The Club of Queer Trades

Rabelais, or his wild illustrator Gustave Dore, must have had something to dowith the designing of the things called flats in England and America. There issomething entirely Gargantuan in the idea of economising space by piling houseson top of each other, front doors and all. And in the chaos and complexity of thoseperpendicular streets anything may dwell or happen, and it is in one of them, Ibelieve, that the inquirer may find the offices of the Club of Queer Trades. It may bethought...
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Rabelais, or his wild illustrator Gustave Dore, must have had something to dowith the designing of the things called flats in England and America. There issomething entirely Gargantuan in the idea of economising space by piling houseson top of each other, front doors and all. And in the chaos and complexity of thoseperpendicular streets anything may dwell or happen, and it is in one of them, Ibelieve, that the inquirer may find the offices of the Club of Queer Trades. It may bethought at the first glance that the name would attract and startle the passer-by,but nothing attracts or startles in these dim immense hives. The passer-by is onlylooking for his own melancholy destination, the Montenegro Shipping Agency orthe London office of the Rutland Sentinel, and passes through the twilight passagesas one passes through the twilight corridors of a dream. If the Thugs set up aStrangers' Assassination Company in one of the great buildings in Norfolk Street,and sent in a mild man in spectacles to answer inquiries, no inquiries would bemade. And the Club of Queer Trades reigns in a great edifice hidden like a fossil in amighty cliff of fossils.