Another of their duties was to check ungodly pride in the rival Pushes by battering them out of shape with fists and blue metal at regular intervals.
They stood for the scum of the streets.

How they lived was a mystery, except to people who kept fowls, or forgot to lock their doors at night.

A few were vicious idlers, sponging on their parents for a living at twenty years of age; others simply mischievous lads, with a trade at their fingers' ends, if they chose to work.

A few were honest, unless temptation stared them too hard in the face.

On such occasions their views were simple as A B C.