Page:Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.djvu/166

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists long by twenty inches wide, which could be folded down when not in use. This was the 'Shove-ha'penny' board. The coins—old French pennies—used in playing this game were kept behind the bar and might be borrowed on application. On the partition, just above the shove-ha'penny board was a neatly printed notice, framed and glazed:—

NOTICE

Alongside this notice were a number of gaudily coloured bills advertising the local theatre and the music hall, and another of a travelling circus and menagerie then visiting the town and encamped on a piece of waste ground about half way on the road to Windley.

The fittings behind the bar, and the counter, were of polished mahogany, with silvered plate glass at the back of the shelves. On these shelves were rows of bottles and cut glass decanters, gin, whiskey, brandy, and wines and liqueurs of different kinds.

When Crass, Philpot, Easton and Bundy entered, the landlord, a well-fed, prosperous looking individual in white shirt sleeves, a bright maroon fancy waistcoat, a massive gold watch chain and a diamond ring, was conversing in an affable, friendly way with one of his regular customers, sitting close to the counter. He was a shabbily dressed, bleary-eyed, degraded, beer-sodden, trembling wretch, about thirty years of age, who spent most of his time and all his money at 'The Cricketers.' He had once been a carpenter, but some years previously had married a woman considerably his senior, the landlady of a third rate lodging house, whose business was sufficiently prosperous to enable him to exist without working and in a condition of perpetual semi-intoxication. He came to the 'Cricketers' every morning, and sometimes earned a pint of beer by assisting the barman in sweeping up the sawdust or cleaning the windows, and usually remained until closing time every night.

The only other occupant of the public bar—previous to the entrance of Crass and his mates—was a semi-drunken house painter, who was sitting on the form near the shove ha'penny board. This individual wore a battered bowler hat; he had a very thin, pale face, with a large, high-bridged nose, and bore 154