2 02 MR. FARRANCE. 



got to admit it, that he was the veritable person who 

 met a man comina: down his own stairs backwards 

 with a good feather-bed on his shoulder. 



1 What have you got there, my man ?' said Mr. 

 Farrance. 



' A bed, sir, for } r ou,' was the reply. 



' Nonsense,' was the rejoinder; ' it is not for me.' 



' No. 22, Belgrave Square, sir.' 



' Ah,' said Mr. Farrance, ' I thouo-hf so. It's next 

 door.' 



And the man turned and bore the bed off in 

 triumph before its owner's e} r es ; for of course the 

 trick was not discovered until too late. 



Thefts of this kind are common in London as black- 

 berries in a country lane ; and publicans especially are 

 liable to be sufferers in this way. Within my own 

 experience I have known one or two similar instances, 

 which may be worth relating, if only for the sake of 

 instruction ; although I fear precept will be useless, 

 as the danger comes in a form so unexpected. 



Mr. Wagstaff, a friend of mine, and a very good 

 fellow, who, besides being in an extensive way of 

 business as a coal- merchant, kept The Hero of Water- 

 loo Hotel in the Waterloo Road, close to the South- 

 western Station, was robbed in the most barefaced 

 Avay imaginable. A man with a paper cap on his 

 head, and a white apron wound round his body, 

 made his appearance in the coffee-room, where 

 many customers were sitting at luncheon (in Mr. 



