Like they just stepped out of Oliver Twist: Pictures of drunks arrested in Victorian England, circa 1903.
What's more interesting, to me, than the antique mugshots on this site (though they are an eyeful) are the professions listed for the "drunk and disorderly" miscreants, including:
wood chopper
polisher
tube drawer
bedstead polisher
hawker
grease merchant
packer
canvasser
Jappaner
What's a "tube drawer"? A "Jappaner"? How does one make a living as a "bedstead polisher"? Or is that some euphemism?
A lot of these people, even if they are listed as bricklayers or prostitutes, are extremely well-dressed by contemporary standards: jackets, ties, fancy hats, etc. I guess they were out for a night on the town, got tipsy, got arrested -- and in some cases got sentenced to weeks of "hard labour". Sheesh.
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