30 LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



wholly helpless. Meanwhile, or during uncon- 

 sciousness, he was robbed by the garrotter's 

 companions. Tegetmeier's method of dealing 

 with such gentry was — or would have been — very 

 efficacious had he been attacked. For when 

 walking by himself in dark and lonely streets he 

 carried an open knife in his right hand, with 

 which to stab his assailant in the stomach. He 

 would have done it too, if thus attacked, for he 

 was a man of great physical courage and quick 

 temper. 



As I shall have further to refer to Tegetmeier's 

 love of Bohemianism in the chapter descriptive of 

 his share in founding the Savage Club, I will end 

 this one by referring to some of the " dodges,'' 

 of which the old man told me, then in use to 

 " cheat the postman." Before the days of the 

 Penny Post, introduced in 1840, people (often 

 quite respectable) used, to save the heavy postage 

 rates then in force and payable by the addressee 

 unless previously franked, to write messages on 

 the covers of newspapers (which being subject 

 to the heavy paper tax, went free through the 

 post) in skim milk. This writing was of course 

 invisible — until held before the fire or otherwise 

 heated, when the secret wording would appear. 

 Or folk would write a message in a solution of 

 gall, and by the use of a weak solution of iron 

 the recipient could " bring out " the lettering. 

 Another dodge was to ink a dot over, or prick 



