usly to fear that I should have to pass the night in
the streets. My clothes were already moist with the fog, and I knew that
before morning they must be saturated. A policeman, who chanced to pass
at this juncture, recommended me to obtain a bed at the nearest inn, and
to renew my search in the morning. Then arose the difficulty about the
money; but as it occurred to me that I could leave my watch in charge of
the landlord as security for the payment of my expenses, I decided to
accompany him to an inn in the neighborhood, to which he undertook to
guide me. It was an indifferent place, being one of the gin-palaces for
which London is famous, but I was content, under the circumstances, to
remain there. The landlord, having examined my watch, and being
satisfied that it would cover all reasonable charges, if I never
reappeared to claim it, conferred with his wife respecting her domestic
arrangements. It was not usual, he told me, personally, for him to let
beds at such a late hour to strangers, but he thought I could be
accommodated. The policeman's satisfaction was very cordially expressed,
and as he lingered at my elbow, and significantly remarked that the fog
had got into his throat, I ordered him a glass of warm brandy and water,
for which he bowed acknowledgments. He was dressed, I noticed, in the
livery with which the engravings in Punch have made our public familiar.
He asked me several questions about the police in New-York, complained
that it was impossible for a man to live decently in England, and
remarked that 'if it weren't for the knocking-up money, a policeman in
London couldn't do it nohow.' I inquired what he meant by 'knocking-up
money,' and was informed that it was the custom in London, and in all
the large towns, for laboring men, who had to rise to their work at an
early hour, to pay a small sum weekly to the policeman in whose 'beat'
they resided, for knocking loudly at their doors in the morning to
awaken them. It is usual for policemen to add several shillings to their
weekly wages by this practice, and it is so far recognized by the
regulations of the force, that men who have slightly misconducted
themselves are punished by being removed from a 'beat' where there is a
great deal of 'knocking-up' to be performed, and transferred to a more
respectable quarter of the town, where the inhabitants are not compelled
to rise until they choose.

I had leisure before the arrangements for my night's repose w