Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/96

80 and that was reason enough for getting off easy. He that very blessed night, in my own hearing, split upon Bill-Bill of Golden Lane; who only escaped the sessions by reason of the Nose having called too late upon the officer; which latter (his wife declared) got up, and had been gone out ever since five o'clock (in the afternoon), "because the house was too hot to hold him."

Should a "novice in town," ramble into a public house, late in the evening, if it be not very respectable (and that does not matter, at all times) he may have one or two set upon hira, pretending to be officers, ordering him and his party home, in expectation of a treat, but if discovered, pretending to be upon the lark. Landlords in general pull with them, because they are old customers, and do good to a house.

In cases where a party accused stands search, articles are passed into possession of the searched, as suits the purpose of the searcher. When the lads were taken up on Tower Hill for smashing, they had no money about them bad or good until after a kind of second search, when the officer conveyed the base coin iuto their possession.