In some parts of the country the police have interfered with the use of alpeens, which has brought stones more into play, and particularly a very fatal weapon- a heavy stone dropped into the foot of a long worsted stocking this has the advantage of being portable, and not seen beforehand by the police. : CADS, FOOLS, AND BEGGARS. THE Irish cads are a singular generation, apart from every other class of the community. The CAD, properly so called, is only to be found in perfection in the large towns, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, &c. Doubtless they are to be met with in all towns, nay, villages, in the country; but in these latter they merge, more or less, into the juvenile mendicancy of the place, and cannot be said to form a distinct class. But the cad of a large town, a garrison one particularly, is a being of a superior intelligence: acquainted, to minuteness, with the history of every body in the place, their birth, fortunes, and expectations; above all, no scandal escapes him. He is, emphatically, "downy." Has a curious judgment in car-horses; knows their capabilities to a mile, and may be safely trusted to bespeak and procure this indispensable article. In a word, he is the faithful messenger, the much-trusted guide, the procurer-general of the place. There are mysteries about cads. I have never, except in one instance, seen a cad older than five-and-twenty. What becomes of the old cads? is a question more easily asked than answered. Generally, they move off the scene about the age of puberty. Are they worn out, and die of superhuman exertion at this period, or do they retire upon a competence? Do they marry and settle in the country? Bah! the thing is impossible. Some curious inquirer would have found their retreats. "Cadville" would have been heard of. The problem has not yet been solved; but I am inclined to think they die in the prime of youth. I place the Cork cad at the head of the whole fraternity for intelligence, trustworthiness, and long-suffering. Now and then a genius will appear in other places, but, as a body, none come up to the cads of Cork. The Dublin cad is a very inferior animal; he is a sad bunch of wretchedness. Hat, shoes, or stockings, he has none: he is in a flutter of small brown rags; looking as if a portion of hashed mutton had been thrown at him, and, by some unknown influence, hung about his person in the semblance of a dress, as a handful of nails adhere to a magnet. He is invariably very young; used up, perhaps, at an earlier period in the capital. He is too young for confidence. He may hold a horse, perhaps ; but who would entrust such a creature with a delicate commission? How unlike this are the Cork cads of the senior department! What a comfort to the stranger! what a guide, philosopher, and friend, does one of them prove to the new-comer! Like their brethren of Dublin, they begin in hashed mutton (happy could the metaphor be realised!), and toil many weary years without any outward sign of an ameliorated condition-for it is something for their crude energies to procure a subsistence. Their ultimate success is, however, certain. trousers come, with a leetle shirt out behind; then, a jacket; then, old boots, of immense proportions and no toes; then, a shirt; then, perhaps, stockings may be surmised; and ultimately, the greasy, leather cap is exchanged for a hat-some seedy gossamer discarded by an embarking ensign. When a cad arrives at the dignity of a hat, he may be said to enter First, the senior department of the order. His manners undergo a marked change. "Manners with fortunes, humours change with climes," &c. He is quieter, more civil, and respectful; even polite. The hat has conferred importance, and he is proud to touch it, conscious of the happy fact. His phraseology is refined; the blunt request, "Will yer honor give me the butt?"* is usually changed to, "Would yer honor obleege me with the butt?" Nay, at my last visit, I observed that trouser-straps began to obtain among them. So enormous a stride in refinement may justify one in supposing that breast-pins and zephyrs may not unreasonably be looked forward to at no very distant period. No country but Ireland produces cads-as far as I am aware of. There is a cadie in Edinburgh, but I take it he is of a much lower order. England has no cads-the horseholders of London are not to be named with them. Gibraltar has its Jew boys; but they * The last inch, or so, of a cigar, usually thrown away. |