Shem is ^|aa as^a| short for Shemus as Jim is ^|ajoky^a| for Jacob. ^|aA few are found still who say that^a| Originally of respectable connections his back life simply won't stand being written about.
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Cain — Ham (Shem) — Esau — Jim the Penman

wellknown for violent abuse of self & others

lives ^|aat expense of ratepayers^a| in ^|ahaunted^a| inkbottlehouse ^|ainfested with the raps ^|bthe worst, it is believed, in the western world for pure filth^b|a|.

boycotted, local publican refuse to supply books, paper, ^|asynthetic^a| ink, foolscap, makes his own from dried dung sweetened with spittle (^|aindelible^a| ink) writes universal history on his own body (parchment)

hospitality, all drunk & rightly indignant

1 eye halfopen, 1 arm, 42 hairs on his head, 17 on upper lip, 5 on chin, ^|athe wrong shoulder high than the right^a|, 3 teeth, ^|aall ears,^a| no feet, ^|a10 5^a| thumbs, ½ a buttock, ½ & ½ a testicle, — — When is a man not a man?

A forger, can imitate all styles, none of his own.

1st copies of most original masterpieces ^|aeven the most venerated impostures were not spared^a| slipped from his ^|aplagiarist^a| pen

Sings hymn: ^|alingua Lingua^a| mea calamus scribae, veliciter scribentis.

So low was he that he preferred Lazenby's ^|ateatime^a| tinned salmon ^|ainexpensive while pleasing^a| to the plumpest roeheavy lax or frisky troutlet to be gaffed between Leixlip & Island bridge & ^|amany was the time^a| he said no fresh pineapple ever tasted like the chunks in Heinzs cans.

He was able to write in the gloom of his bottle only because ^|aof^a| his noseglow nose's glow as it slid over the paper and while he scribbled & scratched nameless shamelessnesses about ^|aothers everybody ever he met even under a rlwy bridge out of a shower^a| over & over his foul text he used to draw endless portraits of himself up and down the two margins as a strikingly handsome young man with lyrics in his eyes and a lovely pair of ^|ainky^a| Italian moustaches. How unwhisperably low!
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None of your ^|anice long & thick^a| bloody beefsteaks or juicy legs of melting mutton or fat belly bacon or greasy gristly pigs' feet or slice upon slice of luscious goose bosom with lump ^|aupon after^a| lump of rich stuffing swamping ^|ain^a| grand brown gravy for him. Once when in a state of helplessly hopeless inebriation ^|ahe tried to lift^a| the peel of a citron to his nostrils & hiccupped ^|aapparently impromptu^{a| |a}to his disreputable withswillers who ^|bwhen they found they cd not carry another drop^b| were rightly indignant at his hospitality^a| that he could live all his days on the smell of it, as the citr, as the cedron, as the cedar on the founts on the mountains, lemon on, of Lebanon. T O, the lowness of him was beyond all that was ever known sunk to. No firewater or first shot or gutburning gin or honest red or brown beer. No. O no. But he ^|abotched up sobbed himself sick^a| some kind of a wheywhinging rhubarbarous yallagreen decoction of ^|asour soured^a| grapes ^|aaccording to & to hear^a| him ^|aretching off^a| it in his ^|asentimentalising^a| cups it came straight from the noble white fat, the most noble wide ^|asat^a| her white hide that, from the winevat of the ^|a|blovely exquisite^b|a| archduchess, Fanny Urinia. Talk about lowness! Low ^|awretch wretched tutor^a| that he was he used to boast that he had been put out of all the best ^|aKlondyker^a| families who had settled in the capital city ^|aafter its metropoliarchialisation^{a| |a}generally in most cases^a| on account of his smell which all cookmaids objected to. In place of tutoring ^|athe these ^|bbest^b|a| outlander families plain
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wholesome handwriting (a thing he never possessed of his own) what do you think he did but ^|acopy studied with stolen fruit how to copy^a| all their various styles of signature they had so as to utter ^|alarge^a| forged cheques in public for his own profit until, as just related, the Dublin United Scullerymaids ^|a& house helps^a| kicked ^|ahim the source of annoyance^a| out of the place altogether ^|ain the heat of the moment^{a| |a}on account of his stink making some remark as they did so about the way he stunk^a|? It was generally hoped ^|awhen he got into debt heavily locally^a| he wd develop ^|asuspected^a| hereditary pulmonary T.B. ^|aand one pelting night ^|bbedded blanketed^b| folk hearing a coarse song & splash thought all was over^a| but of course not even there was he true to type. Low! ^|aWhole continents rang with his lowness!^a| He treasured all unkind words ^|awith condign satisfaction^a|. If ever in the public interest delicate hints were put to him ^|aduring a conversazione ^|bby wellwishers pleading with him to be a man^b|a| such as: Do What is the meaning of that foreign word ^|aif you ever came across it^a|, we think it is canaille?: or: ^|ado you ever did you anywhere^|b, captain,^b|a| in your ^|atales of^a| travels happen to meet a gentleman ^|anamed by the name of ^|bsomething like ^|cLow^c|b|a| Bugger ^|awho lives on loans & is 35 yrs of age^a|?: he would begin ^|awithout a sign of haste like a ^|bfirst class supreme^b| prig ^|bwith a vacant ^|clandlubber^c| look^b|a| to tell ^|aall^a| the persons ^|ain the conversazione^a| the whole lifelong story of his low existence explaining the meanings of all the other foreign words he used and telling every lie imaginable about all the other people ^|ain the story whom^a| he met except the simple word and person they had asked him about until they were completely undeceived.
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Of course he disliked a good sensible row and once when he was called in as umpire in an octagonal argument among blank the low ^|amean wretch agreed evilsmelling washout^a| always ^|arubbed shoulders^a| with the last speaker ^|a& ^|bquite fully^b| agreed ^|bwith all his heart^b| with every single word as soon as uttered & absorbed^a| while he ^|anudged the one who was speaking ^|bnudged the octagonist who was speaking at once turned his attention to the next octagonist who managed to speak nudging him &^{b| |b}asking imploring^b| him out of his piteous eyes^a| to fill ^|aup^a| his ^|aglass tumbler^a| for him. ^|aOne night As recently as 20 yrs ago^a| he was alternately kicked ^|athrough the deserted village^a| from 82 Dublin Square as far as the lefthand corner of ^|aEurope Europa^a| Parade by two groups of argumentalists who finally ^|awent home disgustedly thought they had better be going home disgustedly^a|, ^|aone & all^a| reconciled to a friendship, fast & furious, solely on account of his ^|aperfect^a| lowness. ^|aIt was ^|bthus^b| hoped that people might, after giving him a roll in the dust, pity & forgive him but—^a|
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He never could be ^|agot dragged^a| to play rational national ^|aflesh & blood^a| games such as hat in the ring, Shiela ^|aHarnett^a| & ^|athe her^a| cow, here's the fat to grease the priest's boots, & it is now notoriously known ^|athat when how on ^|bthat surprisingly^b|a| bloody Sunday when the grand germogall fight ^|abattle all star bout^a| was ^|agaily^a| raging between those fighting men extraordinary ^|a& Irish eyes ^|bof blue^b| were smiling^a| he ^|afled for his bare life^a| corked himself up in his inkbottle ^|a|bmuch badly^b| the worse for drink^a| and hid under a bedtick ^|awith his face enveloped in an overcoat^a| semiparalysed ^|aby ^|ball^b| the shemozzle where under the sacred shield of cowardice, with^a| his face & trousers ^|achanging changed^a| colour ever time a ^|arifle spoke gat croaked^a|.

A drug addict, too, his manner ^|awhen he was at a loose end^a| was to write strings of honourable, learned, highplaced ^|aneoclassical^a| initials after his name while, if you could only have seen into his den, whenever he made believe to read one of his tattered chapbooks he did nothing but turn over three or 4 pages at a time growling because what with the bad light, the dirty print, the torn page, the scum in his eyes, the drink in his stomach, the rats in his garret and the hullabaloo in his ears ^|ablank he was not fit to memorise as much as a word a minute^a| D Was there ever heard of such low down blackguardism?
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Nabuchodonosor himself had not such a high & mighty opinion of himself as had this mental defective who bragged ^|aon one occasion to an interlocutor^a| in a bar that he was aware of no other person either exactly unlike or precisely the same as what I know or imagine I am myself. After bloody Sunday, though every door in ^|amuchtried^a| Lucalizod was smeared with generous gore and the every cobbleway slippery with the blood of heroes, the low waster never had the pluck to venture out while everyone else ^|a|bof the city throng^b|, slashers & sliced alike,^a| waded about ^|aon^a| their usual avocations for the only once he took a peep through his keyhole ^|ato find out whether conciliation was forging ahead or falling back and why^{a| |a}he^a| found himself looking into the barrel ^|aof an irregular revolver at point blank range at point blank range of an irregular revolver ^|b|cof the bulldog pattern^c| of some unknown quarreler ^|cwho supposedly had been told off to shade Shem shd he ^|dcome out stir out awhile^d| to be creased^c|b|a|. Lowness visibly oozed out from this dirty little beetle for the very first instant the Thornton girl ^|awith her kodak^a| saw ^|ahim the as yet unremunerated national apostate who was genuinely gum gun & camera shy,^{a| |a}walking taking a short cut ^|bwhen returning from a funeral^b|a| into ^|aa Patatapapaveri's^a| fruiterer & florist ^|aby the wrong ^|bgoods^b| entrance^a| she knew he was a bad fast man by his walk on the spot.
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Furthermore the low creature was a selfvaletter, having got up a kitchenette & fowlhouse for the sake of the eggs in what was meant for a closet
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Primum ^|aflens et^a| gemens in manum ^|asuam^a| evacuavit

(sh-t in his hand, ^|agroaning sorry^a|)

postea stercus proprium, quod appelavit dejectiones ^|ameae meas^a|, exoneratus in poculum ^|atristitiae^a| posuit, ^|aidem eodem ^|blentiter et^b|a| melliflue minxit psalmum qui incipit Lingua mea calamus scribae velociter scribentis magna voce cantitans

(did a p-ss, says he was dejected, asks to be exonerated)

denique ex stercore ^|avili turpi^a| mix cum ^|adivi^a| Orionis jucunditate encaustum sibi fecit indele indelibilem

(^|amaker of^a| O'Ryan's, the devil's own ink)
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And hear this more. At the time of his last disappearance in public petty constable Sigurdsen, who had been detailed to save him from lynch law ^|a& mob mauling^a|, ^|aran after greeted^a| him just as he was butting in through the door with a hideful saying as usual: Wherefore have they that? here? ^|aa dog mean herring?^a| All Shem said was: Search me.

The peace officer was ^|aliterally^a| astounded at the capaciousness of the wineskin & even more so when informed ^|aby the human outcome of drink & dirt^a| that she was merely bringing home 2 gallons of porter for his mother.

But enough of ^|asuch infernal^a| lowness ^|atoo base for words^a|. We cannot stay here all day discussing Mr Shem the Penman's thirst