from being smothered in the mud. It is now midnight; I have a man with
me, and I am not quite so vigorous as I could wish, but my head is
clear, and to-morrow there will only be the criss-cross mass of
sticking-plaster to tell that I have been felled and robbed. I shall try
to pay Mr. Blackey out. Meantime the police and public should remember
that many men in London pick up a living by arranging humorous little
midnight interviews like that which I went through. Only the
professionals work on the Thames Embankment, and the "bashed" man,
instead of going into six inches of mud, never is heard of again till
his carcass is brought before the coroner.




ONE OF OUR ENTERTAINMENTS.


We have lately had "sport" brought to our very doors, and a pretty crew
offered themselves for my study. In the diseased life of the city many
odious human types are developed, but none are so horrible as those that
crop up at sporting gatherings of various sorts. I have never doubted
the existence of an impartial, beneficent Ruling Power save when I have
been among the scum of the sporting meetings. At those times I often
failed to understand why a good God could permit beings to remain on
earth whose very presence seems at once to insult the pure sky and the
memory of Christ. If you go away for a few weeks and live among simple
fishermen or hinds you become proud of your countrymen. On wild nights,
when the black waves galloped down on our vessel and crashed along our
decks, I have felt my heart glow as I watched the cool seamen picking
up their ropes and working deftly on amid the roaring darkness. The