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224.
THE FLOWING BOWL
the Pickwick Papers for the purpose of perusal ?
If so, and it was an illustrated edition, the frontis
piece must have made his heart quail; for it
represents Pickwick himself standing on a chair
addressing a more or less excited audience, all
seated at a long table, and each with a cigar or
pipe in his mouth, and a large tumbler in front
of him.
And if the eminent abstainer cared to
carry his researches farther, he would discover
that ere the Pickwickian deputation had started
on their first journey they had taken part in a
street fight, eventually quelled by the arrival of
a perfect stranger, who celebrates the occasion
by calling for glasses round of brandy-and-water,
hot and strong !
The Pickwick Papers absolutely reek with
alcohol, from title-page to name and address of
printer. Everybody drinks with everybody else,
both inand out of theFleetPrison. The hospitality
of the good people is unbounded, and good and
bad alike do it full justice. The very instant
the belated travellers have crossed the threshold
of Dingley Dell they are fed with cherry brandy.
The entire deputation has " Katzenjammer,"
on the morning after their arrival at Rochester,
and a duel, or an attempted one, is the consequence.
In coffee-room, bar-parlour, or smoking-room,
an introduction, a story, or a song is an excuse
for a bowl of punch. Wherever the Pickwickians
go they carry trouble, more or less amusing to
the reader, and the trouble is invariably followed
by revelry.
That two medical students should wash down
their oysters with neat brandy— and before