Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/157

Rh saw the end of a musket, you stand in awe of a stumped arm. Those fellows sing frightfully, and caper round you, ex-limbed, with as much nimbleness as monkeys, showing by their leaps the agility of squirrels or kangaroos, and leaving you in doubt to which order they belong. I am firmly of opinion they are robbers, and nothing else; as much so as he, who upon the highway, tells you in good plain English "stop! and deliver." What signifies the word or the gesticulations, so that the effect be the same on mind, heart, and purse?

Another set of the bold-ones, are those who knock at your doors, asking for charity, in lond or veiy deep tones, in such a manner as to impress you with the idea of prefernng an immediate donation of a few pence, to the fears of a protracted interview, with such a character as that before you. Should you refuse his request, he scarcely deigns to make room for you to shut the door; retiring the last leg most unwillingly, in the strong hope that you may touch it, so as to enable him to cry out, or to swear damnably, or perhaps to knock again at the door, to demand satisfaction! Such as these, as well as the sailor-looking men, first described, when you pass on without relieving them, follow you a few yards