"Bring us a 1 Max--A very common term for gin.
2 Sluicery--A gin-shop or public-house: so denominated from the lower orders of society sluicing their throats as it were with gin, and probably derived from the old song entitled "The Christening of Little Joey," formerly sung by Jemmy Dodd, of facetious memory.
"And when they had sluiced their gobs With striving to excel wit, The lads began to hang their nobs,* And lip their frows** the velvet.*** * Nobs--Heads.
** Frows--Originally a Dutch word, meaning wives, or girls.
*** Velvet--The tongue.
~119~~noggin of _white tape_,{1} and fill me a pipe," said he--"d----n my eyes, I knowed as how it vou'd be all right enough, I never gets in no rows whatever without getting myself out again--come, _ould chap,{2} vet your vistle, and tip it us rum--go it my kiddy, that are's just vat I likes_." "Vat's the reason I an't to have a pipe ?" said Mother Mapps.
"Lord bless your heart," said the Donkey-driver, "if I did'nt forget you, never trust me--here, Landlord, a pipe for this here Lady." "Which way did the bull run ?" said the Irishman.
"Bl----st me if I know," replied Limping Billy, "for I was a looking out for my own ass--let's have the Sprig of Shelalah, _ould Blackymoor_--come, tune up." The old woman being supplied with a pipe, and the fiddler having rosined his nerves with a glass of _blue ruin_{3} to it they went, some singing, some whistling, and others drumming with their hands upon the table; while Tom, Bob, and Sparkle, taking a seat at the other side of the room, ordered a glass of brandy and water each, and enjoyed the merriment of the scene before them, perhaps more than those actually engaged in it.

Bob was alive to every movement and every character, for it was new, and truly interesting: and kept growing more so, for in a few minutes Limping Billy and Mother Mapps joined the Slaughterman in the dance, when nothing could be more grotesque and amusing.

Their pipes in their mouths--clapping of hands and snapping of fingers, formed a curious accompaniment to the squeaking of the fiddle--the broad grin of the Dustman, and the preposterous laugh of the 1 White Tape--Also a common term for gin, particularly among the Ladies.
2 Ould Chap, or Ould Boy--Familiar terms of address among flash lads, being a sort of contraction of old acquaintance, or old friend.
3 Blue Ruin--Gin.
~120~~Irishman at the reelers in the centre, heightened the picture--more gin--more music, and more tobacco, soon ad a visible effect upon the party, and reeling became unavoidable.

The young man reading the paper, found it impossible to understand what he was perusing, and having finished his pipe and his pint, made his exit, appearing to have no relish for the entertainment, and perhaps heartily cursing both the cause and the effect.

Still, however, the party was not reduced in number, for as one went out another came in.
This new customer was a young-looking man, bearing a large board on a high pole, announcing the residence of a Bug-destroyer in the Strand.
His appearance was grotesque in the extreme, and could only be equalled by the eccentricities of his manners and conversation.