| <head>THE EXAMINER. 141</head>-----<!-- The text on this page is divided into two columns and is fully justified. --><p>who united the trade of begging with that of thieving. They usually<lb/>loitered about the door of a baker's shop, and, when they had an opportunity,<lb/>one of them slipped in, and slipped away two or three loaves,<lb/>while the other stood outside and guarded his retreat. They had also a<lb/>little trick by which they added to their means of living. They stood<lb/>opposite to a baker's window; and, as decent people passed, they rubbed<lb/>their hands, stared at the loaves, and cried—"Oh, bead, bread! starving<lb/>starving!"—and by such actions they got a great many pence, but not one<lb/>farthing did they lay out with the baker. (<hi rend="underline">Laughter</hi>.) He had ascertained<lb/>that, although the prisoners were not sailors, they spent their money<lb/>as jovially as if they were. The owners of some of the shops at which the<lb/>fellows played the farce of starvation did not object at first to the<lb/>exhibition, in the hope that some of the pence would be spent in the purchase of<lb/>the staff of life: but it happened that not one of the famishing trop went to<lb/>work with a hungry belly—for, upon one occasion, when they all stood at<lb/>a baker's door, with their eyes and mouths wide open, a loaf was broken,<lb/>and in vain handed to them. They were so well filled that they pocketed<lb/>it, carried it home, they said, to a comrade, who was starving worse than<lb/>themselves.</p><p>An officer said that some of the bakers' beggars, when they received<lb/>bread, contrived, by sleight-of-hand, to dispose of it in such a manner as<lb/>to convince the bystanders there was no trick, There was one fellow<lb/>who could, to all appearance, swallow a half-quarter loaf; but it was a<lb/>pantomime swallow: and people who thought he would destroy himself if<lb/>they gave him more bread, then threw money to him to wet it.</p><p>A person stepped forward, and said the prisoners had been guilty of<lb/>another trick, some time ago. They had been supplied, by order of the late<lb/>Lord Mayor, with a pair of shoes each, and a shilling, and they promised<lb/>to walk off and get a ship. They were, however, seen soon afterwards<lb/>barefooted, going into a ginshop; and it was ascertained that they had<lb/>sold their shoes in Field-lane, and were getting <hi rend="underline">lushy</hi> with the produce.</p><p>Mr. Hobler said it was a common practice with sturdy beggars to sell the<lb/>shoes they received in Field-lane, and retire to the gin-shop.</p><p>The three prisoners were without shoes, and the officers, upon taking<lb/>hold of them by the feet, said that they were such feet as required no shoes,<lb/>as the skin was as thick as any leather.—The prisoners were sent to Bridewell<lb/>for three months.</p><p>WORSHIP-STREET</p>
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