sticking clause was got into the Police Act by a member of
Parliament that employed me at his election. The clause is pretty
stiff respecting where bills go; but HE didn't mind where HIS bills
went. It was all right enough, so long as they was HIS bills!'

Fearful that I observed a shadow of misanthropy on the King's
cheerful face, I asked whose ingenious invention that was, which I
greatly admired, of sticking bills under the arches of the bridges.

'Mine!' said His Majesty. 'I was the first that ever stuck a bill
under a bridge! Imitators soon rose up, of course. - When don't
they? But they stuck 'em at low-water, and the tide came and swept
the bills clean away. I knew that!' The King laughed.

'What may be the name of that instrument, like an immense fishing-
rod,' I inquired, 'with which bills are posted on high places?'

'The joints,' returned His Majesty. 'Now, we use the joints where
formerly we used ladders - as they do still in country places.
Once, when Madame' (Vestris, understood) 'was playing in Liverpool,
another bill-sticker and me were at it together on the wall outside
the Clarence Dock - me with the joints - him on a ladder. Lord! I
had my bill up, right over his head, yards above him, ladder and
all, while he was crawling to his work. The people going in and
out of the docks, stood and laughed! - It's about thirty years
since the joints come in.'

'Are there any bill-stickers who can't read?' I took the liberty of
inquiring.