deformed beggars in every town,--quarrelling and fighting in the
streets,--rows and drinkings at wakes,--gambling, duelling, and

riotous living amongst all classes of the people,--things which
could not but strike any ordinary observer at the time, but which

have now, for the most part, happily passed away.
At the end of eighteen months, Bianconi's apprenticeship was out;

and Faroni then offered to take him back to his father, in
compliance with the original understanding. But Bianconi had no

wish to return to Italy. Faroni then made over to him the money
he had retained on his account, and Bianconi set up business for

himself. He was now about eighteen years old; he was strong and
healthy, and able to walk with a heavy load on his back from

twenty to thirty miles a day. He bought a large case, filled it
with coloured prints and other articles, and started from Dublin

on a tour through the south of Ireland. He succeeded, like most
persons who labour diligently. The curly-haired Italian lad

became a general favourite. He took his native politeness with
him everywhere; and made many friends among his various

customers throughout the country.
Bianconi used to say that it was about this time when he was

carrying his heavy case upon his back, weighing at least a
hundred pounds--that the idea began to strike him, of some cheap

method of conveyance being established for the accommodation of
the poorer classes in Ireland. As he dismantled himself of his

case of pictures, and sat wearied and resting on the milestones
along the road, he puzzled his mind with the thought, "Why should

poor people walk and toil, and rich people ride and take their
ease? Could not some method be devised by which poor people also

might have the opportunity of travelling comfortably?"
It will thus be seen that Bianconi was already beginning to think

about the matter. When asked, not long before his death, how it
was that he had first thought of starting his extensive Car

establishment, he answered, "It grew out of my back!" It was the
hundred weight of pictures on his dorsal muscles that stimulated

his thinking faculties. But the time for starting his great
experiment had not yet arrived.

Bianconi wandered about from town to town for nearly two years.
The picture-case became heavier than ever. For a time he

replaced it with a portfolio of unframed prints. Then he became
tired of the wandering life, and in 1806 settled down at

Carrick-on-Suir as a print-seller and carver and gilder. He
supplied himself with gold-leaf from Waterford, to which town he

used to proceed by Tom Morrissey's boat. Although the distance
by road between the towns was only twelve miles, it was about

twenty-four by water, in consequence of the windings of the river
Suir. Besides, the boat could only go when the state of the tide

permitted. Time was of little consequence; and it often took
half a day to make the journey. In the course of one of his

voyages, Bianconi got himself so thoroughly soaked by rain and
mud that he caught a severe cold, which ran into pleurisy, and

laid him up for about two months. He was carefully attended to
by a good, kind physician, Dr. White, who would not take a penny

for his medicine and nursing.
Business did not prove very prosperous at Carrick-on-suir; the

town was small, and the trade was not very brisk. Accordingly,
Bianconi resolved, after a year's ineffectual trial, to remove to

Waterford, a more thriving centre of operations. He was now
twenty-one years old. He began again as a carver and gilder; and

as business flowed in upon him, he worked very hard, sometimes
from six in the morning until two hours after midnight. As

usual, he made many friends. Among the best of them was Edward
Rice, the founder of the "Christian Brothers" in Ireland. Edward

Rice was a true benefactor to his country. He devoted himself to
the work of education, long before the National Schools were

established; investing the whole of his means in the foundation
and management of this noble institution.

Mr. Rice's advice and instruction set and kept Bianconi in the
right road. He helped the young foreigner to learn English.

Bianconi was no longer a dunce, as he had been at school; but a
keen, active, enterprising fellow, eager to make his way in the

world. Mr. Rice encouraged him to be sedulous and industrious,
urged him to carefulness and sobriety, and strengthened his

religions impressions. The help and friendship of this good man,
operating upon the mind and soul of a young man, whose habits of

conduct and whose moral and religious character were only in
course of formation, could not fail to exercise, as Bianconi

always acknowledged they did, a most powerful influence upon the
whole of his after life.

Although "three removes" are said to be "as bad as a fire,"
Bianconi, after remaining about two years at Waterford, made a

third removal in 1809, to Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary.
Clonmel is the centre of a large corn trade, and is in water

communication, by the Suir, with Carrick and Waterford.
Bianconi, therefore, merely extended his connection; and still

continued his dealings with his customers in the other towns. He
made himself more proficient in the mechanical part of his

business; and aimed at being the first carver and gilder in the
trade. Besides, he had always an eye open for new business. At

that time, when the war was raging with France, gold was at a
premium. The guinea was worth about twenty-six or twenty-seven

shillings. Bianconi therefore began to buy up the hoarded-up
guineas of the peasantry. The loyalists became alarmed at his

proceedings, and began to circulate the report that Bianconi, the
foreigner, was buying up bullion to send secretly to Bonaparte!

The country people, however, parted with their guineas readily;
for they had no particular hatred of "Bony," but rather admired

him.
Bianconi's conduct was of course quite loyal in the matter; he

merely bought the guineas as a matter of business, and sold them
at a profit to the bankers.

The country people had a difficulty in pronouncing his name. His
shop was at the corner of Johnson Street, and instead of

Bianconi, he came to be called "Bian of the Corner." He was
afterwards known as "Bian."

Bianconi soon became well known after his business was
established. He became a proficient in the carving and gilding

line, and was looked upon as a thriving man. He began to employ
assistants in his trade, and had three German gilders at work.

While they were working in the shop he would travel about the
country, taking orders and delivering goods--sometimes walking

and sometimes driving.
He still retained a little of his old friskiness and spirit of

mischief. He was once driving a car from Clonmel to Thurles; he
had with him a large looking-glass with a gilt frame, on which

about a fortnight's labour had been bestowed. In a fit of
exuberant humour he began to tickle the horse under his tail with

a straw! In an instant the animal reared and plunged, and then
set off at a gallop down hill. The result was, that the car was

dashed to bits and the looking-glass broken into a thousand
atoms!

On another occasion, a man was carrying to Cashel on his back one
of Bianconi's large looking-glasses. An old woman by the

wayside, seeing the odd-looking, unwieldy package, asked what it
was; on which Bianconi, who was close behind the man carrying the

glass, answered that it was "the Repeal of the Union!" The old
woman's delight was unbounded! She knelt down on her knees in

the middle of the road, as if it had been a picture of the