Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 71: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i ¢ ’ ab : « PICKWICK ABROAD. father, which was a respectable cow-herd ; —and through the interest made in his be- in’ that county, left him a few pounds that | half by the last-named gentleman, he ob- was soon squandered away; and I, Mr.) tained the lucrative and responsible situa- Thing-um-bob, am honest Jack Sugden, of | tion of light porter, in the highly respecta- , the Lanthorn and Cat, in the Borough, elector | ble firm of Messieurs. Bodkin os rogram, and overseer, and a loyal subject. of Great |The elder Mr. Sugden then interceded in What-d’ye-call-it. Them’s my titles ;’—and | behalf of his son; and the young aspirant as he gave utterance to these dignified words, | was duly promoted to the post of traveller he looked around him with an air that seemed | for the. house in which his fortunes were a . to challenge any one to deny his rank or his | assertions. ay “ You are aware, sir,” said Mr. Pickwick, after a short pause, “that your son is in the debtors’ prison in this city ?” , “So heerd from one of his London tradesmen,” answered Mr. Sugden ; and that’s what brought me over to Frogland. He’s my only son, and I can’t suffer him to rot in a gaol, which he might do.” “Perhaps he might,” said Mr. Pickwick, drily, as the reminiscences of the debauch and the discount flashed across his mind. “But, if it be your intention to call upon him in his place of confinement, I will accom- ou. I have not been there lately.” “ With pleasure, Mr. Devil-take-the-name, and much obleeged into the bargain,” ex- claimed the proprietor of the Lanthorn and Cat ; then in the fulness of his heart and the communicativeness of the feelings which Mr. Pickwick’s kindness and the bottled porter had together encouraged, he proceeded to favor that gentleman with a slight sketch of his volatile son’s past life. | It ‘appears that when Mr. Adolphus Crashem, alias Mr. William Sugden, arrived at the age of fifteen, a practised utilitarian and'generous patron of the working classes, placed at his six guineas per annwn and a couple of suits of livery, in return for certain duties which the youth was requested to perform— Amongst those functions, the polishing of boots, waiting at table, and standing behind a cab were the most prominent, and conse- quently the most onerous. But Mr. William Sugden inherited from his father a remarka- ble shortness of memory; and this defect was one day doxeape in the following singular manner. The young gentleman was dispatched to a banker to procure cash for a cheque ; it is, however, supposed that he must have lost his way and been robbed of the money, as he certainly forgot to return and report the real state of the case to his master. About this time, Mr. William Sugden fell in with Mr. Tims—an old school-fellow o men disposal the sum of now embarked. The prosperity of his masters had been established in the begin- ning on the solid basis of a floating capital of about eighteen-pence ; and Mr. William © Sugden did not doubt but that his own glo-* __ ries might as easily be erected and main- »_ tained. But his shortness of memory was again an impediment to his progress in the walks of commercial life; and the various sums of money which he received in the country and forgot to account for in town, were the origin of his disgrace in the opinions of Messieurs Bodkin and Grogram, ‘To be brief, those gentlemen, with unfeeling ab- ruptness, dared to remind Mr. William Sugden of his trivial though numerous oversights, which, in their ignorance of the English language, they denominated “ pec- ulations.” <A police-officer was accordingly summoned to remove Mr, Sugden from the premises; but as that highly injured man was desirous of giving no trouble where his services had been so ill-requited, and not deigning to explain his conduct, he man- fully threw up his situation and left his employers.to shift for themselves without even notifying his intentions. Indeed, he determined, as he subsequently expressed himself to his indignant father, never to show his face in the neighborhood of Mes- sieurs Bodkin and Grogram’s abode, so long as he had a nose protruding from his coun- tenance. It is pleasing to be enabled to trace the progress of great and remarkable men. Being now thrown upon his own resources, and not choosing to walk about London with his hands and nothing else in i pock. ets, Mr. William Sugden borrowed a few guineas of his father, and opened a dis- count office under an assumed name, ina fashionable street at the West End of Lon- don. His mode of doing business was sin- gular in the extreme, and bears ample tes- timony to the extent of his organ of inven- tiveness. Instead of discounting the bills that were left in his hands for that purpose, he usually made his clients pay a hand- An JOO) ps Pa > <S (EO) mn 7 € «wr ‘ = aR ‘ pe