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 their conversation is painful in the extreme to any one who wishes to retain a shred of respect for his own species.  If you listen long, and then fix your mind so that you can pick out the exact significance of what you have heard, you become confounded.  Take the scraps of “bar” gabble.  “So I says, ‘Lay me fours.’  And he winks and says, ’I’ll give you seven to two, if you like.’  Well, you know, the horse won, and I stood him a bottle out of the three pound ten, so I wasn’t much in.”  “‘What!’ says I; ‘step outside along o’ me, and bring your pal with you, and I’ll spread your bloomin’ nose over your face.’” “That corked him.”  “I tell you Flyaway’s a dead cert.  I know a bloke that goes to Newmarket regular, and he’s acquainted with Reilly of the Greyhound, and Reilly told him that he heard Teddy Martin’s cousin say that Flyaway was tried within seven pounds of Peacock.  Can you have a better tip than that?” “I’ll give you the break, and we’ll play for a bob and the games.”  “Thanks, deah boy, I’ll jest have one with you.  Lor! wasn’t I chippy this morning?  I felt as if the pavement was making rushes at me, and my hat seemed to want a shoehorn to get it on or off for that matter.  Bill’s whisky’s too good.”  “I’m going out with a Judy on Sunday, or else you’d have me with you.  The girls won’t leave me alone, and the blessed dears can’t be denied.”  So the talk goes steadily forward.  What can a bright lad learn there?  Many of the assembly are very young, and their features have not lost the freshness and purity