Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/421



HUMBLY SHOWETH,

HAT your petitioners are a great and numerous society, endowed with several privileges time out of mind.

That certain lewd, idle, and disorderly persons, for several months past, as it is notoriously known, have been daily seen in the publick walks of this city, habited sometimes in green coats, and sometimes laced, with long oaken cudgels in their hands, and without swords; in hopes to procure favour by that advantage with a great number of ladies who frequent those walks; pretending and giving themselves out to be the true genuine Irish footmen; whereas they can he proved to be no better than common toupees, as a judicious eye may soon discover, by their awkward, clumsy, ungenteel gait and behaviour; by their unskilfulness in dress even with the advantage of our habits; by their ill favoured countenances, with an air of impudence and dulness peculiar to the rest of their brethren, who have not yet arrived at that scendent