e
joke was always accompanied by the same exclamation. This lasted for two
or three months, and "_Walker!_" walked off the stage, never more to be
revived for the entertainment of that or any future generation.

The next phrase was a most preposterous one. Who invented it, how it
arose, or where it was first heard, are alike unknown. Nothing about it is
certain, but that for months it was _the_ slang _par excellence_ of the
Londoners, and afforded them a vast gratification. "_There he goes with
his eye out!_" or "_There she goes with her eye out!_" as the sex of the
party alluded to might be, was in the mouth of every body who knew the
town. The sober part of the community were as much puzzled by this
unaccountable saying as the vulgar were delighted with it. The wise
thought it very foolish, but the many thought it very funny, and the idle
amused themselves by chalking it upon walls, or scribbling it upon
monuments. But "all that's bright must fade," even in slang. The people
grew tired of their hobby, and "_There he goes with his eye out!_" was
heard no more in its accustomed haunts.

Another very odd phrase came into repute in a brief space afterwards, in
the form of the impertinent and not universally apposite query, "_Has your
mother sold her mangle?_" But its popularity was not of that boisterous
and cordial kind which ensures a long continuance of favour. What tended
to impede its progress was, that it could not be well applied to the older
portions of society. It consequently ran but a brief career, and then sank
into oblivion. Its successor enjoyed a more extended fame, and laid its
foundations so deep, that years and changing fashions have not sufficed to
eradicate it. This phrase was "_Flare up!_" and it is, even now, a
colloquialism in common use. It took its rise in the time of the Reform
riots, when Bristol was nearly half burned by the infuriated populace. The
flames were said to have _flared up_ in the devoted city. Whether there
was any thing peculiarly captivating in the sound, or in the idea of these
words, is hard to say; but whatever was the reason, it tickled the
mob-fancy mightily, and drove all other slang out of the field before it.
Nothing was to be heard all over London but "_flare up!_" It answered all
questions, settled all disputes, was applied to all persons, all things,
and all circumstances, and became suddenly the most comprehensive phrase
in the English language. The man who had overst