From Thackeray's, "Vanity Fair", further describing how to make US grate again.
“I wonder how many families are driven to roguery and to
ruin by great practitioners in Crawley’s way?
“How many great noblemen rob their petty tradesmen,
condescend to swindle their poor retainers out of wretched little sums, and
cheat for a few shillings?
“Who pities a poor barber who can’t get his money for
powdering the footmen’s heads; or a poor carpenter who has ruined himself by
fixing up ornaments and pavilions for my lady’s déjeuner; or the poor
devil of a tailor whom the steward patronizes, and who has pledged all he is
worth, and more, to get the liveries ready which my lord has done him the
honour to bespeak?
“When the great house tumbles down, these miserable wretches
fall under it unnoticed; as they say in the old legends, before a man goes to
the devil himself, he sends plenty of other souls thither.”
