“I will sit among empty chairs,” he thought, “and have two empties on each side of me, one for my coat and hat, one to keep the bore off, and one on each side, to remove the cigarette-smoker and the chocolate-muncher a little farther. But why the devil does this ham woman not give the money herself? She draws most of her money from this County, in rents. Let her pay some of it back as conscience money, and for the rest, go round and beg from door to door, and plead her cause herself, instead of getting up a vile entertainment of this sort, with all sorts of extra expenses, of advertisements, printings, hire of hail, lighting, heating, to soak away any profits. She will provide something atrocious in the way of song and music, and the badness of it all will be excused by the plea, that it is all for charity; and in the end, when she has made night hideous and life loathsome for two and a half hours, shell have nine-teen-and-sixpence to give to the Fund.”
He had long known the sort of concert given in the country, Alas, he had long known the type of amusement offered to the people everywhere. Still, he went to this one, sat through all of it, slept upon his first impressions, waited for the announcement of the takings, and then wrote as follows: