The People of the Abyss

"But you can't do it, you know," friends said, to whom I applied for assistance in the matterof sinking myself down into the East End of London. "You had better see the police for aguide," they added, on second thought, painfully endeavouring to adjust themselves to thepsychological processes of a madman who had come to them with better credentials thanbrains."But I don't want to see the police," I protested. "What I wish to do is to go down into theEast End and see things for myself.

I wish to know how those people are living there, andwhy they are living there, and what they are living for.

In short, I am going to live theremyself.""You don't want to live down there!" everybody said, with disapprobation writ large upontheir faces. "Why, it is said there are places where a man's life isn't worth tu'pence."