f the
lodgers, are just a second edition of the people below, except a
shabby-genteel man in the back attic, who has his half-pint of coffee
every morning from the coffee-shop next door but one, which boasts a
little front den called a coffee-room, with a fireplace, over which is an
inscription, politely requesting that, 'to prevent mistakes,' customers
will 'please to pay on delivery.' The shabby-genteel man is an object of
some mystery, but as he leads a life of seclusion, and never was known to
buy anything beyond an occasional pen, except half-pints of coffee, penny
loaves, and ha'porths of ink, his fellow-lodgers very naturally suppose
him to be an author; and rumours are current in the Dials, that he writes
poems for Mr. Warren.

Now anybody who passed through the Dials on a hot summer's evening, and
saw the different women of the house gossiping on the steps, would be apt
to think that all was harmony among them, and that a more primitive set
of people than the native Diallers could not be imagined. Alas! the man
in the shop ill-treats his family; the carpet-beater extends his
professional pursuits to his wife; the one-pair front has an undying feud
with the two-pair front, in consequence of the two-pair front persisting
in dancing over his (the one-pair front's) head, when he and his family
have retired for the night; the two-pair back will interfere with the
front kitchen's children; the Irishman comes home drunk every other
night, and attacks everybody; and the one-pair back screams at
everything. Animosities spring up between floor and floor; the very
cellar asserts his equality. Mrs. A. 'smacks' Mrs. B.'s child for
'making faces.' Mrs. B. forthwith throws cold water over Mrs. A.'s child
for 'calling names.' The husbands are embroiled--the quarrel becomes
general--an assault is the consequence, and a police-officer the result.

CHAPTER VI--MEDITATIONS IN MONMOUTH-STREET

We have always entertained a particular attachment towards
Monmouth-street, as the only true and real emporium for second-hand
wearing apparel. Monmouth-street is venerable from its antiquity, and
respectable from its usefulness. Holywell-street we despise; the
red-headed and red-whiskered Jews who forcibly haul you into their
squalid houses, and thrust you into a suit of clothes, whether you will
or not, we detest.

The inhabitants of Monmouth-street are a distinct class; a peaceable and
retiring race, who immure themselves