At Wapping, East London (ca. 1909) by Donald Mason
A few steps from the Newcastle and Sunderland Wharf, opposite Rotherhite stairs, near to the Wapping Basin, on a small, dank street then known as Salter’s Alley, Alicia Torteau then resided. Her view, even when she cared to look about herself, was not a pleasant one, being an old cobbled row of lodging houses, shops and taverns. At one end of the street stood the ancient salt-works, which accounted for the name of the place, as well as for its aspect. Here great barrels of eels and fish were salted down and sold, while other edibles were pickled for preserving.
***At night, the gas-lamps lent this scene an eerie light. Dockworkers, weary from their shifts, and still fragrant with the scent of the cinnamons and sherries and other cargoes stored in the great vaults and warehouses about their workplace, wandered the streets and alleyways, or gathered outside their taverns.
***Women, singly or in pairs, lingered beneath the lamps . . .
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***Inside Alicia Torteau sat alone at her small table. More and more of late, and with less and less of patience, the publishers would refuse her drawings, saying that they were too odd or dark, or simply that they were not wanted. Even when she tried to draw in a manner more pleasing to her audience, her scenes would of themselves grow strange, as if she somehow refused to shape the figures that were wanted.
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***Outside the taverns were now closing. The river, too, had long retreated with the tide. The men from the neighbouring tenements were slowly moving indoors, and taking to their beds. Beyond, the powerful electric lights from the adjacent docks coloured the far horizon; where the far-off sound of shouts and cries, the moving cranes, would continue through the night . . .
Donald Mason has published translations in Brick, Alchemy, and The Antigonish Review. He is currently working on a proposed collection of translated stories by Isabelle Eberhardt, entitled Daughters of the Casbah.
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