The Editor to his Readers-A Cluster of Original Anecdotes-Laughing Philosophers- Jerroldiana-Charles Dickens's Golden Rules-Edison's Marriage-Oxford Stories-Wit and Humour of Parliament-Theatrical Stories-Scottish Anecdotes-The Humours of a London Season-Lines by J. R. Lowell-Bishops' Jests and Repartee-Jeux d'Esprit- Novelists' Sayings-American Humour-Sporting Anecdotes-Horne Tooke's Sayings- Theodore Hook 8 Jokes and Squibs-A Curious Snuff-box. Another Cluster of Original Anecdotes: Theatrical Anecdotes; Dancing Mutes 1 Dramatic Criticism in America: Sarah Bernhardt, her Dresses and her Clinging' An Unpublished Quatrain by Victor Hugo-Three New Oxford Stories-Mathewsiana Original Scottish Reminiscences-Clever Reply by her Majesty-Froth and Fidget- Two Anecdotes of Rossini-Anecdotes of Robert Burns-The Shoulders of Melchisedek Author of the Day, An: Alphonse Daudet Blind Man's Notions about Ghosts, A. By W. W. Fenn, Author of Half- BOB AND I ARCADES AMBO.' A Story of London Bohemia 195 291 394 500 602 374 417 209, 319 538 387 182 PAGE IX. Alberoni, Cardinal and Adventurer . Eastbourne. Guide's Wooing, The: An Alpine Sketch. By H. Schütz-Wilson Happy Travellers Hermit Nation, The; or Corea and its Society, Past and Present. By 152 257 436 121 Lines behind the Shutter, The. By Reginald Barnett LOG OF THE WANDEROO, THE. By Dr. Gordon Stables Sea Pie. In Three Layers Stories by Foreign Novelists: The Amateur Detective, by Gaboriau LONDON SOCIETY. JULY 1882. ANECDOTE CORNER. HERVEY WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY WILLMOTT DIXON-CHARLES OTHERS. The Editor to his Readers. Don Quixote looked in at the printing-office he found them busy with a volume called Trifles, which the printer assured him was a most important affair, although the title did not promise much. This is what we hope a good many readers will, by and by, think of our 'Anecdote Corner.' 'If you love your reader and wish to be read, get Anecdotes,' was the advice of one of the brightest and wittiest of modern humorists. No happier phrase or more concise form of statement could be hit upon to show the raison d'être of 'Anecdote Corner' in LONDON SOCIETY. For what Editor is there who does not love his readers, and wish them to read the lucubrations of himself and his contributors? Therefore, to prove our affection for our readers, and at the same time induce them to reciprocate it, we have determined to 'get Anecdotes,' and garner them every month in this corner of our Magazine. An experience of some thirty years in catering for the VOL. XLII. NO. CCXLVII. B public has impressed the Editor with the idea that there is plenty of racy material lying at hand for producing a bright and pleasant department of this sort-something which will 'kindle mirth in the melancholic and heighten it in the gay.' And, although mirth and humour will be the superficial design, it will be laid on a solid foundation, to challenge attention from the ignorant and admiration from the judicious.' 'Mind this, and our business is done! as the shrewd friend said to Cervantes, when invited to touch up that author's preface. Our 'Corner' will be inlaid with little bits of dainty mosaic-work, out of which different people can pick what they fancy. The plan is to gather from a multitude of sources—some of them familiar enough to literary men, although little known, perhaps, to the general reader, or inaccessible to him outside the walls of great libraries—all such cheery, characteristic, and pungent things as will give 'zest to pleasant moments and solace to anxious ones;' things which will help our busy, active men to relax for a little the tension of business solicitude or throw off the weight of professional care-enable them, perhaps, to restore for half an hour the dewy freshness of youth and recall the merry twinkle of unfettered days. Out of forgotten books and other dusty lumber of bygone times let us pick some flashing jewel of long-buried wit; rekindle the fire of forgotten repartee; echo once more the rippling laughter at some pleasant jest from the Whispering Gallery of the past. Like rose-leaves freshly stirred, there will now and then come wafted through our pages, from seeming dead leaves, the sweet fragrance of words once breathed by fair women and brilliant men. A great Novelist said to the Editor the other day, 'What has come over the men of our time? What a sad lack there is of animal spirits! They seem to have no fun in them !' Let us try to mend this. Let us attempt to rescue some of the fun which lies stored with those who are still amongst us-some of the choice morceaux which are yet in the memory of those who have shared a noble friendship and have sat 'at good men's feasts.' The original reminiscences which such story-tellers will be encouraged to write or to |