Here and There in LondonRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
General
Here and There in London
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
London (England) -- Description and travel
They affect a graphic style, and are not sparing in the use of
slang. They eschew the classics, and evince but a very superficial
knowledge of literature, save that of the current year. They are chiefly
strong in politics, and for the actors on that stage have that contempt
which familiarity is said to breed, but which, as in the present case,
sometimes flourishes without it. They view the busy scene as the gods of
Epicurus the follies of mankind. This man is a fool—that a tool. As a
rule, officials are run down, and some illustrious-obscure—perhaps the
borough representative, if he is on good terms with the paper—is
suspiciously and inordinately puffed up. I often wish our London
Correspondent would address the House. What a figure he would make on
some matter of business, the details of which it is impossible to make
interesting! The chances are that he is a Scotchman or an Irishman; that
his impudence is merely confined to paper; that he does not shine either
at the Temple Forum or Codgers’ Hall. There would be a burst of laughter
when he rose. They ought to be more genial critics. I was once in the
lobby when our London Correspondent of a paper published in a large
manufacturing town came up to me. I had not seen him for some years.
After the usual inquiries, said he, “What a capital cutting that was in
the --- of your book!” “You are mistaken,” said I; “the book was by so
and so.” Our friend, very crest-fallen, immediately rushed off without
bidding us goodbye. Once upon a time one of them produced a great
sensation. Our readers will remember, when Lord John Russell dismissed
Lord Palmerston, what a cry was raised about German influences by a
certain morning print which seems to exist merely for the sake of
disgusting intelligent people with a righteous cause. A German paper was
referred to. Well, the gentleman to whom I have alluded was the
correspondent of that paper, and one day, in the absence of anything of
importance, he had manufactured the article very innocently out of the
extraordinary paragraphs in which the morning print aforesaid rejoices,
little dreaming, that in Parliament and out his letter would be quoted as
evidence of a deeply-laid conspiracy to weaken the power of Lord
Palmerston and undermine European liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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