Probably none, or at any rate very few, of my readers have had a practical experience of common lodging-houses.

I have, so therefore I ask them to accompany me to one of them.
In a dingy slum stand a number of grimy houses that have been converted into one big house.

The various doorways have been blocked and one enlarged entrance serves.
As we enter, the money-taker in his office demands our business.

We tell him that we are anxious to have a look round, and he tells us that he will send for the deputy.

The deputy is the autocrat that governs with undisputable sway in this domain of semi-darkness and dirt.