The Petticoat Men 47In his opening speech for the defence, the famous barrister Mr Digby Seymour, Ernest Boulton’s defence lawyer, apart from saying, ‘Lord Arthur Clinton is dead – aye dead,’ also said:Gentlemen. I say that in a case like this I trust your verdict will establish that the moral atmosphere of England is not yet tainted with the impurities of continental cities, and that free as we are, from our island position, we are insulated from the crimes to which you have had allusion made, and you will pronounce by your verdict – in this case at all events with regard to these facts – that London is not cursed with the sins of Sodom, nor Westminster tainted with the vices of Gomorrah.This sentiment was printed with approval (and the occasional extra flourish) in many newspapers.A seventeen-year-old boy in Tooting, who worked as a clerk in an ironmonger’s, could not understand the almost uncontrollable feelings he had for another young boy who carried watering cans and coal scuttles and large rods of iron from the ironmongers to be delivered to addresses near by.This boy in Tooting read Mr Digby Seymour’s speech.And then he walked to Blackfriars.And then he killed himself.There was no mention of this in either The Times or Reynolds Newspaper or indeed in any of the newspapers, for people were always jumping off Blackfriars Bridge.
