trouble. All this he told me very candidly,
and with a humorous sense of his claims to the
censorship of public morals. He was not
sparing, either, of people in private life, and his
columns were seldom free from personal
scandals. But to his astonishment he found that all
these attractions failed to make the paper
profitable. His patrons, the tradesmen, enjoyed
the fun for a time, but after six months or so
found it expensive; whereupon the organ of
liberty collapsed, and its editor vanished.

He found his next home in the hills, where he
got the post of assistant-master at a school, but
received, after a few weeks, a summary
dismissal under some circumstances of scandal,
Returning to the plains, and finding no further
opening tor his talents in civil life, he enlisted
in a foot regiment under an assumed name.
His original training fitted him for a soldier, but
subordination was not in his way, and he was
rapidly coming to grief again when he hit on a
happy idea. This involved a commercial speculation;
and one of his friends who had found the
money for the paper was so pleased with it, that
he bought the discharge of the speculator, who
was now in a fair way of being set up again in
the world.  He enjoyed for some time a handsome
salary for helping to work out his idea,
and his share of the ultimate gains promised
to secure him a fortune, when he eloped
with a friend's wife. He had every reason to
repent of what he called this " aristocratic
folly," for his absence lost him his appointment,
prospects, and all. His fortunes never
prospered from that time. He tried a native
state, got a commission in the service of
the rajah, but left this service to become the
agent of another rajah, who had been
dispossessed, and whose claims he undertook
to agitate against the government. He received a
considerable advance of money wherewith to
begin operations, but lost it all in one night at
blind hookey. The patron would not advance
more until some work was done, and as the
agent could not work without funds, he was
obliged to give up his trust altogether. His
latest misadventure had occurred at Bombay,
whither he had gone on his way to England, to
lay the case of his client before the throne of
justice. From Bombay he had made his way
to where he now was; mostly on foot; obtaining
shelter in native bazaars and serais; providing
for himself as long as ten rupees, with which
he had set out, would provide for him; and
then depending upon charity.

What did he intend doing now? I asked
him the question without making any
comment on his career; for comment would have
been useless. He did not seem quite certain
what he intended doing now, but had an idea
of obtaining some employment in Calcutta, if
he could manage to get so far. However, he
was in no state to travel, and looked a great
deal too much like a half-famished hyæna to
be admitted into any respectable business, so
I advised him to stay where he was— not in
my house, but in quarters which I promised to
obtain for him. The means of payment and a
small allowance for his subsistence were
obtainable, to some extent at any rate, from
a local fund provided for such purposes. In
the mean time I gave him a decent suit of
clothes, and saw to his accommodation for the
night.

I am particular in my account of this man's
case, because he is a representative of a large
and increasing class in India, where the
"loafer" has for some years past been a
nuisance to society and an embarrassment to the
state. The loafer is "not always a cashiered
officer, or a gentleman even in the lowest
conventional sense of the term. He belongs as a
general rule to lower grades of life. He has
come to the country, perhaps as a private
soldier, perhaps as a railway guard or driver,
perhaps as a clerk, perhaps on speculation,
to take his chance of employment. In former
times, any European of moderately good
character and conduct might be sure of a certain
position in the country. It was only when
his habits actually disabled him for work,
or when he committed some offence involving a
flagrant breach of the law, that he was liable
to fall to a state of actual destitution. But
the establishment of the new regime in India,
with its attendant results in opening new fields
of industry and enterprise, and inducing
overspeculation, has brought the usual
consequences. Englishmen with energy and skill
are now exposed to competition; and those
who fail in either of these requirements must
expect a very hard life. Large numbers do so
fail. They have expected too much, and
deserved too little; at best, they have proved
unqualified for the task before them. Their
physical health or their moral health has
been below the requirements of the climate.
They have yielded to temptations: of which
excessive drinking is one. Such men
necessarily go to the dogs.

There are loafers by nature, and there are
loafers by circumstance. Some men inevitably
fall into the condition, in a country like India;
and it is only when they can command money,
that they escape from its worst consequences.
Others make a few downward steps, and can
never muster strength to recover lost ground.
Sailors were the first class that took to loafing
in large numbers. For sailors, however, special
provision has been made by benevolence and
legislation; and their chances of falling into
permanent loaferism are far less than they were
a few years ago. Soldiers are still exposed to
temptation in a very large degree. The restraints
of military discipline, though relieved
by a great deal of accommodation to
circumstances, are still very irksome in India, and the
majority of " time-expired" men never re-enlist,
but take their discharge as soon as they are entitled
to it. Some do so in reckless indifference to
the future; others with the view of improving
their position in a land where Europeans
enjoy by tradition a prescriptive right
to make their fortunes, and where, even in
these days, moderately well- conducted, and
even moderately ill-conducted men with white