them in a Morning; every Person they decoy'd into
their Company for a Minute or two, never threw down less than his
Six-pence, and few drank more than one Gill; and if two or three
Glasses, he seldom came off with less than one Shilling. The Master of
the House constantly provided them with a plain Dinner, _gratis_. All
Dinner-time they kept their Room still, in full view of the Street,
and so sate _catching Gudgeons_, (as they used to call it) from
Morning till Night; when, besides amply filling their own Carcasses,
and discharging the whole Reckoning, they seldom divided less than
seven or eight Shillings a Man _per Diem_.

Some People, unacquainted with this _Fellow-feeling_ at Taverns, often
wonder how such a one does to hold it; that he spends a confounded
deal of Money, is seldom out of a Tavern, and never in his Business:
when, in reality, he is thus never out of his Business, and so helps
to run away with the chief Profits of the House.

Nor are these all the Hardships many of the Vintners lie under; for
besides, their Purses must too often stand a private Examination
behind the Bar, when any of these sort of Customers Necessities shall
require it.

'Tis such Dealings drive the poor Devils to all the little Shifts and
Tricks imaginable. I went one day into a Tavern near _Charing-Cross_,
to inquire after a Person whom I knew had once us'd the House: The
Mistress being in the Bar, cry'd out, _What an unfortunate thing it
was, Mr. ---- being that instant gone out of the House, and was
surprized I did not meet him at the Door; but that he had left Word he
expected a Gentleman to come to him, and would return immediately._ I
staid the sipping of two or three Half-pints, and begun to shew some
uneasiness that he did not come according to her Expectation; when she
again _wonder'd at it_, saying, _it was just one of his Times of
coming; for that he was a worthy good Gentleman, and constantly
whetted four or five times in a Morning_. At length, being out of all
patience, I paid, and went to my Friend's House, about twenty Doors
farther; where his Wife inform'd me, _he had been gone about three
Months before to_ Jamaica.

The Bankruptcies so frequently happening among the Sons of _Bacchus_,
are doubtless to be attributed chiefly to such Leeches as I have been
describing, lying so closely upon them; and then an innocent
industrious Man is to be call'd forsworn Rogue, Villain, and what not;
and to be told that he hath