NIL DESPBRANDUM.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 117, 9 December 1882, Page 195

NIL DESPBRANDUM.

A humorous illustration of the pertinency of Lord Chesterfield's remarks upon the important part which a man's apparel plays in the everyday concerns of life and how powerfully it determines, cceteris paribus, his success or failure, has just been made known to us, and will bear repetition. It seems that a bibulous professor of the Caxtonian art one day this week found himself, at the end of a prolonged series of carousals, without a coin in his pocket wherewith to purchase a hair of the dog that had bitten him, and also bereft of his hat. In this plight he made his way to the house of a fellow typo and by a pitiable appeal for relief obtained a bob and the gift of a new tile. The latter was a jaunty helmet kept for holiday purposes, and after making a solemn promise to turn up on the following day, the joyous comp. sallied out with it on his head. He struck a bee-line for the nearest pub., found that he was received with unwonted deference, and discovered that he could stick up a few pints with great ease. Since then the donor of the helmet has been searching vainly for the unconscionable jackdaw in borowed plumes, but he has ascertained that there are a host of confiding bonifaces out upon the same trail. Deceived as to the man's means by the high-class character of his head-gear they had trusted him right and left, and the repi'esentative of the Fourth Estate, nothing loth, had. tested how far the credit system could be earned. It is surmised that having made the rounds of the city pubs., he has extended his patronage to those in the suburbs.