four o’clock in the
morning
shout the company ; and Smuggins , after a considerable quantity of coughing by way of symphony , and a most facetious sniff or two , which afford general delight , sings a comic song , with a fal-de-ral -- tol-de-ral chorus at the end of every verse , much longer than the verse itself . It is received with unbounded applause , and after some aspiring genius has volunteered a recitation , and failed dismally therein , the little pompous man gives another knock , and says ` Gen ' l'men , we will attempt a glee , if you please . ' This announcement calls forth tumultuous applause , and the more energetic spirits express the unqualified approbation it affords them , by knocking one or two stout glasses off their legs -- a humorous device ; but one which frequently occasions some slight altercation when the form of paying the damage is proposed to be gone through by the waiter . Scenes like these are continued until three or four o'clock in the morning ; and even when they close , fresh ones open to the inquisitive novice . But as a description of all of them , however slight , would require a volume , the contents of which , however instructive , would be by no means pleasing , we make our bow , and drop the curtain . What inexhaustible food for speculation , do the streets of London afford ! We never were able to agree with Sterne in pitying the man who could travel from Dan to Beersheba , and say that all was barren ; we have not the slightest commiseration for the man who can take up his hat and stick , and walk from Covent-garden to St. Paul 's Churchyard , and back into the bargain , without deriving some amusement -- we had almost said instruction -- from his perambulation .