Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/29

Rh upon them; which operation is performed while he tugs at the coach door to let you out.—(Those who smash under other circumstances have more leisure to prepare themselves). Should "the fare" want change for a pound note, the result is no longer doubtful: three or four shillings, at least, "come to his share." But the chiefest ingenuity is, to persuade you that you yourself have tendered bad money to poor Jarvis; who, after turning your money over and over, and perhaps taking a trial upon the stones, declares they ring bad, and you must change them for good ones. If you appear tolerably "soft," and will "stand it," he perhaps refuses these also, after having "rung the changes" once more. This is called "a double do;" and then, lest the transaction may have been "stagged" by some impertinent by-stander, or a trap, he mounts his box, and drives away with the utmost precipitancy.

N.B. Whenever a hackney coachman thus drives off in a great hurry, rely upon it something is the matter; in which case, he does not pull up at the next coach stand, but drives past it, "standing for no repairs."

Every one should be apprized, the moment they arrive in town, or rather before they enter it,