Page 194 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

the same as what painters use; bloody expensive they are,
especially the reds. I use five bobs’ worth of colours in a
long day, and never less than two bobs’ worth*. Cartoons
is my line—you know, politics and cricket and that. Look
here’—he showed me his notebook—‘here’s likenesses of all
the political blokes, what I’ve copied from the papers. I have
a different cartoon every day. For instance, when the Bud-
get was on I had one of Winston trying to push an elephant
marked ‘Debt’, and underneath I wrote, ‘Will he budge it?’
See? You can have cartoons about any of the parties, but you
mustn’t put anything in favour of Socialism, because the
police won’t stand it. Once I did a cartoon of a boa constric-
tor marked Capital swallowing a rabbit marked Labour. The
copper came along and saw it, and he says, ‘You rub that
out, and look sharp about it,’ he says. I had to rub it out. The
copper’s got the right to move you on for loitering, and it’s
no good giving them a back answer.’
[* Pavement artists buy their colours in the form of pow-
der, and work them into cakes in condensed milk]
I asked Bozo what one could earn at screeving. He said:
‘This time of year, when it don’t rain, I take about three
quid between Friday and Sunday—people get their wages
Fridays, you see. I can’t work when it rains; the colours get
washed off straight away. Take the year round, I make about
a pound a week, because you can’t do much in the winter.
Boat Race day, and Cup Final day, I’ve took as much as four
pounds. But you have to CUT it out of them, you know; you
don’t take a bob if you just sit and look at them. A halfpen-
ny’s the usual drop [gift], and you don’t get even that unless

1