Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town

The Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town is a verse portrait of Bustopher Jones, defined by the contrast between his prominent place in the city’s club life and the playful attention paid to his considerable appetite and figure. His street presence, meticulous clothes, and regular circuit of clubs make him recognizable as a particular kind of cat about town.

A Public Figure on the Street

The portrait introduces Bustopher Jones not as thin or unobtrusive, but as remarkably fat. He is identified with St James's Street and distinguished from commonplace mousers: when he walks down the street, other cats greet him, and his fastidious black coat and well-cut trousers mark him as unusually polished. His clothing turns public appearance into part of his identity; he is presented as a figure whose arrival is noticed.

Clubs and Daily Routine

Bustopher Jones does not haunt ordinary pubs. Instead, he has eight or nine clubs, and the account repeatedly places him at one club or another as his day passes. The succession of clubs gives the portrait its social rhythm: his identity rests not on a single destination but on a regular circuit.

The passage also links his mood to what he has eaten at the Tomb. If he looks gloomy, the stated explanation is a lunch of cabbage, rice pudding, and mutton. The joke makes appetite an everyday feature of his portrait, setting the grand-sounding life of a club-going cat beside an exact, comic menu. Together, his clothes, street greetings, clubs, and meals make the title’s cat about town both socially conspicuous and bodily extravagant.