1. Always carry a box of lucifers in your hand. It is the Ægis of a
beggar's life, and shields him from the invasion of policemen.
2. Never be lame and blind together in the same town. One infirmity at a
time is enough for the coldest sympathy.
3. Run sedulously after Quakers and fat ladies, especially if you have
with you at the time a wife and a large family.
4. Never fail to sing out well in cold weather. If you have three or
four little boys and girls, of mixed sizes, to sing with you, all the
better. Always choose the middle of the street to give effect to your
voices.
5. You must be "frozen out" regularly ever winter, and mount duty in the
streets, with a pitchfork, tipped with a cabbage, over your shoulder.
6. Your costume in each season must be the opposite of that usually
worn; that is to say, during the winter, a pair of very thin trousers
and a corazza will be all you require. Shiver violently, and chatter
your teeth as often as a person passes you. A sailor's hat, striped
shirt, and canvas trousers, are not bad in a country town.
7. Mind, in your orations, you "haven't tasted food for three days," and
make a practice of picking up bones, or old crusts, out of the gutter,
and gnawing them, if there is any one looking at you.
8. Never be too modest, if any one has relieved you, to ask for "an old
coat, or a pair of old shoes." Recollect, Holywell Street is not too
proud to purchase the most worthless of wearing apparel.
9. Take care, if you are deaf and dumb, not to answer any one. Suffer
yourself to be taken into custody rather than notice the impertinent
questions of an officer of the Mendicity Society.
10. Take care of long crossings, if you are very lame. It is extremely
unpleasant, as well as _infra dig._, to carry your crutches and run all
of a sudden, if you happen to have at your heels a mad bull or a racing
omnibus.
11. Chalk writing is unprofitable, and belongs to the old school. If you
are driven to it, don't mind about spelling incorrectly, and be sure you
are "starving." Quiet spots, like Gower Street or Russell Square, are
the best markets for this branch of the profession. In great
thoroughfares you will have your fresco or calligraphy rubbed out by
every unfeeling passer-by, and be obliged ultimately to "walk your
chalks."
[Illustration:
SUMMER-Y JUSTICE—The heat of argument.
]