Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Cosmopolitan Sketches
It is half-past six on Saturday night. A tub of grimy suds is before the fire. The last Gubbins offshoot, cetat. Five years, is on a truckle bedstead in a corner of the reception room. Ofi'shoot No. 2 is being rubbed down by the eldest daughter, the fair Jemima. The mother is engaged in the needful weekly performance of scouring the family heir. All the darling children (j emima excepted) are undergoing their Saturday Wash. Hence the tub of water and. Its griminess. The junior branches being in bed, Mr. Gubbins puts down his pipe, Mrs. Gubbins puts on her bonnet and shawl, and Miss J emima arrays herself in a hat, from beneath which there hangs a net containing the young lady's hair, which by the tallowy light of the room lookalike a collection of alarmed kittens' tails. Father pockets a half-pint medicine bottle, mother and daughter each take a large basket. And thus equipped they sally forth to market. Not, however, before Mrs. Gubbins with maternal solicitude has exhorted the ground floor-back mangle to go to the children if they cry. The ground floor-back mangle, who has a vision of some thing short: and strong, in the form of speerits, about two hours later, readily promises to look after the brats. Through November mud and November darkness, the latter rendered uncomfortably visible by London gas, glimmering through dirty and unfrequent lamps, the Gub binses, discussing to-morrow' s dinner, en route, walk through sundry by-streets, until they emerge in Shoreditch, and behold a scene not easily described and never to be forgotten. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
