They present a sight worth seeing, and teach a lesson worth remembering.
The canals of Hoxton, Haggerston and Islington, too, dirty and dangerous as they are, prove seductive to the boys who live close to them.

Now the police have an anxious time.

Again they must look after Tom, Dick and Harry, for demure respectability must not be outraged by a sight of their naked bodies.
So the police keep a sharp outlook for them.

Some one kindly informs them that a dozen boys are bathing in the canal near a certain bridge, and quickly enough they find them in the very act.

There the little savages are! Some can swim, and some cannot; those that cannot are standing in the slime near the side, stirring up its nastiness.