Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; London (England) -- Description and travel
business was the law-stationering and I was favourably known to the
Solicitor-General the Attorney-General the majority of the judges and the
ole of the legal profession but through ill elth in my family and the
treachery of a friend for whom I became security and he no other than my
own wife’s brother the brother of my own wife I was cast forth with my
tender partner and three young children not to beg for I will sooner die
of deprivation but to make my way to the sea-port town of Dover where I
have a relative i in respect not only that will assist me but that would
trust me with untold gold Sir in appier times and hare this calamity fell
upon me I made for my amusement when I little thought that I should ever
need it excepting for my air this’—here the well-spoken young man put his
hand into his breast—‘this comb! Sir I implore you in the name of
charity to purchase a tortoiseshell comb which is a genuine article at
any price that your humanity may put upon it and may the blessings of a
ouseless family awaiting with beating arts the return of a husband and a
father from Dover upon the cold stone seats of London-bridge ever attend
you Sir may I take the liberty of speaking to you I implore you to buy
this comb!’ By this time, being a reasonably good walker, you will have
been too much for the well-spoken young man, who will stop short and
express his disgust and his want of breath, in a long expectoration, as
you leave him behind.
Towards the end of the same walk, on the same bright summer day, at the
corner of the next little town or village, you may find another kind of
tramp, embodied in the persons of a most exemplary couple whose only
improvidence appears to have been, that they spent the last of their
little All on soap. They are a man and woman, spotless to behold—John
Anderson, with the frost on his short smock-frock instead of his ‘pow,’
attended by Mrs. Anderson. John is over-ostentatious of the frost upon
his raiment, and wears a curious and, you would say, an almost
unnecessary demonstration of girdle of white linen wound about his
waist—a girdle, snowy as Mrs. Anderson’s apron. This cleanliness was the
expiring effort of the respectable couple, and nothing then remained to
Mr. Anderson but to get chalked upon his spade in snow-white copy-book
characters, HUNGRY! and to sit down here. Yes; one thing more remained
to Mr. Anderson—his character; Monarchs could not deprive him of his
hard-earned character. Accordingly, as you come up with this spectacle
of virtue in distress, Mrs. Anderson rises, and with a decent curtsey
presents for your consideration a certificate from a Doctor of Divinity,
the reverend the Vicar of Upper Dodgington, who informs his Christian
friends and all whom it may concern that the bearers, John Anderson and
lawful wife, are persons to whom you cannot be too liberal. This
benevolent pastor omitted no work of his hands to fit the good couple
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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