Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

een See eee eennnntnInnEInnEEE SEER eee ee —. ath —— —- iis — <= ~_—_—- -—_——- -—-— — = a —_-_-- ————_—— SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: CHAPTER XXIII. THE MODEL POLICEMAN AND THE MODEL SERVANT GIRL. , JoHNNY BristLes had been an ambitious young cobbler ; shoemaker he never was, for somehow Johnny never could get further in the art of the trade, to which his father had apprenticed him, than that of patching boots and shoes. He never liked the business, and when the new police were in formation, Johnny solicited a place in their ranks, and got it. Now was Johnny’s time to turn upon those who had made him a butt for a lengthened period. He had always been a foolish, nervous fellow, and no sooner did he put on the uniform than sristles was—at least in his own estimation— one of the bravest men in the world. Those who before had laughed and jeered at him had but to give him the slightest opportunity, aud ‘Move on!” was his cry. Ii this order was not obeyed, Bristles had him by the collar and quickly marched him off to the station. Indeed, it was stated that Johnny had more charges in one week than any two other men in the force had in a twelvemonth. So gradually Johnny Bristles, instead of meet- ing jeers and contempt at every turn, began to be looked upon with terror. Before he entered the force he was slovenly in habit and appearance, and never had a penny in his pocket. : But he had not been lone in the force before he was pretty flush of monéy, and carried a good silver watch, which he took great pains to let everybody see—at least, the large steel chain of it, at the end of which dangled an enormous bunch of seals. There were some, and not a few either, who were base enough to assert that it once belonged to a man who got tipsy one night, and who Johnny led to the station, although he was only endeavouring to find his own keyhole when taken into custody. Certainly it was strange that a few minutes before he fell into this model policeman’s hands, that the watch was seen in his possession, and that when he arrived at the station 1t was no- where to be found. It was only the nexé day that a chain and seals were seen hanging from the fob of Johnny Bristles, and his detractors made this circum- stance an opportunity for the base msinuation upon his honesty. It did them no good, however ; on the con- trary, it only made an inveterate enemy of the ex-cobbler, who watched for the least opportu- nity to be avenged on the malicious slanderers. Now, there was some truth in the reports that Johnny did not go his rounds so regularly as he might; that he was often seen lurking about the front gardens of certain inhabitants of the locality where his beat was; but then Bristles, when taxed by his superiors, always asserted his beat was a dreary one, and that thieves were always on the look-out for plunder, and, like a! true officer, he was looking after them, — eer — _ Mt ntS CCOTNGLONOKON —— i eee — — —- | THE TERROR OF LONDON, Gl Tf he did peep down areas, and go through side gates into back gardens, was he not only doing what was right ? And who could give better information as tu footsteps and voices about a house or grounds than the servants ? It was no use. Johnny’s enemies could do him no harm ; on the contrary, they only raised him in the estimation of his superiors, and ex- cited the pity and commiseration of two or three La small-capped servant girls on his eat. If Johnny was disliked by the men, he cer- tainly was more than liked by the female portion of the community—at least, that portion which scrub and cook, and are more familiar with the kitchen than the parlour. There had been not a few quarrels between these serving maids as to who should lay claim to the favours of the model policeman, and more than one foolish girl whom the blue coat and metal buttons had fascinated had come under the wrath of her mistress, and been packed off bag and baggage. | : Of course, Johnny Bristles felt very indiguant at such harsh conduct, and would shake his fist at the area, down which he used to look with longing eyes at the little maid and neatly-spread kitchen table. Anyone who might have observed him thus would perhaps have doubted where the eyes ot Johnny lingered most, whether at the viands or the maiden. But certain it is, that his mouth used to water as he stood, and an audible groan escape his breast as he turned away to pursue his duties. But Johnny’s heart was pretty tough. He did not grieve long. There were more kitchens on his beat, and more servant maids than would satisfy half the division, of which he believed himself the principal ornament. He had just recovered one of those painful shocks to his feelings—those feelings, we mean, which lay in the stomach—and made the ac- quaintance of a natty little country girl, who had just put on the badge of servitude at the Misses Snookers’ academy, a short distance from Camber- well church. If Bristles’ heart ever beat for another, it did for Pegoy Mittern, and she not only gladdened his soul with her sweet smiles, but filled his belly night after night, with the little tit-bits which her mistress’s kitchen or larder afforded. Half a cold fowl at one time found its way from the larder into Johnny’s pocket. At another, a nice slice of roasted beef or mutton, wrapped in a clean piece of newspaper, would stare him full in the face as he stooped to brush the dirt from the bottom of his trowsers before the garden gate of the academy. What could Bristles do but pick it up, espe- cially when it was accompanied with a sly wink from a laughing black eye and a smile from two pouting lips. But somehow or other the Misses Snookers —disagsreeable and suspicious old maids)—would always look out of the door or window as he neared the house, and gradually the little luxuries disappeared. Johnny waxed wrath at this, and he felt an ld —— '