s habits,
and had reduced his rogueries as strictly to method and system as if
they had been the commercial transactions of an honest man.

"In appearance, my system looks complicated?" pursued the captain. "In
reality, it is simplicity itself. I merely avoid the errors of inferior
practitioners. That is to say, I never plead for myself; and I
never apply to rich people--both fatal mistakes which the inferior
practitioner perpetually commits. People with small means sometimes have
generous impulses in connection with money--rich people, _never_. My
lord, with forty thousand a year; Sir John, with property in half a
dozen counties--those are the men who never forgive the genteel beggar
for swindling them out of a sovereign; those are the men who send for
the mendicity officers; those are the men who take care of their
money. Who are the people who lose shillings and sixpences by sheer
thoughtlessness? Servants and small clerks, to whom shillings and
sixpences are of consequence. Did you ever hear of Rothschild or Baring
dropping a fourpenny-piece down a gutter-hole? Fourpence in Rothschild's
pocket is safer than fourpence in the pocket of that woman who is crying
stale shrimps in Skeldergate at this moment. Fortified by these sound
principles, enlightened by the stores of written information in my
commercial library, I have ranged through the population for years past,
and have raised my charitable crops with the most cheering success.
Here, in book Number One, are all my Districts mapped out, with the
prevalent public feeling to appeal to in each: Military District,
Clerical District, Agricultural District; et cetera, et cetera. Here, in
Number Two, are my cases that I plead: Family of an officer who fell at
Waterloo; Wife of a poor curate stricken down by nervous debility; Widow
of a grazier in difficulties gored to death by a mad bull; et cetera,
et cetera. Here, in Number Three, are the people who have heard of the
officer's family, the curate's wife, the grazier's widow, and the people
who haven't; the people who have said Yes, and the people who have said
No; the people to try again, the people who want a fresh case to stir
them up, the people who are doubtful, the people to beware of; et
cetera, et cetera. Here, in Number Four, are my Adopted Handwritings
of public characters; my testimonials to my own worth and integrity; my
Heartrending Statements of the officer's family, the curate's wife,
and the grazier's wid