“When my house was ready for business I inquired what distiller in London was most famous for good gin, and was assured by several that it was Mr. L⸺dale, in Holborn.[66] To him I went, and laid out thirteen pounds.... The cargo was sent to my house, at the back of which there was a way to go in or out. When the liquor was properly disposed, I got a person to inform a few of the mob that gin would be sold by the cat at my window next day, provided they put the money in his mouth, from whence there was a hole which conveyed it to me.” This, by the way, is a rare anticipation of our automatic sweetstuff, scent, and other machines. To continue: “At night I took possession of my den, and got up early next morning to be ready for custom. It was over three hours before anybody called, which made me almost despair of the project; at last I heard the chink of money and a comfortable voice say, ‘Puss, give me two pennyworth of gin!’ I instantly put my mouth to the tube and bid them receive it from the pipe under her paw”—the cat seems to have changed its sex in this short interval of time—“and then measured and poured it into the funnel, from whence they soon received it. Before night I took six shillings, the next day about thirty shillings, and afterwards three or four pounds a day. From all parts of London people used to resort to me in such numbers that my neighbours could scarcely get in and out of their houses. After this manner I went on for a month, in which time I cleared upwards of two-and-twenty pounds.” So far Captain Bradstreet, “but,” says the Editor of _Notes & Queries_, “the ghost of ‘old Tom Hodges’ will probably enter a protest against Captain Bradstreet’s cat.” Another popular name for gin was used when Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn visited Bob Logic in the Fleet. Bob says, “Let us spend the day comfortably, and in the evening I will introduce you both to my friend the haberdasher. He is a good whistler,[67] and his shop always abounds with some prime articles that you will like to look at....” A glass or two of wine made them as gay as larks, and a hint from Jerry to Logic about the whistler brought them into the shop of the latter in a twinkling. Hawthorne, with great surprise, said, “Where are we? This is no haberdasher’s. It’s a ⸺” “No nosing, Jerry,” replied Logic, with a grin; “you’re wrong, the man is a dealer in tape.” [Illustration] [Illustration] WHISKEY. _Uisge-beatha_—“My Stint”—Its Manufacture—Good and Bad—Early Mentions of Whiskey—Materials used in its Manufacture—St. Thorwald—Duncan Forbes and Ferrintosh—Duty on Whiskey—Silent Spirit—Artificial Maturing.