covered boots.
Young men of the city, dressed well and apparently respectable, yet all
yielding to their passion for strong drink and the charms of lewdness
and indecency. A strange, wild gathering of all grades and conditions,
mingling in a disgraceful orgie which the pen refuses to depict. How
many stories of happy homes wrecked and broken could be related by these
painted lizards who now were swimming in this whirlpool of licentious
gratification! How many men, whose past careers of honor and reputation
had been thrown away, were here gathered in this brothel, participating
in so-called amusements, which a few years ago would have appalled them!
Ah, humanity is a strange study, and debased humanity the strangest and
saddest of them all.
[Illustration: Manning and his companion stood for some time gazing at
the scenes around them.
Pages:
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227