The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

20 REYNOLDS’ WORKS a shilling into it, whereat the mountebank was seized with such a violent ecstasy of delight that he whirled himself around on the one stilt, the other being stretched out behind him in a horizontal direction and skimming over the hats, caps, and bonnets of the spectators who happened to come within the range of this peculiar feat. Ps “You are a perfect gentleman, sir,’”’ said the mountebank, when his achievement was finished, and he bowed low to Christian as he thus spoke. ‘““Tf you think so,” said our hero, with a smile, ‘‘ you may perhaps answer me a question or two, and I will drop another coin into your basin.”’ ‘“As many answers as you like, sir,’ joyously responded the mountebank, “ at that rate,’’ and he bent more forward to hear what Christian had to say, placing his hands upon his knees, assuming a sort of squatting position in the air, but dodging the while to and fro or from side to side with little short steps of his stilts, so as to maintain his balance; for it requires but a very limited knowledge of the laws of equilibrium and gravitation to convince any one of our readers that a gentleman thus perched upon high stilts cannot very conveniently stand perfectly still for three moments at a time. ‘Who is that person that plays your drum?” inquired Christian. ‘‘ Never mind why I ask, and don’t look around at him, as I do not wish him to see that I am speaking of him.” ‘He is a poor German devil that we picked up a few months back,” replied the mountebank, “‘ and it so happened that we wanted a person to play the drum and the organ —”’ “The organ? ”’ said Christian, inquiringly. ‘Yes, the mouth-organ, to be sure, — and where is there a nobler instrument? ” said the mountebank, with a transient air of indignation; but apparently recollecting that another shilling was at stake, he instantaneously recovered his good humour, and having cut a caper to relieve his feelings, he again bent down to Christian. ‘‘ Yes,’’ he continued, “we picked up that poor devil some months ago, and as our pardner which used to beat the drum and play the organ had gone into a little temporary retirement — only six months at the mill, for mistaking another gentleman’s pocket for his own during the bitter cold weather of March ECORNICLIOOKS (E(0)