THE TRUE HISTORY OF TOM & JERRY: OR, [Illustration: LIFE IN LONDON.] LIFE IN LONDON, my boys, is a round of delight, In frolics, I keep up, both the day and the night, With my TOM and my JERRY, I try to “_get best_” Of the COVES in the _East_--and the SWELLS at the _West_! Such _pals_ in a _lark_, we the TOWN can defy, O! Then join me in _chaunting_ our _precious_ TRIO. [Illustration: BILLY WATERS.] _Mags_ came thick, this made him merry; Fortune changes in a crack-- Folks they went t’ see Tom and Jerry, And on Billy turned their back. One notable effect of “Life in London,” particularly in its dramatised form must be recorded. It broke the heart of poor Billy Waters, the one-legged musical negro, who died in St. Giles’s workhouse, whispering with his ebbing breath, a mild anathema, which sounded very much like: “Cuss him, dam Tom--meē--Tom--meē Jerry!” Poor Billy endeavoured, up to the period of his last illness, to obtain for a wife and two children what he termed, “An honest living by scraping de cat-gut!” by which he originally collected considerable sums of money at the West-end of the town, where his ribbon-decked cocked hat and feathers, with the grin on his countenance, and sudden turn and kick out of his wooden limb, and other antics and efforts to please, excited much mirth and attention, and were well rewarded from the pockets of John Bull. THE TRUE HISTORY OF TOM AND JERRY; OR, THE DAY AND NIGHT SCENES, OF LIFE IN LONDON FROM THE START TO THE FINISH! WITH A KEY TO THE PERSONS AND PLACES, TOGETHER WITH A VOCABULARY AND GLOSSARY OF THE FLASH AND SLANG TERMS, OCCURING IN THE COURSE OF THE WORK. BY CHARLES HINDLEY, _Editor of “The Old Book Collector’s Miscellany; or, a Collection of Readable Reprints of Literary Rarities” “Works of John Taylor--the Water Poet,” “The Roxburghe Ballads,” “The History of the Catnach Press,” “The Curiosities of Street Literature,” “The Book of Ready Made Speeches,” “Life and Times of James Catnach, late of the Seven Dials, Ballad Monger,” “Tavern Anecdotes and Sayings,” etc._ London: CHARLES HINDLEY, 41, BOOKSELLERS’ ROW, ST. CLEMENT DANES, STRAND, W.C. [Illustration] INTRODUCTION. “Nothing succeeds like success”--or “Fails like failure.” Prince Talleyrand _cum_ Baron Nicholson! That PIERCE EGAN’S LIFE IN LONDON, or TOM AND JERRY, was a success, we have plenty of printed evidence and ‘hearsay’! to prove. And we also know--beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the news of its metropolitan fame went forth with almost telegraphic speed throughout the provinces:--From John o’Groat’s House to the Land’s End!--From Dan to Beersheba!--and back _again_! With LIFE IN LONDON, its language became the language of the day; drawing-rooms were turned into _chaffing cribs_, and rank and beauty learned to patter flash _ad nauseam_.