26 December 1888
Extract from an article entitled "Two Interesting Boys"
"But it seems to me that just at present, if I were in search of excitement and adventure, I have only to go into Whitechapel. I was in the east of London the morning after this last murder was committed, and a most extraordinary sight it was - just the kind of thing that De Quincey would have described splendidly in the style of his "Murder as One of the Fine Arts." On every wall there was a huge printed poster headed with "Murder! Five Hundred Pounds Reward!" At every street corner groups of people had gathered together, not talking loudly and excitedly as they generally do, but whispering among themselves with bated breaths and heads bent down, and glancing nervously over their shoulders every now and then. The veriest stranger would not have needed to ask what they were talking about - one look at the horror in their eyes would have been enough to tell him that it's not often that one sees a whole city panic stricken at once, but I certainly saw it then."