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- 5275
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 5230
- text
- anchors, lovers’ sonnets, and ocean ditties. On one side, nailed
against the wainscot in a row, were the four knaves of cards, each Jack
putting his best foot foremost as usual. What these signified I never
heard.
But such ample cheer! Such a groaning table! Such a superabundance of
solids and substantial! Was it possible that sailors fared thus?—the
sailors, who at sea live upon salt beef and biscuit?
First and foremost, was a mighty pewter dish, big as Achilles’ shield,
sustaining a pyramid of smoking sausages. This stood at one end; midway
was a similar dish, heavily laden with farmers’ slices of head-cheese;
and at the opposite end, a congregation of beef-steaks, piled tier over
tier. Scattered at intervals between, were side dishes of boiled
potatoes, eggs by the score, bread, and pickles; and on a stand
adjoining, was an ample reserve of every thing on the supper table.
We fell to with all our hearts; wrapt ourselves in hot jackets of
beef-steaks; curtailed the sausages with great celerity; and sitting
down before the head-cheese, soon razed it to its foundations.
Toward the close of the entertainment, I suggested to Peggy, one of the
girls who had waited upon us, that a cup of tea would be a nice thing
to take; and I would thank her for one. She replied that it was too
late for tea; but she would get me a cup of _“swipes”_ if I wanted it.
Not knowing what _“swipes”_ might be, I thought I would run the risk
and try it; but it proved a miserable beverage, with a musty, sour
flavor, as if it had been a decoction of spoiled pickles. I never
patronized _swipes_ again; but gave it a wide berth; though, at dinner
afterward, it was furnished to an unlimited extent, and drunk by most
of my shipmates, who pronounced it good.
But Bob Still would not have pronounced it so; for this _stripes, as I_
learned, was a sort of cheap substitute for beer; or a bastard kind of
beer; or the washings and rinsings of old beer-barrels. But I do not
remember now what they said it was, precisely. I only know, that
_swipes_ was my abomination. As for the taste of it, I can only
describe it as answering to the name itself; which is certainly
significant of something vile. But it is drunk in large quantities by
the poor people about Liverpool, which, perhaps, in some degree,
accounts for their poverty.
- title
- Chunk 4