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 Recklessness is the hardihood
to do shameful things in word and deed. The reckless man takes an oath
on the spur of the moment, can bear abuse and give it, n manners a huckster,
obscene and fit for anything, the kind of fellow who will in his sober
senses dance any unseemly dance in a comedy, without a mask. At performances
he takes the collection, going to every man in turn and quarrelling with
those who have a pass and think they have a right to see the show for
nothing. He is sure to become a tavern-keeper, or a procurer, or a tax-collector,
shrinking from no trade however despicable. He stoops to be a crier, a
cook, a gambler he neglects his mother, he is imprisoned for stealing,
and spends more of his life in the cells than in his own home. He is the
kind ol man, too, who gathers a crowd round him by calling out, and then
raves and shrieks at them in a loud cracked voice. All the time, some
will be coming up, others will go off without hearing him to the end some
will get the beginning of the tale, others a summary of it, others a fragment.
Nor does he ever dream of displaying his recklessness at anything less
than a public gathering. He has all the knowledge necessary for actions
at law. Now he defends, now prosecutes, now excuses himself from attendance
on oath, now appears with his brief box in his tunic and strings of papers
in his bands. he never shrinks from becoming a leading subsidiser of retail
dealers, but willingly lends them money levying a twenty per cent. interest
per day, and goes the round of the butchers, the fish-mongers and fish-salters
to collect it, thrusting into his cheek the proceeds of his business.
Reckless folk are a troublesome class, for they have a tongue easily set
a-goirg in abusc, and they utter their railing in a loud voice so that
the workshops and market-place re-echo.
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