together in colossal debauch. And on every side is
rising the favorite song of the Coronation:

/tab\Oh ! on Coronation Day, on Coronation Day,
/tab\We ll have a spree, a jubilee, and shout, Hip, hip, hooray,
/tab\For we ll all be merry, drinking whiskey, wine, and sherry,
/tab\We ll be merry on Coronation Day.

The rain is pouring down in torrents. Up the
street come troops of the auxiliaries, black Afri
cans and yellow Asiatics, beturbaned and befezed,
and coolies swinging along with machine guns and
mountain batteries on their heads, and the bare feet
of all, in quick rhythm, going slish, slisk, slish
through the pavement mud. The public houses
empty by magic, and the swarthy allegiants are
cheered by their British brothers, who return at
once to the carouse.

"And how did you like the procession, mate ? " I
asked an old man on a bench in Green Park.

"Ow did I like it ? A bloody good chawnce, sez
I to myself, for a sleep, wi all the coppers aw y, so
I turned into the corner there, along wi fifty others.
But I couldn t sleep, a-lyin there ungry an thinkin
ow I d worked all the years o my life an now ad
no plyce to rest my ead; an the music comin to
me, an the cheers an cannon, till I got almost a
hanarchist an wanted to blow out the brains o the
Lord Chamberlain."

[[147]]

p146 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p147w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p148

v?