Genre:

Illustration, Drollery; Essay, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Railways, Instruments, Commerce, Engineers

    The illustration shows a pawnbroker asking a customer how much he wants for his theodolite. The text argues that the alarming 'state of the public pocket' can be gauged by the fact that a 'celebrated engineer', formerly earning twenty guineas a day for laying railroads, is forced to 'cut off with his scientific apparatus to the pawnbrokers'.