COACH-PROPRIETORS 203 



this practice without raising the Avages of their 

 servants, and thus they were ohliged, so long as 

 the coachmen and the guards performed their 

 " shouhlerinsr " and " swalloAving " discreetly, to 

 allow it to continue. The practice Avas, indeed, 

 a very Incrative one to those chartered peculators, 

 Avho made a great deal more out of it than they 

 would in the suhstitution of higher wages and a 

 hetter code of morals. Like the omnihus-pro- 

 prietors until recently, coach-masters were content 

 so long as their takings reached a certain average 

 sum, and it was only when they fell heloAV that 

 figure, or Avhen a fare was " shouldered " or a 

 passenger "swallowed" hefore their very eyes, 

 that trouhle l)egan. Chaplin could thus afPord 

 to give the toast, as often he did give it, at festive 

 gatherings of coachmen and guards, " Success to 

 ' shouldering,' hut " (with a peculiar emphasis) 

 " do it well ! " — or, in plainer speech, " don't get 

 found out ! " 



Stories with Chaplin for a central figure were, 

 of course, plentiful down the road. Stahle-folk 

 told how one of their kind, who had heen re- 

 quisitioning the contents of the corn-hin to an 

 extravagant extent, going to it Avitli sack and 

 lantern one night when all was still, lifting 

 the lid, found Cliaplin himself snugly Avaiting 

 within, Avho promptly arose in his Avrath, and, 

 to the accompaniment of a picturesquely lurid 

 eloquence of Avhich he Avas an undouhted master, 

 dismissed him instanter. The fame of that ex- 

 ploit must have saved Chaplin much in forage. 



