" The same experience only can
teach you anything about the poor. The scoundrels do not actually
confide in anybody, and I never yet knew one of them who would not turn
on a confederate; but they exhibit themselves freely before people to
whom they have become used. It unfortunately happens that the
scoundrels and the dissolute poor are much thrown together. A man may
be a hopeless drunkard without being a rascal, but the rascals and the
boozers are generally taken in the lump by persons of a descriptive turn
of mind. That is faulty natural history. The chances are always ten to
one in favour of the boozer's becoming a criminal; but we must
distinguish between those who have taken the last bad step and those who
are merely qualifying. And now for our history.
THE WANDERER.
The bar was very much crowded last night, and the air was impregnated to
choking point with smoke and evil exhalations. The noisy times on
Saturdays come at 2 p.m., and from ten till closing time. In the
afternoon a few labourers fuddle themselves before they go home to
dinner, and there is a good deal of slavering incoherence to be heard.
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