nd in some public
thoroughfare, not only the character of the singer, but the poetry
itself, taking the tone of the street; so that while some daring bit of
town scandal caught the ears of College Green, a "bloody murder" or a
"dying speech" formed the attraction of Thomas Street and the "Poddle."

Many years afterwards, in the checkered page of my existence, when I
have sat at lordly tables and listened to the sharpened wit and polished
raillery of the high-born and the gifted, my mind has often reverted
to that beggar horde, and thought how readily the cutting jest was
answered, how soon repartee followed attack--what quaint fancies, what
droll conceits, passed through those brains, where one would have deemed
there was no room for aught save brooding guilt and sad repining.

As night closed in, the assembly broke up; some issued forth to their
stations as ballad-singers; some, in pure vagabond spirit, to stroll
about the streets; while others, of whom I was one, lay down upon the
straw to sleep, without a dream, till daylight.

CHAPTER VI. VIEWS OF LIFE

When I woke the next morning, it was a few minutes before I could
thoroughly remember where I was and how I came there; my next thought
was the grateful one, that if the calling was not a very exaltued one,
I had at least secured a mode of living, and that my natural acuteness,
and, better still, my fixed resolve within me "to get forward in the
world," would not permit me to pass my days in the ignoble craft of
a "horse-boy." I found that the "walk," like every other career, had
certain guiding rules and principles by which it was regulated. Not only
were certain parts of the town interdicted to certain gangs, but it was
a recognized rule that when a particular boy was singled out habitually
by any gentleman that no other should endeavor to supplant him. This was
the less difficult as a perfect community of property was the rule of
the order; and all moneys were each night committed to the charge of
"old Betty," with a scrupulous fidelity that would have shamed many a
"joint-stock company."

The regular etiquette required that each youth should begin his career
in the north side of the city, where the class of horsemen was of a less
distinguished order, and the fees proportionably lower. Thence he
was promoted to the Four Courts; from which, as the highest stage, he
arrived at Merrion Square and its neighborhood. Here the visitors were
either the young offi