Page:Fitzgerald - Pickwickian manners and customs (1897).djvu/35

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PICKWICKIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
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was assumed to have "proposed" to his landlady, she in business-like fashion actually "fainted;" now-a-days "fainting" has gone out as much as duelling.

In the travellers' rooms at Hotels—in the "commercial" room—we do not see people smoking "large Dutch pipes"—nor is "brandy and water" the only drink of the smoking room. Mr. Pickwick and his friends were always "breaking the waxen seals" of their letters—while Sam, and people of his degree, used the wafer. (What by the way was the "fat little boy"—in the seal of Mr. Winkle's penitential letter to his sire? Possibly a cupid.) Snuff taking was then common enough in the case of professional people like Perker.

At this moment there is to be seen in the corner of many an antique Hall—Sedan chair laid up in ordinary—of black leather, bound with brass-nails. We can well recall in our boyish days, mamma in full dress and her hair in "bands," going out to dine in her