Princelet Street Synagogue was one of many small orthodox Ashkenazi synagogues in London’s East End. The building was originally...

eBook Content: A Crime of the Under-seas by Guy Boothby Subject: Mystery and detective stories ______________________________________ There is an old saying that "one half of the world does not know how the other half lives", but how true this is very few of us really understand. In the East, indeed, it amounts almost to the marvellous. There are men engaged in trades there, some of them highly lucrative, of which the world in general has never heard, and which the ordinary stay-at-home Englishman would in all probability refuse to believe, even if the most trustworthy evidence were placed before him. Guy Newell Boothby (13 October 1867 – 26 February 1905) was a prolific Australian novelist and writer, noted for sensational fiction in variety magazines around the end of the nineteenth century. He lived mainly in England. He is best known for such works as the Dr Nikola series, about an occultist criminal mastermind who is a Victorian forerunner to Fu Manchu, and Pharos, the Egyptian, a tale of Gothic Egypt, mummies' curses and supernatural revenge. Rudyard Kipling was his friend and mentor, and his books were remembered with affection by George Orwell. ______________________________________ Buy & Immediate download this book in PDF format. Optional: You may download & install adobe Acrobat reader from adobe.com Public Domain in the USA

The Mystery of 'The Homo Floresiensis Ebu Gogo' from Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara Indonesia [2-End]

Erected in 1980 in the US state of Georgia, the Georgia Guidestones stand 90 miles to the east of Atlanta and are a modern megalithic mystery. Made from granite, they stand 16 feet tall and consist…

These places seriously look like portals to another world. For more mystery, darkness, and one very sinister portal, don't miss Season 2 of Witches of East End, Sundays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

Infinite Caves - 4 different cave animated scenes, Entrance, Crossway, Great Hall and Mines. High Quality Dungeons and Dragons animations and wallpapers.

The cognitive scientist has written stacks of influential books, but his new one is in an unfamiliar genre: memoir.

We offer you a Jack the Ripper walk that follows a truly atmospheric route and which goes straight into the old, narrow alleyways where you will feel like you’ve been transported back to the mean streets of the Victorian East End. In addition you will visit more murder sites and locations related to the Jack the Ripper murders than on other Jack the Ripper walks, and be guided in your quest by true experts on the subject.

These places seriously look like portals to another world. For more mystery, darkness, and one very sinister portal, don't miss Season 2 of Witches of East End, Sundays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

Infinite Caves - 4 different cave animated scenes, Entrance, Crossway, Great Hall and Mines. High Quality Dungeons and Dragons animations and wallpapers.

The Mysterious White Witch of Jamaica is a tragic and mysterious tale of witchcraft, Voodoo, and vengeful ghosts.

At 12000 years, Gobekli Tepe is the oldest known stone ruins whose builders are unknown. Excavations at Gobekli Tepe point to the possibility that the builders of Gobekli Tepe may have been the Native inhabitants, the Denisovans or the Anunnaki Ancient Astronaut Aliens. Located in Turkey, Gobekli Tepe is

Not many people know that the famous American author Jack London was also a skilled documentary photographer and photojournalist. He took thousands of pictures over the years from the slums…

Welcome to my Hallmark Movie Fan Blog, celebarting the charming Hallmark Movie lifestyle!

The Occult Sciences in Atlantis; $27.00 The Image of the Beast : A Secret Empire; $26.00 Design for War; A Study of Secret Power Politics, 1937-1941; $37.00

"For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of man be in his day" - Lk 17:24, which is part of today's Gospel at Mass. Fisheye view of the east ambulatory chapels of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC. In the apse, the Son of Man in glory. Many people react negatively to this depiction of Jesus, but it's not unusual from the 4th-century and in mosaics (cf Ravenna) to see Jesus depicted like a Greek god, and the Day of the Lord is also the "Dies iræ", the day of judgement and wrath! Mgr Pope offers a good Biblical meditation on his blog commenting on this particular rendition of Christ in Majesty.

Lightseeker is the sixth volume of the Lord of Mysteries series written by Cuttlefish That Loves Diving. This volume focused on the idea that humans were small and powerless in front of gods, yet they would still pursue the light. The meaning behind Lightseeker was somewhat similar to Icarus's story; He flew too close to the sun and fell into the sea where he drowned. In this volume, it referred to those who had given their lives to achieve the goal, such as Colin Iliad, Lovia, Ancient Sun God,

These places seriously look like portals to another world. For more mystery, darkness, and one very sinister portal, don't miss Season 2 of Witches of East End, Sundays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

A CLASSIC murder mystery will serve up plenty of red herrings and tasty twists for audiences at a North-East theatre this week.

A bright new star in British Mystery that fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Rhys Bowen, and Amanda Quick will love, Andrea Penrose transports readers to Regency E...

An archaeological dig has turned up possible artifacts from the lost Roanoke colony in Bertie County, suggesting some survivors moved inland.

Other articles where Aaron Kosminski is discussed: Jack the Ripper: …of his homicidal tendencies; and Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew and a resident of Whitechapel who was known to have a great animus toward women (particularly prostitutes) and who was hospitalized in an asylum several months after the last murder. Several notable Londoners of the era, such as the painter…

These places seriously look like portals to another world. For more mystery, darkness, and one very sinister portal, don't miss Season 2 of Witches of East End, Sundays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

The Seven Sisters (Syv Sostre), a mountain range on the island of Alsten in Norway. Photographed by Knud Knudsen circa 1880. Waterfalls – nothing more, nothing less. This is a brief compendium of gelatin silver and antique postcards found in various archives, dedicated to one of nature's most bea

The Meroe Pyramids. The Meroe Pyramids are located in the North-East of Sudan near the banks of the Nile in the area commonly known as Nubia. There are close to two hundred pyramids in a relatively small area, the ancient burial site of the Merotic Kingdom (sometimes known as the Kingdom of Kush). The Pyramids are smaller than their Egyptian cousins but equally impressive due to their number. The first of the Meroe Pyramids were built about 800 years after the last Egyptian pyramids were completed. The Meroe pyramids were constructed from large blocks of sandstone. They're angled more steeply than the Egyptian pyramids. The Kush Kingdom flourished for 900 hundred years from around 800 B.C. to 280 A.D. and held power over a vast area covering much of the Nile Delta and as far south as Khartoum. Meroe became very important as the Kingdom's center from around 300 B.C. to 280 A.D. Egyptian influence remained strong and Egyptian artisans were used to build the Meroe Pyramids to commemorate dead royalty. The dead were buried in chambers underneath the pyramids. Excavations of the Pyramids started in mid 19th Century. Most notoriously, an Italian explorer, Giuseppe Ferlini (1800-1870), smashed the tops off 40 pyramids in a quest to find treasure. What was found was brought back to British and German museums along with samples of Meroitic writing and reliefs depicting historical events. Through the years, the pyramids have been plundered of all their wealth and left to the elements. But many of the pyramids still stand and their architectural elegance is worth a trip. Some of the pyramids have been reconstructed so you get a good idea of what they must have looked like.

For centuries, historians believed the garden was located in the Babylon province in Iraq, yet closer analysis of ancient texts pinpoints it 350 miles away in Nineveh.

An East End Opium Den, 1870 For many, images of the darker side of Victorian London are shaped by the descriptions of writers like Henry Mayhew in the middle decades of the century, or by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, and James Greenwood a few decades later. In addition to their often sensational images there are the descriptions we derive from the fiction of the times. Thus, our image of Victorian London's drug culture, if indeed such a culture existed, is composed in part of sensational journalism and in part of sensational fiction. Among the writers of fiction who concerned themselves with the use of opium and the opium dens that were supposed to be a part of the darker side of the great Metropolis, particularly in the years of Victoria's reign, were Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The question we are faced with is whether the descriptions are an accurate portrayal or overdrawn and sensationalized accounts. One of the best known scenes involving the taking of recreational drugs is found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tale, The Sign of the Four. Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction. It was this performance that Dr Watson had been witnessing "three times a day for many months;" a performance he found both disturbing and dangerous. There are two primary images one is left with when considering the use of opium or its derivatives, the most common of which, in the nineteenth century was laudanum, a tincture of opium widely used as a painkiller. On the one hand, we have the image of its use amongst artists and writers, including both Coleridge and DeQuincy in the early years of the century. Later, Wilkie Collins was a regular "drinker" of laudanum for the pain of gout and other maladies. Among other Victorians using laudanum were Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Charles Dickens. Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wife, died as a result of an overdose of laudanum and Rossetti himself was to follow her to the grave, in all probability as a result of his own overuse of laudanum and opium. The second image is that of something resembling a widespread network of opium dens throughout the United Kingdom, spreading like tentacles from its centre in London. Such an image is a gross exaggeration. While there were opium dens in London and in all probability in most of the port cities of the United Kingdom, they were few and far between. In most cases they catered to the habits of seamen addicted to the drug and there is no evidence of any "network" of opium dens. The image painted in the newspapers is not a pleasant one. Nor is that protrayed by novelists. The "pipe dream" with which The Mystery of Edwin Drood opens is singularly upsetting to the reader as is the whole scene in the opium den. The Picture of Dorian Gray, too, is laced with references to opium and interludes in low dens where opium smokers may go to find oblivion. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, like Charles Dickens, has placed the drug scene in The Man with the Twisted Lip in a dockland setting and has peopled the opium den with seamen, mostly Chinese and Lascars or East Indian sailors. The den is in Upper Swandam Lane, a vile alley lurking behind the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. ... I passed down the steps, worn hollow in the centre by the ceaseless tred of drunken feet; and by the light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch and made my way into a long low room, thick and heavy with the brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the forecastle of an emigrant ship. Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. ... As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth.Such descriptions are no more sensational than those that appeared in the newspapers and journals of the day. An article in the French journal Figaro, reprinted in the Pall Mal Gazette, in 1868, puports to describe an opium den, in Whitechapel. It is a "wretched hole," ... so low that we are unable to stand upright. Lying pell-mell on a mattress placed on the ground are Chinamen, Lascars, and a few English blackguards who have imbibed a taste for opium.While opium dens may have been a staple of a certain type of Victorian fiction, the more common reality was that amongst Victorians the most frequent use of opiates was in the form of pharmaceuticals. There is no question that during most of the Queen's reign opium and its derivatives was readily available over the counter from local chemists, usually in the form of laudanum. Numerous household remedies contained opium in one of its forms including many used with children. Among the best known of these was Godfrey's Cordial which was commonly adminstered to children and infants as a sleeping draught. Karl Marx, in Das Capital, commented on this when he wrote of "disguised infanticide and stupefaction of children with opiates," and he went on to claim that In the agricultural as well as the factory districts of England the consumption of opium among adult workers, both male and female, is extending daily. Anthony Wohl, in Endangered Lives: public Health in Vicorian Britain, has pointed to the Fens where "poppy tea" was widely drunk and used for general medicinal purposes with a consequent wasting in children and possibly malnutrition leading to death. Another popular medication was Dover's Powder which, like many others, was used in the treatment of a wide variety of complaints including gout, headache, syphilis and malaria. It is likely that the sense of well-being brought on as a result of the opiate was frequently mistaken by patient and doctor alike as a cure. Despite the popularity of such medications, and the ease with which they could be purchased, not everyone favoured their use. Godfrey's Cordial, for example, was referred to as "pernicious quackery" in The Visitor, or Monthly Instructor, for 1838. And there were many physicians who opposed the use of opiates. As early as 1840, Dr Anthony Todd Thomson, at a meeting of the Westminster Medical Society, told his colleagues that he had no doubt that consuming opium, either in the crude or liquid state, or inhaling it from a pipe, tended materially to shorten life.Not that such warnings were heeded. Opium and tinctures of the drug were readily available and inexpensive and, as one writer to The Daily News of 23 June 1879, commented, he was astonished at the widespread use of opium to keep children from getting cross. He went on to point to the "infinite detriment" to children of the extensive use of "opium, soothing syrups, and other baneful cordials ... by large masses of the mothers among our labouring population." So, what can we make of this? I think there are three conclusions that might be drawn. First, the smoking of opium was seen as a vice practiced by orientals. The constant reiteration of this in both works of fiction and popular journalism suggests a clear level of xenophobic content. Second the misuse of laudanum appears to have been largely associated, in the public mind, with its use amongst the lower and labouring classes. Finally, it tends to reinforce the view implicit in so many elements of Victorian life that those in the better classes might engage in the same practices without them being considered vices unless and until they were carried to extreme excess. To read Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood, click here.