LIFE AXD GENIUS OF GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. 143 



relieved of a tooth, gratis, by Will-o'-the-wisp, feels at once ec pained 

 and astonished at his friend's proceedings:" it is clear that the pitch- 

 fork is a surprise upon him he had had no reason to expect it. 

 On suffering his dental domestic enemy to be tied to the stall-post, 

 he had evidently flattered himself that no such course would have 

 been adopted : the pull has just commenced ; his whole weight is on 

 the string, and as the gentleman in the next stall, whose hair has 

 been recently conscious of a mane-comb, foresees with grim delight, 

 in another moment he will be on his back minus a molar. Jack is a 

 fellow who could not help being hoaxed ; Will is one who could not 

 help hoaxing him : he always has been and always will be a hoaxer ; 

 the other has been a butt all his life. 





These are not solitary bits of pictorial biography ; but, on the con- 

 trary, in George's works, such information abounds : on the brow 

 of nine-tenths of their population a condensed memoir is graven ; 

 they are ticketed and labelled ; we see at a glance what line of con- 

 duct they have adopted in what society they have moved whether 

 or not they are in their usual station " how they are off" in the 

 world, &c. In the Illustrations of Time, the fat knock-kneed fellow, 

 with his eyes half-closed, who is telling the man in the travelling cap 

 that the mail has started full twenty minutes, is a publican who de- 

 cidedly commenced his career as a potboy. His master died, and 

 the widow finding f( Joey" or ei Gekup" useful, married him off-hand. 

 He knew the customers and the ways of the house ; besides, she 

 didn't wish to be pestered by that old fool Pettifer. Mr. Jones, too, 

 began to grow quite disagreeable, and she durst not affront him ; and 

 as for the master sweep drat the man ! Well, Joey or Gekup we 

 think his name is Gekup, and so be it Gekup, although the land- 

 lady's husband, and " up in years," is still the landlady's potboy. 

 She keeps the key of the till ; he puts the house " to rights" after 

 the company are gone and the bar is locked ; he lights the fires and 



