64 ACTEON'S FATE TO THEM. 



for sale : it may enable a few to do this, but I know 

 what it also does it enables a set of idle, dissolute 

 fellows to get about the country by this ostensible way 

 of living, but whose real living is by thieving, house- 

 breaking, and perhaps worse. I should mention 

 another very desirable benefit the public gains by 

 dogs drawing in the country; it enables all the 

 thimble-rig gentry and pickpockets to get about much 

 more readily than they could before their use, and to 

 escape punishment for their robberies by their dogs 

 affording them the means of immediate flight. You 

 may see one of these scoundrels at a race this morning, 

 and by travelling all night he will force his unfortu- 

 nate dogs to take him fifty miles to another, where 

 he commences operations the next morning. A case 

 was instanced of deformed or crippled objects who get 

 about the country by means of their dogs; this is 

 brought forward as a strong plea in favour of their use 

 being allowed, when in fact it is a strong plea for 

 their being put down. Such objects have no business 

 going about the country at all : they should be taken 

 care of and kept out of sight. It is perfectly well 

 known the truly awful effects frequently produced 

 under certain circumstances by women meeting such 

 objects. If such deformities are not allowed to 

 exhibit themselves to alarm or disgust the Aristocracy 

 in Belgrave Square, why is the humbler but equally 

 estimable female inhabitant of other towns and places 

 to be alarmed and shocked by their appearance ? 

 That nearly all the dog-cart travelling fellows are 

 thieves is an indisputable fact. There is a fellow goes 

 from a town I often visit; he is known by the police to 

 be a reputed thief and house-breaker, but has hitherto 

 escaped detection. He leaves this town on a Monday ; 



