ts who knew the quality of his
dirtiness; he launched out into an unclean stave, and he reduced his
admirers to mere convulsions. He was encored, and he went a trifle
further, until he reached a depth of bestiality below which a gaff in
Shoreditch could net descend. Ah! Those bonny lads, how they roared with
laughter, and how they exchanged winks with grinning elders! Not a
single obscure allusion to filth was lost upon them, and they took more
and more drink under pressure of the secret excitement until many of
them were unsteady and incoherent. I think I should shoot a boy of mine
if I found him enjoying such a foul entertainment. It was leze-Humanity.
The orgie rattled on, to the joy of all the steaming, soddened company,
and I am not able to guess where some of the songs and recitations came
from. There are deeps below deeps, and I suppose that there are skilled
literary workmen who have sunk so far that they are ready to supply the
unspeakable dirt which I heard.

There was a merry crowd at the bar when this astounding function ceased,
and the lively lads jostled, and laughed, and quoted some of the more
spicy specimens of nastiness which they had just heard.

Now, I should not have mentioned such an unsavoury business as this, but
that it illustrates in a curious way the fact that one is met and
countered by the power of Drink at every turn in this country. Among
that unholy audience were one or two worthies who ought by rights to
have called the police, and forced the promoters of the fun to appear
before the Bench in the morning. But then these magistrates had an
interest in Beer, and Brewery shares were pretty well represented in the
odious room, and thus a flagrant scandal was gently passed aside. The
worst of it is that, after a rouse like this, the young men do not care
to go to bed, so they adjourn to some one's rooms and play cards till
any hour. In the train next morning there are blotchy faces, dull eyes,
tongues with a bitter taste, and there is a general rush for "liveners"
before the men go to office or warehouse; and the day drags on until the
joyous evening comes, when some new form of debauch drowns the memory of
the morning's headache. Should you listen to a set of these men when the
roar of a long bar is at its height at night, you will find that the
life of the intellect has passed away from their midst. The fellows may
be sharp in a small way at business, and I am sure I hope they are; but
the