The Tricks of the Town: or, Ways and Means of getting Money

Transcriber's Note:
The original spelling and capitalization of the original book published in 1732 have been retained.

y Son get Money, said a wiser Man than you or I, honest Reader: That is the Precept; but he went no farther, leaving the Business of Committee Men , Ways and Means , &c. to the peculiar Turn of Thought, or Biass of Invention of every individual Money-Getter . Of all the Methods made use of to attain this great End, I believe it will be allow'd that he who gains his point the easiest way, is the wisest Person: For instance, I know there are Mines of Gold and Silver in Peru and Mexico ; but when one considers at what a very inconvenient distance these are, and what Toils and Dangers must be undergone before an Ingot of either can be pocketed, what is to be done in the Case? We cannot go to them, and they will not come to us. In this plunge of Affairs, we resolve to pick it up by Shillings , Crowns , Guineas , Moidores , &c. at home.
That the one half of this great over-grown Metropolis knows but little how the other is truly supported, is a Maxim, I believe, older than the Walls themselves; that a considerable number of Persons are daily employed and kept in constant pay to go about damaging and destroying all manner of wearing Apparel, when they can find an Opportunity of doing it without any Inconveniences to themselves, is a Fact that will admit of no manner of Dispute. I have been inform'd, that if a Coachman or Carter can decently dash a Gentleman or a Lady that are richly dress'd, when they are walking the Streets, over their Head and Ears, and make due Proof of the Fact, there is not a Draper or Mercer within half a Mile of the Place where the Exploit was perform'd, but who will readily tip the Man a Shilling for his Trouble.
Every body knows, that when a Foot-Soldier was taken in the Court of Requests at Westminster , bedaubing a noble Lord's new Suit of Clothes upon his Back, with a composition of Powders that in a Week's time would have render'd them not worth the acceptance of his Valet de Chambre ; the honest Man , upon a very strict Examination before a Magistrate, was at last brought, though with great reluctancy, to confess his receiving a Salary of Thirty Pounds per Ann. from certain Drapers , Taylors , and Scowrers , for those kinds of Services.