PUBLIC WASHHO USE. MODERATE DRINKER. 131 



hours being appointed for those who choose, by paying a larger 

 sum, to avoid a crowd. There are also commutations by the 

 year at lower rates : boys, for instance, have a yearly ticket 

 for a little over a dollar. During the first year it has some 

 thing more than paid expenses. The number of bathers the 

 last week (in May) was over one thousand. I mention these 

 statistics, as this establishment is rather smaller than most of 

 the kind, and they may serve the projectors of a similar one 

 in some of our smaller cities. 



We had had at breakfast the company of a little, fat dig 

 nified person, whose talk much amused us by its likeness to 

 that of some of Dickens characters. On returning to the inn 

 at noon, w r e found sitting with him a cadaverous-faced man, 

 with long hair, and very seedy clothes, who seemed from his 

 expressions to be an artist. Beer had just been brought into 

 them as we entered, but the painter after taking a long 

 draught, mildly suggested that &quot;something stronger might 

 facilitate business.&quot; The fussy man replied that he never 

 took any thing but malt liquors before dinner. The artist 

 said that he required something more. &quot; I haven t had any 

 thing but beer this morning, except a couple of glasses of 

 brandy, and a little go o rum with a dab of butter and sugar 

 in it.&quot; Here he looked at me with a smile and a nod, that 

 invited my good fellowship, and I ventured to ask how 

 much beer he might have had besides that. &quot; Not more than 

 half a dozen glasses, sir.&quot; &quot; Really, I should have supposed 

 that would be drink enough for half a day.&quot; &quot; Not for a 

 man like me; I have drank thirty-six glasses half pints of 

 strong Welsh ale in a day, and all the better of it.&quot; The 

 stout man said he never drank over a dozen, or at the high 

 est, fifteen, in a day, and never, except in peculiar circum 

 stances, took spirits before dinner; after dinner he would go 



