[Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens]@TWC D-Link bookSketches by Boz CHAPTER XXII--GIN-SHOPS 1/7
It is a remarkable circumstance, that different trades appear to partake of the disease to which elephants and dogs are especially liable, and to run stark, staring, raving mad, periodically.
The great distinction between the animals and the trades, is, that the former run mad with a certain degree of propriety--they are very regular in their irregularities.
We know the period at which the emergency will arise, and provide against it accordingly.
If an elephant run mad, we are all ready for him--kill or cure--pills or bullets, calomel in conserve of roses, or lead in a musket-barrel.
If a dog happen to look unpleasantly warm in the summer months, and to trot about the shady side of the streets with a quarter of a yard of tongue hanging out of his mouth, a thick leather muzzle, which has been previously prepared in compliance with the thoughtful injunctions of the Legislature, is instantly clapped over his head, by way of making him cooler, and he either looks remarkably unhappy for the next six weeks, or becomes legally insane, and goes mad, as it were, by Act of Parliament.
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