172 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



and has trousers shortened by turning up the ninth part of 

 a hair after London vogue, and may be proud of his laws 

 and legislature, and even of his legislators, but to the 

 tyrannous edge of his collar he is a slave. He can neither 

 look this way nor that, nor up nor down, without being 

 reminded that he has imposed upon himself an extra to 

 the universal penalties of Adam. One who lives in London 

 tells me of the load of clothes he is compelled to wear in 

 winter to preserve animal heat. He fights for life thus 

 arrayed — thick woollens next the skin, the decent shirt 

 (badge of respectability), the waistcoat of heavy cloth, the 

 cardigan jacket (which hides the respectable shirty the coat 

 of cloth, strong and heavy ; the overcoat long and in- 

 commoding, the woollen comforter, the wool-lined gloves, 

 the double-woollen socks, the half-inch soled boots, the 

 leggings, the hat. To carry this burden of clothes all day, 

 pursuing ordinary vocations, were surely the grossest of 

 bondage. While my three-garment costume — is it not 

 convenient and fashionable enough ? 



A smart cutter appeared in Brammo Bay. A man, 

 apparently in a pale red shirt, let down the sails and 

 anchor, and by-and-by one in a black coat buttoned to 

 the throat paddled himself ashore in a dinghy. Like a great 

 many worn on state occasions in country parts here, the 

 coat had seen better days. It was black with greenish 

 lights ; the stitches round the button-holes and along the 

 seams brown and grey ; it smelt fusty ; the buttons were — 

 well, various and assorted. An inch or two of tarry spun 

 yarn, clove-hitched to a miniature toggel, neatly carved, 

 was the hopeful beginning, a hasty splinter inserted 

 pin-wise, the heedless ending of the row. Between 

 these ranged a bleached cowrie shell, loosely looped with 

 string ; a fantastic ornament (green with verdigris) from 

 some bygone millinery, and a cherished relic of a pair of 

 trousers of the past in all the boldness of polished brass. 

 But it was easy to detect that there was no shirt beneath 

 the dingy coat ; and that the coat itself was merely a 

 concession to the evidence of civilisation which had been 



