230 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DA YS OF YORE 



It was not often that the coachmen were so 

 outspoken as the hero of the following tale. 

 " What do you expect ? " asked a passenger ncAV 

 to the road of him when collecting the customary 

 tips at the end of his stage. That ornament of 

 the hox was blunt and frank : " Gents generally 

 gives me a shilling ; fools with more money than 

 brains gives me half a crown," he said. What, in 

 that case, could the jiassenger do but proclaim 

 himself, in the amount of his gratuity, a " gent " 

 with a superfluity of brains over cash, even though 

 the coachman-philosojiher was a loser to the extent 

 of one-and-sixpence ? 



