Page 199 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

and tie, of which he was rather proud. The collar, a year or
more old, was constantly ‘going’ round the neck, and Bozo
used to patch it with bits cut from the tail of his shirt so that
the shirt had scarcely any tail left. His damaged leg was get-
ting worse and would probably have to be amputated, and
his knees, from kneeling on the stones, had pads of skin on
them as thick as boot-soles. There was, clearly, no future for
him but beggary and a death in the workhouse.
With all this, he had neither fear, nor regret, nor shame,
nor self-pity. He had faced his position, and made a phi-
losophy for himself. Being a beggar, he said, was not his
fault, and he refused either to have any compunction about
it or to let it trouble him. He was the enemy of society, and
quite ready to take to crime if he saw a good opportuni-
ty. He refused on principle to be thrifty. In the summer he
saved nothing, spending his surplus earnings on drink, as
he did not care about women. If he was penniless when win-
ter came on, then society must look after him. He was ready
to extract every penny he could from charity, provided that
he was not expected to say thank you for it. He avoided reli-
gious charities, however, for he said it stuck in his throat to
sing hymns for buns. He had various other points of hon-
our; for instance, it was his boast that never in his life, even
when starving, had he picked up a cigarette end. He consid-
ered himself in a class above the ordinary run of beggars,
who, he said, were an abject lot, without even the decency
to be ungrateful.
He spoke French passably, and had read some of Zola’s
novels, all Shakespeare’s plays, GULLIVER’S TRAVELS,

1 Down and Out in Paris and London