until some voice
said, "Feelin' better?"

I was a little sick, and my head was bleeding, but otherwise I had
suffered no harm, and I could walk. It was as though I had received a
knock-down blow in a fight, and that does not hurt one for long. But how
lucky that the water was out of the mill stream! I had been pitched into
about six inches of water, and a policeman who heard the splash jumped
over some rails, and cut across a private paddock in time to save me
from being smothered in the mud. It is now midnight; I have a man with
me, and I am not quite so vigorous as I could wish, but my head is
clear, and to-morrow there will only be the criss-cross mass of
sticking-plaster to tell that I have been felled and robbed. I shall try
to pay Mr. Blackey out. Meantime the police and public should remember
that many men in London pick up a living by arranging humorous little
midnight interviews like that which I went through. Only the
professionals work on the Thames Embankment, and the "bashed" man,
instead of going into six inches of mud, never is heard of again till
his carcass is brought before the coroner.

ONE OF OUR ENTERTAINMENTS.

We have lately had "sport" brought to our very doors, and a pretty crew
offered themselves for my study. In the diseased life of the city many
odious human types are developed, but none are so horrible as those that
crop up at sporting gatherings of various sorts. I have never doubted
the existence of an impartial, beneficent Ruling Power save when I have
been among the scum of the sporting meetings. At those times I often
failed to understand why a good God could permit beings to remain on
earth whose very presence seems at once to insult the pure sky and the
memory of Christ. If you go away for a few weeks and live among simple
fishermen or hinds you become proud of your countrymen. On wild nights,
when the black waves galloped down on our vessel and crashed along our
decks, I have felt my heart glow as I watched the cool seamen picking
up their ropes and working deftly on amid the roaring darkness. The
fishers are sober, splendid men, who face death with never a tremor, and
toil on usefully day after day. Come away from their broad, sane
simplicity and courage, and look upon the infamous hounds who are bred
in the congested regions--you are sickened and depressed.

I notice that the sporting gang talk only of betting, thieving,
whoremongering, or fighting. With regard to the l