THE SINS OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAINS, 1881
The Sins of the Cities of the Plains, or The Recollections of a Mary-Ann,[1] with Short Essays on Sodomy and Tribadism in Two Volumes was published anonymously by William Lazenby in London in 1881. It consists of the memoir of one Jack Saul, narrated for a consideration to “Mr. Cambon”, appended to which are three short essays, which one is led to presume are by the latter.
“Jack” (John) Saul was a real person, though his story is heavily fictionalized, much of it differing strongly from reality. He became the most famous Victorian “renter” due to his witness statements in the Cleveland Street scandal of 1889, involving the prostitution of telegraph boys to aristocrats. He was born in Dublin on 29 October 1857, the son of a cab driver, became a male prostitute there aged seventeen and moved to London in 1879. Self-confessedly, “still a professional ‘Mary Ann’ ” in 1889, his age soon made retirement from being one inevitable, and he returned to obscurity in Dublin, where he died of tuberculosis on 28 August 1904.[2]
Speculation among historians as to the identity of Mr. Cambon now centres on Henry Spencer Ashbee, collector and bibliographer of erotica, the pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon and William Lazenby, who published the book. It has been suggested that Cambon being is a conflation of Solomon with either the second name of James Campbell Reddie (their associate who had died in 1878) or Cameron, then Lazenby’s preferred alias. All these men were much involved in pederastic erotica.[3]
Though Saul preferred males, he was also enthusiastic about sex with females, as indeed were most writers of Victorian homosexual erotica. The importance, however, of his memoir lies in what it reveals about the prevalence of sodomy in many milieux of Victorian England.
The extracts presented here are those of Greek love interest only. However, it should be stressed that the excluded male homosexual passages concern only sex between boys and youths of similar age, or of adult youths with much older men. Nowhere in the memoir is there a description of sex between mature men past their early or possibly mid-twenties. Saul himself described all the homosex he described as pederasty, which is a fairer description of it all than “gay”, with its connotations of sex between age-equal men.
VOLUME 1
INTRODUCTION
The writer of these notes was walking through Leicester Square one sunny afternoon last November, when my attention was particularly taken by an effeminate, but very good-looking young fellow […] Dressed in tight-fitting clothes, which set off his Adonis-like figure to the best advantage, […]
He had small and elegant feet, set off by pretty patent leather boots, a fresh looking beardless face, and almost feminine features. He wore auburn hair, and sparkling blue eyes, which spoke as plainly as possible to my senses, and told me that this handsome youth must indeed be one of the “Mary-Ann’s” of London, who I had heard were often to be seen sauntering in the neighbourhood of Regent Street, or the Haymarket, on fine afternoons or evenings. […]
All this ran through my mind, and determined me to make his acquaintance, in order to unravel the real and naked truth; also, if possible, to glean what I could of his antecedents and mode of life, which I felt sure must be extraordinarily interesting.
The youth accepts the invitation of Mr. Cambon, the narrator, to his home to his home and reveals himself to be “Jack Saul, sir, of Lisle Street, Leicester Square, and ready for alark with a free gentleman at any time.” After Saul has gamahuched (fellated) him, the narrator “asked him how he had come to acquire such a decided taste for gamahuching.” They settle on £5 a week as fair remuneration for Saul to recount his entire story. What follows are the weekly instalments of Saul’s story delivered at their weekly sexual encounters with grammatical corrections by Cambon.
JACK SAUL’S RECOLLECTIONS
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE PEDERASTIC IDEAS IN HIS YOUTHFUL MIND
Dear Sir,
I need scarcely tell you that little cocks, and everything relating to them, had a peculiar interest to me from the very earliest time it is possible for my memory to carry me back to.
I have a brother much older than myself, and have heard him say that almost as soon as I could walk I would toddle up to anybody and ask them if they had a dilly; that lifting girls’ clothes, or putting my hands on boys or even grown-up people was a regular thing with me.
My parents were well-to-do people of the farmer-class in Suffolk,[4]
Jack then relates his adventures with his much older girl cousin Jenny, first when he was six and then when he was eighteen.
I was sent to a boarding-school at Colchester when about ten years of age. Here the boys all slept by twos in a bed.
Well do I remember the first night. My bedfellow, a big boy of about fifteen, his name was Freeman,[5] at once began to handle me all over as soon as the lights were out. His hands soon found my cock, which young as I then was, was a fine one for my age—somehow it was already stiff.
“My eyes,” he whispered, “you’ve got a good ‘un. Feel mine; it is hardly bigger than yours,” as he directed my young hands to another equally stiff prick.
“Rub it up and down,” he whispered again; “that is what we all do. Do you like it?”
My body was in a tremble all over, and presently, as I continued the up and down motion of my hand on his cock, it was wetted all over with a warm, slimy kind of stuff which he shot into my hand.
“Don’t you know what that is, Jack? Perhaps you’re not old enough to come like that; we call it spendings,” he whispered. “It’s so nice. We often put our cocks in each other’s bottoms, and spend there. Would you like to try that on me?”
At first I would not, but he at length got me to promise and try, as I should be sure to find it so nice.
He turned his bum to me, and wetting both his hole and the tip of my affair with spittle, he himself directed my cock to the place, and pushed out his arse towards me.
I did my best by shoving, and somehow it seemed to come quite natural, for I soon got in, and found my prick for the first time in a deliciously moist, warm, and tight sheath.
“Push in and out, in and out,” he whispered, suiting the action of his rump to his instructions.
I liked it immensely, and clung with my arms round his buttocks, working with all my will, till at last a sudden thrill seemed to come upon me with a kind of shooting sensation in my cock. We both stopped out of breath, as if something had happened, and I suppose that was my first spend.
The other boys seemed all very quiet that first night, but the next evening, as soon as we had retired to our room, Freeman at once introduced little Jack to the other half-dozen occupants of our room (there were four beds) as a highly fit and proper chum.
“See, boys, what a fine prick the little fellow has got. He fucked my arse all night last night, and had his first spend,” he said, lifting my shirt and exposing my affair, which was already as stiff as a poker at the idea of another go like the previous night.
They all crowded round to handle and admire what they called a wonder for such a little ‘un.
Presently all were quite naked, each prick was stiff, and we compared one with another. The next thing was to draw lots who should have my bottom first, and luckily for me the boy with the very smallest prick in the room drew the desired prize. He was about fourteen, but such a pretty fair little fellow that I quite loved him at once.
His first action was to come and kiss me, then with one arm around my waist, stood belly to belly, and rubbed his much smaller prick against mine.
Just then one suggested that unless we blocked up the window the light would betray us, so as they wished to retain the candles in use, they took a couple of blankets off the beds, and put them up so as effectually to darken the windows.
The next thing was to make me lean over the bed on my face, so as to offer my bottom fairly to the attack of my young lover; they next took a little pomade from a pot, and put some both on my little hole as well as the head of his prick.
Being small there was not much difficulty about his getting in, and he soon began to afford me great pleasure, especially when, putting his arms round to my front, he began to frig my stiff member.
Looking round to see all that was going on, I found my lover also had one in his bottom, and the whole of them soon formed a perfect string in action, each one in the bottom in front of him, making a chain of eight links. There seemed quite a kind of electricity about it, as I fancied I felt all the pricks in my bottom by turns, and when at last it came to the spending crisis, one and all came together with cries of delight; whilst I also bedewed the hands of my partner with a few drops of spend, as I almost fainted from excessive emotion.
Of course other nights we changed places and partners, sometimes going in for a general suck all round and giving our bottoms a rest.
I got so fond of having a cock in my mouth that I could have eaten them, and at that time liked it better than anything.
I only stopped at that school a fortnight, for I was both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.
My father was killed by accident, and mother had to take me home, because his affairs turned out so badly she could not afford to pay for my schooling; which, as it turned out, thus prevented my constitution being ruined for life by such early precocity; besides, it was all found out and the school broken up soon afterwards.
You may be sure these early impressions took a deep hold of my naturally warm disposition, although I had very few opportunities of again indulging. I knew it was wrong to do such things, and whenever I did happen to get a young friend for a bedfellow, never failed to try on for a mutual frig.
I would lay beside a fresh companion till I fairly shivered with emotion, and would wait till he was asleep, or pretended to be so, my cock all the time as stiff as a bar of iron; then my hands would slyly and gradually slip under his nightshirt, and slowly work to the all attractive spot, gently try a few soft pressures till the cock began to respond to my caresses by a very perceptible swelling; then I got bolder, and generally my bedfellow would turn over and reciprocate my dalliances till we joined in a mutual fuck between each other’s thighs, belly to belly. My favorite idea was to pull back the skin of my foreskin, and doing the same to my bedfellow’s prick, bring the nose of his affair to mine, then draw the skin of mine over the heads of both cocks, and fuck each other gently so. What delicious thrills we had when spending, the seed seeming to shoot backwards and forwards from one to the other! Only those who have done it can at all realize such delicious sensations. Very seldom have I found a youth reject my caresses, although many of them would keep quite passive, and let me do everything.
Next day I could hardly ever look them in the face, but generally found them quite ready for another spree at night.
But so few chances occurred to me, and then only for a day or two at a time.
Jack next relates how, aged 14 he had an exciting erotic encounter with Sarah, his family’s 18-year-old dairymaid. The night after they had oral sex, they adjourned to her room again for more fun.
“Jack,” she whispered, “did you ever have any rude games with the boys at school?”
So I at once told her about my adventures, and how we used to put our cocks up each other’s bottoms, etc.
I felt her actually tremble with suppressed excitement as she so nervously clasped me in her arms whilst 1 was telling her all about it.
Jack then entered both her other orifices, to their mutual ecstasy and she told him about her sex games with their farm boy, Joe, suggesting they had a threesome.
This was a chance for me. I had long wanted to get intimate with master Joe, who was a fine, plump, good-looking, ruddy-faced boy of seventeen, but he had always seemed so distant and shy, even to me his mistress’s son; in fact it now seemed another instance of how “still waters run deep,” as I thought how curious it was that he should be so free with Sarah.
As soon as my unsuspecting parent had started on her way, Sarah and I went to the cowhouse, where Joe met us with a smile of pleasure as we entered.
“Now, Joe,” she said on entering, “let’s get the work done as quickly as possible, and milk them all but Cowslip. Then you shall let Master Jack see how you milk her into me.”
I had not long to wait, for there were only seven cows in all, and presently the long stool was placed under Cowslip, and Sarah stretched herself upon it, so as to bring her cunt just under the udder of the good-tempered creature, who seemed quite used to the trick, putting her nose to Sarah’s face with quite an affectionate kind of kiss.
Joe quickly turned up her skirts till he quite exposed her belly up to the navel, then taking one of the cow’s teats, he handled it a little, but not with a milking motion—it seemed to harden at once like a natural prick—and then inserting it into Sarah’s cunt, he began the milking.
Her eyes seemed at once to sparkle with quite an unusual kind of brilliancy, as she exclaimed, “Go on, go on quick; it’s beautiful!” heaving up her rump as if a man was fucking her, whilst it was most exciting to see the white milk spurting from her cunt at every fresh injection, running down the crack of her bottom and thighs, or hanging in pearly dewdrops about the silky brown moss which adorned her lovely mount.
My prick had been standing all the while I had been there, but this sight filled me with the most lustful desires, and I could also see by the protuberance of Joe’s breeches that he also was in the same state, as his eyes were intently watching the operation of his hand, the twitching of her cunt, and every motion of lascivious girl.
I fairly shook with emotion, but with trembling hands I began to undo his breeches, and pulled them down to his knees.
Heavens! what a lovely prick stood before my starting eyes!
I nervously grasped it in my hand, and kneeling down printed hot and luscious kisses on its fiery head as I pulled back the foreskin. I could eat such a delicious morsel, and longed to swallow every drop of the pearly juice I knew my caresses would soon cause to spurt from his lovely cock. I took it fairly in my mouth, sucking quite ravenously, and rolling my tongue around it in the most wanton manner, whilst my hands were busy caressing a splendid pair of balls, contained in a tightly drawn up round purse, richly ornamented with almost black hair, which hung below the root of his white and bursting shaft.
Almost with a scream, he spent at once, as he shouted in extasy, “I’m coming; oh! oh!! oh-!!! you darling Jack,” shoving his prick so fiercely into my mouth as almost to choke me as the hot juice spurted down my throat, to my infinite delight.
Presently he recovered a little, and changing the teats, went on milking into the delighted Sarah’s cunt. She afterwards told me that the sight of Joe fucking me in my mouth seemed to double her pleasure.
Rising from my knees, I now let down my own trousers, and presented my own glowing prick to Joe’s arsehole behind (for I was quite as tall as he was). He stooped a little so as to thrust out his bottom and facilitate my attack, so wetting my fingers in a pail of milk, I applied them to his fundament, moistening the head of my prick at the same time.
He was evidently a maiden behind, and I had great difficulty in getting well in, but I had my arms round him, frigging his fine prick in front, and both were so excited that although I made him wince, as well as hurting myself, at last it was done.
“Ah! it’s feeling nice now; push on, Master Jack. Fuck me well, frig away; I’m coming again. Oh! oh! I can’t stop; do spend in me!” he cried.
Believe me, I did spend. I never had had such an emission before. It seemed to keep throbbing and shooting for ever so long and my prick grew both in size and length that day. It had never seemed so big and inflamed in any previous encounter with boys or Sally.
Whenever my mother was away we repeated these amusements, and I often also found chances of having Joe’s tight arsehole on the sly, and he also obliged me the same way, but we never told Sarah for fear she should prove jealous. In fact now and then she expressed her suspicions of my love for Joe, as naturally it made me slightly remiss in my attentions to herself.
Soon after reaching the age of sixteen my mother succeeded in getting me placed at Messrs. Cygnet and Ego’s, a large West End linendrapery house, which had a most aristocratic connection.[6]
Here morals were very strictly looked after, and it was quite impossible for the youths to indulge in any sensual amusements in the dormitories.
One day, the Marquis of Churton and his sister, Lady Diana Furbelow,[7] both handsome and aged about thirty, come to his shop and ask for some silk patterns to be sent to their Piccadilly house for inspection by her. Jack is sent and has just finished fucking Lady Diana when …
A chuckling laugh behind me recalled me to my senses, and turning round to see what it could be, to my horror I beheld the marquis himself standing frigging a very nice fine prick of his own, and evidently enjoying the sight of our conjunction.
“There’s a lewd little bitch for you!” he exclaimed. “To think of my sister, the aristocratic Lady Diana, having a linendraper’s assistant; but I’ll punish you. You shall commit incest with me, your brother, and you, Mister Counter-jumper, shall look on.”
His sudden appearance had in a moment reduced my cock to its normal state of limpness, and I withdrew quite abashed from the delicious cunt I had spent in.
“Slap my arse; bugger me; shove your prick into me as I fuck her, and you shall be well paid!” he almost shouted, throwing himself on his sister, and beginning to fuck fast and furiously.
“My pet, my love, my own Diana, no one shall ever marry you, you darling, although I must first be excited by seeing some beautiful boy have you. And you, sir, make haste to help me behind; it’s the only way I can really enjoy my sister!”
Prick was ready again in less time than I can write it; the sight of a brother fucking his sister so excited me that I began to slap his bottom with my open palm as hard as I could with one hand, whilst the other was busy feeling his balls and handling the shaft of his fine stiff penis as it worked in and out of that lovely cunt.
“Fuck me! bugger me! or I can’t spend!” he exclaimed, so nothing loth, I lubricated his fine hairy and wrinkled arsehole with spittle, and bringing the head of my cock to the tight-looking orifice I speedily effected an entrance.
What a fuck that was! He was evidently rather slow, although awfully excited, and both his sister and myself having just emitted a profusion of our essence of life, we were not so quick in reaching the spending point.
With both hands I frigged him, and tickled her clitoris, as he fucked away, whilst my prick was as lively as possible in his posterior aperture.
At last we came, and all three almost at the same moment; our bodies fairly quivering again and again as the electric thrills shot through our excited frames.
At last it was over, and both of them overwhelmed me with caresses till it was absolutely necessary for me to take my departure, when Lady Diana hastily selected several pieces of silk, whilst the marquis pressed a ten-pound note into my hand, and assured me I would very often have a chance of obliging both himself and sister again.
For a period of two years I continued to be their favourite, till, Lady Diana’s health failing, the marquis took her to Naples.
It appeared, in explanation of this incident, that this brother and sister had always loved each other to excess since the age of puberty, and nothing would induce either of them to marry. Although the marquis at last became so blasé that he required the stimulating sight of seeing his sister fucked by a boy before he could enjoy her himself, she loved him as much as ever, and allowed herself to be used as a lure to seduce young fellows like myself, in order to pander to his depraved tastes.
I never saw the Marquis of Churton or his beautiful sister again, but a month or two afterwards I had to wait upon a rich city gentleman, the principal of a large financial house, who I shall call Mr. Ferdinand, a rather handsome but exceedingly blasé gentleman, between thirty-five and forty years of age.
Not to be too tedious with my story, I may say that I soon found out that his letch was to be frigged by a young fellow like myself, and many handsome presents did I receive from my generous patron for that and an occasional suck which I gave his prick sometimes by way of an extra treat.
Once he induced me to stop out all night, and the next day Mr. Gooser gave me my dismissal. It was done very kindly, but he assured me that the rules of Messrs. Cygnet and Ego’s house could not be infringed by himself or any of the highest employés.
Mr. Ferdinand seemed rather pleased than otherwise at my misfortune, and promised to introduce me to a secret club, the members of which he assured me would only be too glad of my services at their pederastic séances, and my fortune would be at once assured.
This club was in a street out of Portland Place, and if you had looked in the London Directory you would simply have found it as the residence of a Mr. Inslip - a rather suggestive name, you will think, considering the practices of the members of his club.
I afterwards found that no gentleman was admitted to the freedom of this establishment unless he first paid an admission fee of one hundred guineas, besides a handsome annual subscription and liberal payments for refreshments and the procuration of boys, soldiers or youths like myself.
My financial friend duly introduced me to Mr. Inslip, who was soon very favourably impressed by my feminine appearance and well-furnished implements of love.
After promising to return that evening to be introduced to the club’s patrons, Saul is introduced to Fred Jones[8], a young fellow who had been in the Foot guards who told him that practically all the young soldiers prostituted themselves. As soldiers had to be at least eighteen for adult enlistment and much of what Jones related sounds as though it pertained to soldiers a few years older than that (the first sex between indisputable men mentioned in Saul’s memoir), the only bit of Jones’ narrative noted here is that clearly relating to those under eighteen:
“Young fellows are quite as much after us as older men. I have often been fucked by young gentlemen of sixteen or seventeen, and at Windsor lots of the Eton boys come after us.”
After his conversation with Jones, they returned to the club and dressed up as girls before being introduced with girls’ names to the men there and having sex with them, initiating Saul’s career as a male prostitute. As he was eighteen by this time and his cross-dressing implies induction into a molly or transgender form of homosexuality (as opposed to Greek love), his own sexual adventures are henceforth not excerpted unless they involved males younger than him.
The extent to which pederasty[9] is carried on in London between gentlemen and young fellows is little dreamed of by the outside public.
VOLUME 2
JACK SAUL’S RECOLLECTIONS (continued)
SOME FROLICS WITH BOULTON AND PARK
Through Inslip and his club, Saul, now known as “Eveline” has become intimate with the soon-to-be-famous transvestites Thomas Ernest Boulton (“Laura”) and Frederick William Park (“Selina”)[10], and Boulton’s lover Lord Arthur Clinton. He has just accompanied Lord Arthur to a garden party near Richmond.
On our return to town in the evening we found Boulton and Park waiting for us at his lordship’s chambers. They wanted us to join in a special pederastic orgie, to take place the same night at the house of a certain young Earl, who had two young foreign pages just arrived, the one from France and the other from Italy, and their introduction into the mystic circle was to be the chief event of the night’s programme.
Lord Arthur had another engagement, which prevented him coming with us, and so I went with them.
They had a private brougham in waiting, which took us to Grosvenor Square.
A very sedate and elderly footman ushered us upstairs to a dressing-room, which formed part of the Earl’s own special apartments, a suite of six or seven rooms, rigorously set apart from the rest of the house, where none but his confidential servants and pages were ever allowed to enter.
At the time of our visit the Countess was out of town at Scarborough, assiduously carrying on an anything but innocent flirtation with a certain young Marquis; but the Earl, her husband, cared not a fig for that, so long as he enjoyed himself in his own way.
“His lordship will expect you in the billiard-room in half-an-hour. You will find your portmanteaus all right. They were placed here directly they arrived an hour or so ago,” remarked the footman as he withdrew.
“Then we must not lose any time, my dear Eveline. You will find I have brought a charming costume for you,” said Boulton.
Notwithstanding sundry loving jokes and liberties we were soon ready to see the Earl, and as we entered the billiard-room, found he had three other gentlemen with him, all young fellows like himself, under twenty-five or thereabouts.
“How are you, my dears? Laura and Selina, how lovable you both look; and this, I suppose, is the charming Eveline I heard so much of the other night at Inslip’s. These are my regular chums, who call themselves Mr. Wirein, Mr. Cold Cream, and the Hon. Mr. Comeagain. You will, of course, find their names and pedigrees in Debrett[11] if you care to look them up. Now, don’t be bashful, and I will also introduce you to my three pages who are in special attendance on us to-night.”
Saying which he opened the door of what looked like a large bookcase, and there stood three of the prettiest boys I had ever seen, each of them quite naked with his stiff prick in his hand.
The eldest, apparently, was a fair young French fellow about seventeen; the second an olive-tinted, but very handsome Italian boy of fourteen; and the third an exquisitely formed little nigger boy of about thirteen, with a prick that any man might have been proud of.
How I longed for the little black fellow!
The billiard-room opened into another fine apartment, used as a smoking-room, but in reality most luxuriously fitted up with most seductive-looking couches and ottomans, the heavily-curtained windows being separated by mirrors which extended from floor to ceiling.
His lordship conducted me to one of the sofas, whilst Laura and Selina took seats between the other three gentlemen.
Refreshments were served by the pages on little tables in front of us; then, at a sign from their master, they commenced a gambol at leap-frog all round the room.
This was a most exciting and beautiful sight—to see three such young Adonises flying over each other’s backs, all their pricks as stiff as if carved out of stone; then what a study of graceful forms the ever-varying contour of their lovely figures presented to our fascinated gaze during the evolutions of their game.
In the midst of the game Lady Isabel was announced, and I at once recognized Mr. Fred Jones, looking as beautiful as ever in his ladylike get-up.
This made four ladies and four gentlemen, besides the pages, and the Earl at once, handing me over to Mr. Wirein, sat himself down with Laura to a couple of pianos at the end of the room, and they struck up what I understood to be the “Slap-Bum Polka.”
“Lay the boys across your laps, ladies, and slap them well!” exclaimed Mr. Cold Cream; so, catching hold of the little nigger beauty, I threw him across my knees, just as my partner got me on his lap, with my clothes raised and his stiff prick inserted between my thighs, one of his hands passed round under my clothes till he could get at my prick, and also frig that comfortably, whilst I turned up little Jumbo’s bum and made him wriggle on my lap like a little eel at every smarting impact of my hand on his ebony posteriors.
The others were doing the same. Isabel was slapping Léon[12] the French page, whilst Selina had Menotti the Italian, and right well did their hands bring the crimson flushes to the boys’ bottoms as they slapped them as hard as they possibly could.
Our partners encouraged us by saying, “Bravo! lay on to them well. Make them spend under the slapping! Look how their pretty little pricks swell more and more at every blow!” etc., etc.
And so it was.
Then, just as we fancied our little victims really would spend their virgin essence, our partners shifted their cocks from between our thighs, and at the same time applying a little cold cream on the outside of our fundamental entrances, they slipped into our bottoms in the most delicious manner.
Mr. Wirein had a lovely prick, which just fitted me exactly, and to judge by the faces of Isabel and Selina they were equally well pleased with their partners’ affairs.
Little Jumbo’s eyes were fairly streaming with tears under the pain of my slaps. I was too excited to feel the least inclined to spare that ebony bum of his, for I scarcely knew what I was doing. His cock, quite seven inches long, young as he was, so took my fancy that I quickly raised him so that he stood on my lap and brought it right opposite to my longing lips, which instantly took the coal-black head into my mouth.
Did you ever see a nigger’s penis when excited? The head of it is the blackest part of his body, and looks like a bit of black marble when the skin is drawn back. I wetted one of my fingers—the middle one of the left hand—and passing that arm round his bottom, kept him steady whilst at the same time I postillioned his little bottomhole; my right hand holding the shaft of his lovely prick or playing with his balls whilst I sucked his delicious jewel of love.
My partner was equally active. His prick swelled and throbbed in my bottom as I gently rose and fell upon it, whilst the hand that was frigging me kept well to its duty.
“You darling! you love! Oh, Eveline, I’m coming! Ah—ah—there it is, my love. Can you feel it shoot into you?” he exclaimed.
My own emission came at the same moment, and thoroughly lubricated his active hand as he afforded me the most intense pleasure in both parts at once; and to add to my emotion little Jumbo shot what I believe to have been his very first spendings into my mouth. My lips closed convulsively on the head of his pego, and with a long-drawn, continued suck, drained and swallowed every drop of his virility as it gushed into my longing mouth.
When I think of that conjunction even now my prick sticks up in a moment. Never before or since has my fancy been so excited or have I so enjoyed the very acme of bliss.
The others also enjoyed themselves immensely, and the Earl had Laura on his lap as he sat on the music-stool before the piano.
Selina now took Laura’s place to play to us, and all being stripped quite naked, we made five very pretty couples. The Earl had Mr. Wirein; I secured Léon, the handsome French page; Laura the little Jumbo, etc., and we again commenced a most lascivious series of evolutions, forming our hands into arches in turns, under which the others would waltz, the leading couple forming the next arch, and so on and on round the apartment, pulling, squeezing, or slapping pricks all round, so as to keep them well alive and stiff.
When tired of this we retired with our partners to the sofas, and after refreshing ourselves with wines, jellies, etc., proceeded to have each other in the most fanciful ways we could imagine.
I made Léon lay over me the reverse way, so that I could take his fine pego in my mouth and postillion him with my fingers; all of which he was nothing loth to return with the greatest of ardour, till we both came in the other’s mouth and racked off each other’s spunk to the last drop. Then I made him turn round facing me as I still lay on my back, and so gradually bring his bottom down on my prick till I got it all in, and had him ride me a delicious St. George, as we kissed and tipped each other the velvet with our tongues, till we both spent again—I in his arse and he on my belly, his seed shooting along all over my breast.
This rather exhausted us for a time, but we lay in each other’s arms, my prick still soaking and throbbing within the tight folds of his anus, and quite oblivious to all that was passing around us, when suddenly—whish! whish! whack! whack! came a birch on poor Léon’s bum, and he would have fairly unshipped my affair from its delicious berth, had I not held him like a vice in my arms.
It was his lordship, the Earl, birch in hand, whilst the Hon. Mr. Comeagain was shoving into his bottom and frigging his prick for him.
He was called Mr. Comeagain (I afterwards found out) by his friends, as no amount of fucking ever seemed to take down the pride of his constantly standing member.
Another couple in similar conjunction were attacking with the birch the bottom of his lordship’s lover, with others behind who passed their birching compliments from group to group, till young Léon’s bum evidently received the quintessence of birch discipline. Heavens! how it made him move and dance on my delighted cock, whilst his affair, quite eight inches long, swelled and rubbed furiously on my belly as I lay under him.
This lasted a long time. The twigs fairly drew blood again and again, but added immensely to our enjoyment; whilst the Earl seemed to take the greatest possible delight in letting many of his strokes sting the tenderest parts of my inner thighs, and even my prick itself, if it happened to be exposed so that his rod could touch it up.
We screamed, laughed, and actually shed tears now and then, till at last it ended in the usual voluptuous emissions, which drove us almost beyond our reason from the excessive pleasure of the supreme moment.
This is only a trifle of what we went through before daylight put a stop to the further development of pederastic ideas for that time at least. All I know is that it took a good week’s rest to make me feel fit to pay my next visit to Inslip’s Club.
FURTHER RECOLLECTIONS AND INCIDENTS
Only lately I have been introduced to two curious members of the Mary-Ann profession.
The first is known as Young Wilson, who is a very handsome youth of sixteen or thereabouts. He is about five feet two or three inches; very fair and pretty; with chestnut hair, dark blue eyes, and a set of pearly teeth which, combined with the rosy colour of his cheeks, makes him an almost irresistible bait to old gentlemen—or for that to young ones too—who are addicted to the pederastic vice.
We are very much in each other’s confidence, so he let me into the secrets of his way of doing business.
One afternoon, as we were smoking and drinking champagne together, he suddenly commenced:—
“Do you think, Jack, I ever let those old fellows have me? No fear, I know a game worth two of that. You see, I never bring them home with me, and in fact always affect the innocent—don’t know where to go to; am living with my father and mother at Greenwich or some out-of-the-way part of London, and only came to the West-End to look about and see the shops and swells, etc. If a gentleman is very pressing I never consent to anything unless he asks me to accompany him to his house or chambers. Once got home with him, I say, ‘Now, sir, what present are you going to make me?’
“ ‘Stop a bit, my boy, till we see how you please me,’ or something very like that is the answer I generally get.
“ ‘No; I’ll have it now, or I’ll raise the house, you old sod. Do you think I’m a greenhorn? I want a fiver. Don’t I know too well that little boys only get five or ten shillings after it’s all over? But that won’t do for me, so shell out at once, or I’ll raise the house, and a pretty scandal it will be!’
“That frightens them at once, so I almost always get at least five pounds, and sometimes more, as I take care to write and borrow as much as I can afterwards. There’s nothing like bleeding one of these old fellows; and young ones are better still—they are so easily frightened.”
He told me lots of tales of different people he had victimized in that way.
My other acquaintance, George Brown, comes on a different line of business.[13] His plan is to pick up a swell, and ride about with him in a cab.
Many gentlemen are too nervous to take a boy home with them, or, in fact, to go to any house; but they like to get a young fellow in a cab, and either frig him or get him to do it to themselves.
G. B. would do all this, and wait till his prize was quite or nearly drunk; then rob him of his pocketbook, purse, or watch, as the case might be, very frequently even taking the rings off his fingers if he had any.
“Jack,” he said to me the other day, “what a fool you are not to go in for the same lay as I do. You would get hundreds where you now only get tens.
“I had a rare lark with a Jew the other day. I knew he belonged to some City financial firm. He was too fly to get drunk; but took me down to the Star and Garter at Richmond on a Saturday afternoon (no doubt he had been to his synagogue in the morning). Well, we had a first-rate dinner, and by way of dessert I handled and sucked his rather worn-out prick till he spent, and he did the same to me; but I don’t like Jews—they are so dark-complexioned, and both taste and smell rather strong—so I made up my mind to make him pay well for it.
“At length when he ordered a last bottle of fizz, and took out his purse to pay the bill, I could see he had very little more than a tenner left, which no doubt was intended for me; and so it was. Directly the waiter was gone out of the room, he tossed it across the table to me, saying: ‘There’s a little bit of paper for you, George. It’s good pay for an hour or two, my boy. I wish I could make money as easily!’
“Of course I pocketed the flimsy; but never made any remark, except: ‘Is that all for what I have let you do?’
“ ‘Why, you don’t even thank me for being liberal!’ he remarked rather angrily.
“ ‘Nothing to thank you for: I could wipe my arse on that! I mean to have a cool hundred; as I know it’s nothing to you, who can swindle more than that any day in the City. Shall I call at your Cornhill office for it on Monday, or will you give me an I.O.U.?’
“ ‘You bugger! You shan’t have a damn’d penny more!’ he growled out, putting on his hat. ‘I’m going!’
“ ‘Not till you square me, Mr. Simeon Moses!’[14] I said, speaking as loudly as possible. ‘You know you have been acting indecently towards me, and showing me a volume of the Romance of Lust![15] Would you like a bobby to find that book on you?’
“You should have seen him start as I mentioned his real name.
“ ‘Hush! hush! for God’s sake speak a little lower! What do you want? I’ll send you the money.’
“ ‘No you won’t! I’ll call for it anywhere you like to leave a hundred quid for me; but you must give me the rings off your fingers as security, to be returned when I get the money, on my word of honour.’
Brown then tells Jack how he secured the money he demanded, before narrating a new tale:
“Did you ever hear that I was four years in the Reformatory at Red Hill? That was where I first had a prick up my arse.”
“No,” I replied. “But do you mean to say such things can be done there?”
“Yes,” said George; “and if it had not been such a hell of a place I should have been a good scholar. Of course, the boys are supposed to go to school and work in the grounds. As for work, it was nearly all play; and none of us cared for the good-natured old schoolmaster, and so never learnt much.
“As to the sleeping arrangements, I was in what they called a dormitory—it ought to have been called a back-door-mitory. There were over twenty of us boys and lads in the one large room.
“As soon as we were locked in for the night, one of the biggest of them, observing me for the first time, says: ‘Hullo! here’s a greenhorn. We’ll soon make a free-man of him!’
“They crowded round me, just as I had almost got my clothes off ready to get into bed with another of about my own size (I was fifteen).
“ ‘What’s your name?’ ‘How long are you sent for?’ ‘Have you ever had a cock up your arse?’ etc., etc., was asked by one and the other of them, and they soon found out that in the latter respect I was quite innocent.
“In a trice I was thrown upon the bed, and held down on my back whilst all of them spat on my prick to make me a free-man; so, knowing it was useless to resist, I took it all as good tempered as possible, and hoped it would soon be over. But I was soon undeceived, for they proceeded to spread-eagle me on the bed, face downwards, by tying my wrists and ankles to the four corners of the bedstead; then a couple of pillows were pushed under my belly, so as to raise my bottom up a little. Then the biggest boy got up behind me and put his stiff prick to my arsehole.
“ ‘Ah! oh! oh!! you hurt. I won’t stand that. I’ll tell the master in the morning!’ I screamed out, and then began to cry.
“In an instant they tied a handkerchief over my mouth, whilst someone got hold of my prick, all greasy and slimy as it was from the spitting, and began to frig me, whilst the one behind me was trying to get his tool in.
“He pushed and pushed. It was impossible for me to scream, yet it was like forcing a bar of iron up my bottom. The pricking and stretching sensation was awful, and I do believe I should have been greatly injured if he hadn’t spent his juice, and so eased the passage a bit. This enabled him to get right in, and I could feel his prick swelling and palpitating inside my bottom, whilst I felt so stretched and tight that I was really afraid for him to move.
“However, the feeling of distension went off after a bit, and it began to feel far nicer, especially after a few gentle moves on his part; then presently he spent again, and it felt so lovely and warm and nice, as it shot up into me; so much so that I began to wriggle about under the curious and pleasurable sensations he had aroused within me. My blood was on fire, and tingled in my veins to the tips of my toes and my finger ends, whilst their delicious frigging made me spend all over the pillow under my belly.
“The captain of the room having thus opened up my virginity, as they called it, had to withdraw; then one after the other got into me, and spent so quickly that it oozed from my bum and ran down the cheeks of my bottom, over my balls, etc. I was perfectly inundated with the slimy mess, but enjoyed it immensely; such a succession of stiff pricks revelling in my arse excited me so that I came again and again, as they continued to frig me; till at last the gag was removed from my mouth, and I was asked if I would tell the governor now, and as soon as I answered, ‘No,’ they let me loose.
“All night long the boys kept the game up, either fucking each other or sucking one another’s pricks, and I can assure you I thought it was a beautiful game, which quite reconciled me to the confinement.
“Sometimes a new boy would be obstinate; then he was sure to be treated with the greatest possible cruelty. They would tie him down as they did me, and then flog his buttocks with a pair of braces with the buckles on till his rump was as raw as a beefsteak.
“It would take days to tell you of all the sprees we had at Red Hill.
“There was one young fellow, who, being rather of a superior education to the rest, was made a junior teacher in the school. Well, do you know the boys of his class would actually frig him as he sat at his desk to hear their lessons, for the head schoolmaster was mostly asleep, and no one else dared say a word. This fairly broke his health down, and he had to go into the infirmary.
Brown then describes the regular sex the two female cooks aged about forty had with the boys of the Reformatory.
A few days ago George Brown, when a little under the influence of Bacchus, let me partially into another secret of his, which affords a partial clue to how so many unaccountable mysterious disappearances are always being mentioned in the papers.
“Do you know, Jack,” he said, “what I do when things are a bit slack? I can always earn a poney (twenty-five pounds) if I take a little girl of about fifteen to a certain house in Paris; in fact, they will give me an extra fiver for every year she is under that age, so that a girl between eleven and twelve is worth forty pounds and all expenses paid. Now and then I get them a boy for a change, as they are in great demand for the rich visitors to Paris, especially for the Americans, who are nearly all sodomites. You heard of the case of General Ney, who shot himself the other day?[16] Well, he was a regular customer to a certain Mme. R--- that I know, but they were too greedy, she and her ponce; always wanting money, and threatening the General to tell his wife and mother-in-law if he didn’t shell out, so at last the poor fellow blew his brains out.
If the boys or girls turn out obstinate, they are outraged with brutal violence, and then disappear no one knows how, but I have nothing to do with that.
“A fortnight ago I went down Whitechapel[17] way, and dropped on to such a nice, pretty boy. He was a shoeblack, and, although only about thirteen years of age, beautifully formed and well hung with fine light golden hair, blue eyes and cherry lips. I fell in love with him myself. Whilst he was blacking my boots I asked a lot of questions about what he earned, etc., and soon found that he lived in a refuge, where they kept nearly all he brought in every night to pay for his schooling and board, etc., as he had no parents or relatives of any kind.
“Here was a chance for G. B., so I soon got him to promise to meet me near Moses’ shop in Aldgate in the evening, and the result was I bought him a rig-out as a page, had his ragged-school livery made up into a parcel and sent back to the refuge, and took him off in triumph to my lodgings, a fresh place I engaged for that purpose that very afternoon. He was my page, and had a little bed made up in an anteroom next my own bedroom.
“I had four rooms en suite at three guineas a week in a nice street in Camden Town.
“Next day I bought him some more clothes, shirts, hose, etc., and had him well bathed; in fact, he made a handsome little gentleman when dressed in mufti.
“He seemed delighted at the change in his prospects, and the jolly blow-out of good things at every meal; so in the evening, after supper, I asked him how he would like to go back to the Ragged School Refuge again, as I did not think I should keep him very long.
“You should have seen the tears come into his beautiful eyes, as he threw himself on his knees and begged I would keep him, that he would die for me, and do anything he could to please me.
“It was some time before I would appear at all moved by his appeal; then I said: ‘Well, Joe, will you promise never, never, to let out any of my secrets or what games I may play with you? Now swear it, sir, on the Bible!’
“So I made him take a fearful oath, which I felt sure had a great effect on him after his Sunday School teaching.
“ ‘Bring me that small bottle of liqueur off the sideboard, Joe,’ I said, as soon as he had taken the oath. I had a little of it in some water myself, and gave him some. You know, Jack, the stuff it is, and what an exciting effect it has upon everyone.
“ ‘Now I want to examine your figure,’ I said, ‘because I won’t keep a boy unless he is well formed everywhere; so just strip yourself, my lad.
“I should not have thought he had so much sense of decency; but he blushed as scarlet as the most delicately bred youth could have done, and the sight perfectly delighted me, as it was a proof of his being a real virgin as yet.
“However, he did not hesitate, although the wavy blushes kept flushing across his pretty face as he threw aside his clothes, and presently stood quite naked before me, whilst the liqueur had such an effect that his fine little cock, quite six inches long, was as stiff as a ramrod, and evidently caused him considerable embarrassment.
“ ‘Come to me, Joe. You look all right; but I must feel you all over, to see if you have any blemishes. How’s this?’ I exclaimed, touching his prick with my hand. ‘Is it always sticking up like that? Put your hand into my trousers. You won’t find me so. It’s awfully rude, sir!’
“He was afraid of displeasing me, or I should never have got him to unbutton my trousers and put his hand on my prick; but he did, and pulled it out to view, as I ordered him to do. It was limp, but I knew his touch would have the magic effect very soon.
“ ‘There, sir,’ I said, ‘why are you different to me? See if you can make me the same. Take the head in your mouth, and draw back the skin.
“I could see he did not like it, but did it to please me. The touch of his warm lips and the soft pressure of his hand brought me up in a moment. It quite filled his small mouth; but I placed my hands on his head, and ordering him to suck it, and tickle it with his tongue, kept him to his task till the crisis came, and I almost choked the pretty fellow with my spendings.
“ ‘Ah, oh, delightful! It’s heavenly, Joe. If you please me like that I’ll never part with you, my dear boy!’ I exclaimed, carried away by my feelings. ‘Here; kiss me, my dear boy!’ as I raised him on my lap, and glued my lips to his, sucking my own spendings out of his mouth. ‘It was so awfully delicious, Jack!’
“ ‘Did that give you such pleasure, sir?’ he asked in a kind of whisper.
“ ‘Yes, Joe, my darling. I’ll make you feel the same for yourself presently,’ was my reply. ‘You shall sleep with me, and we will now go to bed as soon as I am undressed. Take your clothes into your own room, and come back to me naked, just as you are.’
“We both got on to my bed in a state of beauty unadorned, and I sucked his little cock till I felt sure he must come soon, then, kneeling up on all fours, I ordered him to shove it into my bottom. He was too excited not to be ready to do anything I told him at once, and besides, there was no difficulty about his getting into me, as I could take a much bigger affair than his. Still, my fancy was awfully excited at the idea of having his virginity, and to think that his maiden spend would be in my arse.
“The little fellow came quite naturally to the business, and fucked me so beautifully that I spent in his hands as they clasped round my body and held my prick as I had directed him to do; then presently his shoves became more rapid and eager, and I felt his warm sperm shoot right up into me in a delicious jet of love juice, as he almost fainted on my back from the excess of emotion it caused him.
“ ‘Oh! oh! what is it? How funny, how nice to feel so!’ he ejaculated, between laughing and sighing. ‘Oh! I suppose that it’s the same kind of pleasure that you felt when I sucked you.’
“ ‘Now, Joe,’ I replied, ‘you know what it is like, you will let me do it to you. Isn’t it beautiful?’
“He kissed me, and told me I might do anything I liked with him, he loved me so; only he feared my big affair could never be got into his small bottom, and I could see he was rather afraid of the attempt. But I soon reassured him, and got him to kneel up for me as I had done for him; then, anointing the delicious looking pink hole with some cold cream, I brought Mr. Pego to the charge. At first I could make no impression; but having got my finger in, and opened up the way a little, I succeeded in getting a slight lodgment, which made him scream with pain and apprehension, especially when I began to push on a little further.
“ ‘Ah! oh! dear sir! Oh! oh! pray don’t; you’ll split me! Oh! oh!’ etc.
“Being afraid his cries would be heard, I reached a pocket hand-kerchief, and before he knew what I was about, had him effectually gagged.
“It was managed without losing my place, then with one hand putting a little more of the cold cream on the shaft of my prick, I gave a tremendous shove, and got a little further in. It must have been awfully painful, for he writhed and struggled to free himself from me, and went flat on the bed with a deep sigh, which would have been a scream but for the gag.
“The fact that I was inflicting awful pain only added to my lust, and regardless of consequences I pushed on till his virgin bottom had been completely ravished, and I could see little drops of blood ooze from him at every motion of my prick, which was also stained with blood, sperm, etc.
“I had spent; but the idea was so exciting that I kept on till I had done it three times, and the tight aperture became quite easy, and I felt the gag might be removed with safety.
“From what I could see of his face he was both crying and laughing in an hysterical state, so I thought I had better stop for that night at least, and it was a long time before I could bring him round to perfect sensibility.
“I had him again the next night, but it was awfully painful to poor Joe; then I took him to Paris and sold him for a hundred pounds—he was so handsome I wouldn’t take less.
“Did you ever hear there is a small and very select club in Paris, where they practise every kind of cruelty, and even sometimes kill their victims. That’s where, I believe, the refractory victims are finished off, but I don’t know much for certain.”[18]
There are many more like young Wilson and George Brown, who have particular specialities for turning the pederastic vice to account, but I will now go on with my own experiences:
All that is left of Saul’s memoir is his description of sex with an aristocrat of about twenty and his two slightly older sisters.
THE SAME OLD STORY
ARSES PREFERED TO CUNTS
This is the first of three appended short essays, presumably purporting to be by Mr. Cambon rather than Jack Saul. (The last essay on “tribadism” (lesbianism) contains nothing of Greek love interest.)
[…]
The prevalence of sodomy amongst schoolboys is little suspected of being so general as it really is. Only lately a medical man of large practice was called in to consult with the master of a large academy, where it appears the scholars had learnt something much more interesting than Latin or Greek. His tale is given just as he related it to the doctor.
“A day or two ago, sir, my suspicions were aroused as to something highly improper going on in the sleeping rooms at night, so I determined to find out all the facts by ocular demonstration. Having several vacancies in the school, there happened to be a small room of three beds quite empty.
“This I availed myself of, and on Wednesday afternoon, when all were out in the cricket-field, I made some peepholes, so that they gave me a full view into two rooms on either side.
“The little room was supposed to be locked up, and also the master (myself) was thought not to be at home; so I slipped upstairs a couple of hours before bedtime, and locked myself in.
“By-and-bye they all came laughing upstairs, accompanied by two young ushers, one of whom slept in each room to keep order.
“By standing on the beds I had a full view of everything going on.
“ ‘Now, Mr. Smith, let’s see if your prick is sore after having three of us last night!’ I heard one of the biggest boys say, and looking into the room, there was a rare romp going on. Four boys had thrown Smith on a bed, and were trying to unbutton his trousers, and at last got out his cock—it was a good size, and stiff as possible. I then saw Charley Johnson, a boy of fifteen, take it in his mouth and suck it, whilst another boy did the same with his pego, and so on till every one but the usher had a prick in his mouth.
“I was too spellbound by the sight to make a noise or interfere. The fact is, doctor, I couldn’t help frigging myself; and we all seemed to come at the same time.
“After this they began to quietly undress, so I took a peep into the other room, and there, by God, sir, the boys were fucking each other’s arses! It drove me nearly wild. If I don’t stop it they will draw me into their practices, and I can’t resist the temptation my peepholes afford; so what is to be done I don’t know. Besides, my school would be ruined if it were found out.”
The doctor advised the schoolmaster to have every one, ushers as well as pupils, medically examined one by one, and then he (the doctor), would pretend to find out from appearances all they had been doing, and try to frighten them out of doing it again by describing all the awful effects of pederasty.
Wouldn’t many of our readers have liked the doctor’s job?
A SHORT
ESSAY ON SODOMY, Etc.
Sodomy appears to have been one of the most important of the Roman vices and amusements; it was not by any means considered improper. We are speaking of sodomy with males, for we do not find anything much said about sodomy with women in the literature of the Roman day.
We say now a woman is all cunt and the Marquis de Sade says that he must be a beginner indeed who has not had a boy, or made a boy his mistress. [Sodomy with females is next described.]
Sodomy with males, with the above exceptions, is still rarer in the present day, and although we have made the most careful research, we do not know of many professional male sodomites in London; and when we were boys we remember a gentleman who kept a tall young fellow, a Creole, near Leicester Square. Our criminal reports show that such things do take place, and it is not long since that I was in court and heard a gipsy found guilty, first of all of having his own donkey, and afterwards a neighbour’s little boy.
A section follows giving the discoveries of the French medical scholar Ambrose Tardieu with regard to the prevalence of sodomy and its physical effects.
There have also been some interesting remarks privately published by a recent traveller through the realms of the King of Bokhara.
He speaks of that monarch having two wings to his harem, one for boys and one for girls. When the King would have connexion with one of his boys, the latter is well purged and brought to the King fastings scents and oil being injected up his bottom. Then the boy has his dinner to give him courage and spirits to amuse the King, after which his Majesty has the boy generally in the presence of two or three of the royal of the royal wives. This traveller speaks of the salacious ways of these boys, and enlargement of their bottomholes, and growths around the orifice, which made it appear very like the private parts of a woman.
[…] We think, too, that the King of Bokhara’s habit of purging his boys before having connection with them corroborates Tardieu’s statement and the observations of many others, that the effect of being continually buggered (and Tardieu suggests as well the use of laxative ointments), is to so relax the sphincter ani that it will not retain the faces.
[…][19] Tiberius reveled in sodomy, and was surrounded by lusty Catamites, and rendered his name imperishable by indelibly connecting it with the Spintriae. At this chaste count Vitellus [sic] was apprenticed, and soon acquired the name of Spintria, raising his family by his prostitution, and showing when he in his time came to the throne, what a long train of evil one bad man in power can lay. […]
Leaving Titus and the Eunuch, and Catamites, we will say one word on Galba, who bears the palm of Roman sodomites. He had no taste for women, nor had many a better man. He likes males, which was nothing uncommon; but he only fancied them when they were past their prime, and there he stood alone in his sodomy — he had not even the excuse of saying that the plump hips and smooth face of the gent resembled a maiden.
[1] A “Mary Ann” was an effeminate male, especially one who took the passive role in sex with another male.
[2] These details are drawn from the most thorough and successful investigation of Jack Saul’s life by Glenn Chandler, as reported in his biography The Sins of Jack Saul: The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street Scandal (2016). Chandler discovered all the details of Saul’s childhood and youth in Dublin, that had eluded earlier historians and shows Saul’s account of his life before 1879 to have been invented.
[3] A full discussion of the still-tenable theories as the authorship of The Sins will be found in Chandler’s The Sins of Jack Saul: The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street Scandal (2016).
[4] Having shown that Saul’s account of his childhood is fictional, Chandler in his The Sins of Jack Saul: The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street Scandal explains that Saul’s real childhood as a Dublin slum boy would not have titillated The Sins of the Cities’ intended readership. Then he asks rhetorically, “Why Suffolk? Here is the first hint that Sins was by no means his own creation entirely. William Lazenby had connections with the town of Ipswich in Suffolk, where he had a book business […]. Suffolk was almost certainly Lazenby’s suggestion.”
[5] Freemans Journal was Ireland’s most popular nationalist newspaper.
[6] Chandler in his The Sins of Jack Saul: The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street Scandal says “Cygnet and Ego is a thinly veiled Swan and Edgar, the long-established haberdashery store on Piccadilly which catered for a very aristocratic clientele.” Chandler does not, however, believe that Saul was more than an observer of the store from the street: being “an eager young employee who knows perfectly well how to deal with the Lords and Ladies […] is a perfect fiction for Jack, and one would scarcely be surprised if he told the folks back home that such was his job.” However, Chandler then relents somewhat in a footnote: “Jack’s intimate knowledge of the lives of shop assistants at the famous store is a curious addition to a work of pornography. One could speculate that Jack did actually work there as a shop assistant for a short while on his arrival in London, as he maintains in Sins.”
[7] There was never a Marquis of Churton and his surname, Furbelow, is sexually-suggestive, a typical characteristic of Victorian erotic fiction.
[8] Glenn Chandler in his The Sins of Jack Saul: The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street Scandal (2016), presumes that the story of Saul’s introduction to Jones (“probably not his real name”) and Inslip (“certainly not his real name”) is a true account of Saul’s introduction (aged twenty-one) to the London rentboy scene in 1879, and that Jones’s account of himself is largely true. He does not say why he so presumes after showing so conclusively that everything Saul had related about his earlier life was far removed from the truth.
[9] Saul’s use of the word pederasty implicitly includes sex between mature men and men in their early twenties, and possibly (though this is never implied) older still. He also has recourse to sodomy as an expression. It might be pointed out that sodomy refers to a specific sexual act, but in Saul’s world described here that act is depicted as so universal to male homosexual experience, that it is in effect a reasonable term for male homosexualty.
[10] Saul was much too late to have known Boulton (1847-1904), really known as “Stella” and Park (1847-81), really known as “Fanny”, in their youth or before they became notorious due to their arrest and trial (1870-1), though he would obviously have known about them from his social circle. Police observation of their wearing drag in public led to their being charged with conspiracy to commit sodomy, but they were acquitted following a much-publicised trial, the prosecution having failed to establish that pedication had taken place.
Lord Arthur Clinton had died in June 1870, when Saul was only twelve and living in Dublin.
[11] A hefty annual genealogical book well-known in high society for its usefulness in showing how all its members fitted in. It gave brief genealogical details of every peer and baronet together with all the male-line descendants of the first holders of their titles. Thus, to have one’s name in Debrett was to have impeccable credentials as a member of the upper classes.
[12] Saul knew well a French boy called Léon Teker, the son of Madame Clémence, the prostitute with whom Jack was then boarding in Lisle Street.
[13] Brown was then at least nineteen, having gone to a Reformatory when he was fifteen and spent four years there. Glenn Chandler, The Sins of Jack Saul: The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street Scandal (2016), presumes that he was a real acquaintance of Saul, and his story essentially true.
[14] There is an extraordinary coincidence with real names here. The Anglo-Jewish artist Simeon Solomon (1840-1905) was arrested on 11 February 1973 for cruising public restrooms and having sex with a 60-year-old stableman named George Roberts. Both men were charged with indecent exposure and an attempt to commit “buggery”, found guilty, fined 100 pounds and sentenced to 18 months of hard labour, though Solomon got his sentence reduce to police supervision. Glenn Chandler in his The Sins of Jack Saul, suggests this coincidence as one of a few reasons for suspecting Solomon may have been the mysterious “Mr. Cambon” who got Jack to write his memoir, Jack’s account here sounding “as though Jack is sharing a joke with his collaborator and publisher.”
[15] The Romance of Lust is an anonymously written erotic novel in four volumes published by William Lazenby (like The Sins) in 1873-76.
[16] Michel-Aloys Ney, 3rd Duke of Elchingen, a general and a grandson of Napoleon’s famous Marshal Ney, killed himself with a pistol shot at Fontenay-aux-Roses outside Paris on 23 February 1881. He was forty-five. According to the weekly French magazine, L’Illustration, of 5 March 1881 (pictured on this page), “this suicide has been attributed to several causes, notably the sorrow caused to the general by a great scandal in which he had been mixed up and which was about to explode.”
[17] Whitechapel was then a notoriously impoverished and crime-ridden parish in the East End of London.
[18] “Put in context, this part of Jack’s narrative may just have been a nod to Lazenby’s other productions involving sexual violence and torture, one of which was delightfully entitled Pleasures of Cruelty. It was a market to which Lazenby catered.” (Glenn Chandler, The Sins of Jack Saul: The true story of Dublin Jack and the Cleveland Street Scandal, 2016).
[19] The last two paragraphs reproduced here are only the most overtly pederastic of what amounts to a summary of the sodomitical content of the Roman historian Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars. Tiberius, Vitellius, Galba and Titus were four of the twelve.