第11章 ON BEING HARD UP.(2)

Being poor is a mere trifle.It is being known to be poor that is the sting.It is not cold that makes a man without a great-coat hurry along so quickly.It is not all shame at telling lies--which he knows will not be believed--that makes him turn so red when he informs you that he considers great-coats unhealthy and never carries an umbrella on principle.It is easy enough to say that poverty is no crime.No;if it were men wouldn't be ashamed of it.It's a blunder,though,and is punished as such.A poor man is despised the whole world over;despised as much by a Christian as by a lord,as much by a demagogue as by a footman,and not all the copy-book maxims ever set for ink stained youth will make him respected.Appearances are everything,so far as human opinion goes,and the man who will walk down Piccadilly arm in arm with the most notorious scamp in London,provided he is a well-dressed one,will slink up a back street to say a couple of words to a seedy-looking gentleman.And the seedy-looking gentleman knows this--no one better--and will go a mile round to avoid meeting an acquaintance.Those that knew him in his prosperity need never trouble themselves to look the other way.He is a thousand times more anxious that they should not see him than they can be;and as to their assistance,there is nothing he dreads more than the offer of it.All he wants is to be forgotten;and in this respect he is generally fortunate enough to get what he wants.