The peculiar facilities to which I now refer, are presented in the
Answers to Correspondents. The page containing these is, beyond all
comparison, the most interesting page in the penny journals. There is
no earthly subject that it is possible to discuss, no private affair
that it is possible to conceive, which the inscrutable Unknown Public
will not confide to the Editor in the form of a question, and which
the editor will not set himself seriously and resolutely to answer.
Hidden under cover of initials, or Christian names, or conventional
signatures--such as Subscriber, Constant Reader, and so forth--the
editor's correspondents seem, many of them, to judge by the published
answers to their questions, utterly impervious to the senses of
ridicule or shame. Young girls beset by perplexities which are usually
supposed to be reserved for a mother's or an elder sister's ear,
consult the editor. Married women who have committed little frailties,
consult the editor. Male jilts in deadly fear of actions for breach of
promise of marriage, consult the editor. Ladies whose complexions are
on the wane, and who wish to know the best artificial means of
restoring them, consult the editor. Gentlemen who want to dye their
hair, and get rid of their corns, consult the editor. Inconceivably
dense ignorance, inconceivably petty malice, and inconceivably
complacent vanity, all consult the editor, and all, wonderful to
relate, get serious answers from him. No mortal position is too
difficult for this wonderful man; there is no change of character as
general referee, which he is not prepared to assume on the instant.
Now he is a father, now a mother, now a schoolmaster, now a confessor,
now a doctor, now a lawyer, now a young lady's confidante, now a young
gentleman's bosom friend, now a lecturer on morals, and now an
authority in cookery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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