Strong as were the fascinations of a criminal life, he chiefly had an eye to business.
In the heat of passion, or with a view to save himself, he was thoroughly unscrupulous about taking life, but he was not anxious to compromise himself by any needless slaughter.
Yet for coolness, promptitude, and self-reliance he has seldom been surpassed.
He never suffered himself to be betrayed into any acts of overwhelming fatuity and oversight such as those which have often led the most skilful to their ruin.
In him there was an assemblage of qualities such as one man rarely possesses.
Peace took great interest in carving, architecture, and works of art of every conceivable description. While at Sheffield, during the few months he remained a decent member of society, he paid frequent visits to the museums and other institutions, and he promised to compete for the prize in wood-carving in the forthcoming exhibition.
But the old feeling for change and adventure came over him, and he determined upon leaving his native town for a while. Business was not very brisk with him at this time――so he thought it advisable to shift his quarters.
He had purchased a number of cheap, showy, attractive-looking prints, together with a large collection of photographs, many of which were copyright, being reproductions from well-known pictures.
In addition to these he had a number of other photographs, which it would not have been advisable for anyone to sell, seeing that they rendered the vendor liable to imprisonment under Lord Campbell’s Act.
He felt assured that he was well able to evade the law.
Having renewed his hawker’s licence and packed up his goods in as small a compass as possible he bade adieu to his mother and friends at Sheffield and set out on his pilgrimage.
A wandering life was consonant to his general disposition and temperament.
Shouldering his pack with his stout oaken stick and his dog, “Gip,” he commenced his journey.
It was only spring time, and he had the best part of the year before him. He paid a visit to Worksop, Huddersfield, Marborough, and Barnsley, calling at several hamlets and villages of lesser note.
He made a long stay in the last-named place; he met there a young man who was a “nigger delineator,” as they term themselves in the advertisements in a certain theatrical paper. Peace found in this person a congenial spirit, and they took a commodious room in the town and gave “nigger” entertainments three nights in the week――namely, Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. The two first were the most profitable, the working class being usually more flush of money.