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and- thirty years, I do so simply because I know it better than I do an^ 

 other of our large cities ; but what I say applies equally to most other 

 towns in the kingdom. 



I was sent to London when a boy in 1855, to learn my business, and 

 I stayed there until 1857. Since then I have paid off and on a great 

 many visits to our capital, and I have had ample opportunity of 

 acquiring the knowledge which I am about to impart to those of my 

 readers who may not already be in possession of it. 



" The City man " of my young days was an awe-inspiring gentleman 

 invariably clad in black broadcloth. His deportment and manner of 

 speech were in accord with the sombre character of his garb. Beyond 

 an occasional visit to the opera or theatre, with a fortnight at the seaside 

 in summer, this old gentleman never sought recreation. Being brought 

 up to business, to it he stuck, and he educated his sons pretty much 

 in the same way. As to smoking in the streets, not to speak of the 

 office, it was a thing a man would have been almost incarcerated for. 



The clerks in the counting-houses of the City, from the strict discipline- 

 they were subject to duriog office hours, were as sedate in their behaviour 

 as their masters. A visit to " Evans's" or " The Coal Hole," and occa- 

 sionally to a theatre, where from " the gods " they witnessed the play,, 

 were all the amusements these poor fellows ever enjoyed. They knew 

 of no other recreation, therefore they cared for no other. Their office 

 hours were from 8 or 9 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. On Saturdays the hours 

 were often even longer. A holiday was unheard of unless a fellow got 

 off on the excuse of paying a visit to some dear aunt. Old Farley and 

 his good-natured partner, John Boyes, thought I had mora aunts 

 requiring visits than all the chaps they ever met with ! 



Needless to mention an idea of sport, not to speak of a love for it, 

 never entered the heads of either the principal of a City house, his sons 

 or his clerks in the days I refer to. Because I entertained sporting 

 proclivities, I was looked upon as a scamp bound to go to the deviL 

 Upon several occasions I narrowly escaped being " rusticated," only 

 because I came to the office with certain marks about the nose and 

 eyes, indicative of a visit to Nat Langham's the night before. 



Except in the parks upon the few occasions they visited them, the 

 warehousemen and shop assistants of London might, and often did, 

 live half their lives before they saw a green field. 



Taking them all and all, the " business men " — employer and 

 employed— of the City of London thirty to forty years ago were a 

 community as uninteresting as could possibly be found. Work, work, 

 and no play, was the daily order. 



1 shall pass over the transition state since then and come at once 

 to what these men now are ; and in no other section of the British 

 public has there taken place during the present century so great a 

 change for the better. 



The " City men" nowaday?, when they have occasion to do so, turn out 

 in garb as orthodox as any man of the West End. The rig these 



