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Sketches From Shady Places by Thor Fredur
Sketches From Shady Places by Thor Fredur Author:John Rutherford General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1879 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: II. ONE OF THE LONDON LAZZARONI. (drawn By Himself.) What I once was, never mind. Now I am shoeblack and match-seller; I sweep away the snow from before your doors in winter; I smooth your grass- plots and weed your flower-beds in summer; I mind horses and traps in the markets ; I do a little spying for the police ; there are even times when I take a spell at hard work. Then I am always ready for any little bit of petty larceny that comes handy and is quite safe. For liberty is everything to me. I would not consent to be moped up within four walls -- no, not if you were to fill my hat with sovereigns. Downright beggary is a winter trade; I never resort to it in summer, and only on suitable days in winter. I wait for a bitterly cold day, with a north wind driving snow or sleet before it. I dress in suitable style -- in the most ragged raiment I can pick up. I dispense with stockings for the occasion, and take good care, while affecting to make the most of my scanty garb, to let glimpses of my naked breast appear. My boots are well down at heel and broken in half-a-dozen places. In this guise I sally forth at a good round pace, until I reach some such street as Bishopsgate Street Without, about half-past eight in the morning, when clerks,« less