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ITH JOHN BULL AND JONATHAN.

Reminiscences of Sixty Years of an lerican's Life in England and in ited States

>HN MORGAN RICHARDS l£4l-W

>

•';<• America* Society in London 1901 - 1901

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ITH JOHN BULL AND JONATHAN.

Reminiscences of Sixty Years of an American's Life in England and in the United States

BY JOHN MORGAN RICHARDS,

President of the American Society in London IQOI - IQO2

LONDON: T. WERNER LAURIE

CLIFFORD'S INN, FLEET STREET

1905

All Rights Reserved

Bancroft Library

TO MY RELATIVES AND FRIENDS

ON BOTH SIDES THE ATLANTIC

Foreword

IN putting on record my reminiscences of life on both sides of the Atlantic I do so from a British-American point of view. I have not attempted to give advice to " pilgrims " about to visit England, or the United States. There are no descriptions of climate and scenery of either country, nor statistics as to population, heights of mountains, lengths and breadths of rivers and lakes, miles of railway, average rain- fall, hours of sunshine, or " vital statistics " of any kind ; nor do Politics enter into any of my observations.

My narrative concerns my own personal experiences in both countries, covering a period of sixty years, thirty- eight years of which — 1867-1905 — have been spent in England. I was born in 1841, and my early life, until 1867, was passed in the United States. My wish has been to give, in pleasant outlines, sketches of those with whom I have had social or business relations, how we fared together, and apart.

The contrasts that are made as to Methods of life, both Social and Commercial, are not to be regarded other than as my own personal views, and have no further authoritative importance.

I have placed myself really in the position of one answering questions, which I believe to be of general in- terest. In my estimate of the importance of such questions I may have been greatly mistaken, and fallen short of my aim and desire in the value of my replies.

JOHN MORGAN RICHARDS.

STKRPHILL CASTLE, ISLE OF WIGHT, October 1905.

Contents

CHAPTER I

1841

Birth and Parentage — The inevitable Genealogical Tree — An- cestors on both Sides — Their Settlement in the States — My Mother's Death — Village Life of an American Minister — A Donation Party — Early Friends — First School Ex- periences— Sports and Pastimes — The Dame's quaint Punishments — "Boys and Girls, turn your Heads" — Begin Life on a Farm — Hard Work — Rejoin my Father — Fly from "Yellow Jack" to a Slave Plantation— Life amongst Slaves in Mississippi — Removal to New Orleans

CHAPTER II

My Father goes to England — I take his Library and effects to New York — My First Warehouse Engagement — Manage a Branch at Boston, and marry — Join the Firm of Demas Barnes, and travel — In U.S. and Canada — I canvass the Confederate States — Instructions for a Journey inl California — "Create a Sensation" — My Mustang Ponies\ — Bankers and Credit — Novel Identification — Return to New York — The Firm of Demas Barnes and the Partners —The Beecher-Tilton Affair . 16

CHAPTER III

I get tired of Travelling — Resume my Road Work for a brief Time — Engaged by Mr Van Duzer to represent his Firm in England — The s.s. Russia — Cunarders in 1867 — Reach Liverpool, and train for London — The Langholm Hotel — Look around on Sunday — Settle down to Work — A Copy- right Claim — My First Law-suit — My Wife rejoins me — Madame Tussaud's — Visit America — Partnership dissolved — Begin Business on my own Account . . .30

ix

Contents

PAGE

CHAPTER IV

Proprietary Business and Advertising — English Editors and their Advertising Columns — Sale of Plantation Bitters — A Cute American — River Scenery — A Puzzling Advertisement — Advertising Fireworks — Taxing Proprietary Articles — Pirating English Medicines — A New Fascination — Mr Lever's View — United States for Machinery — England for Cabinet Work — American Boots and Shoes . . .46

CHAPTER V

My New Business — The First Introduction of American Cigarettes and Smoking Tobacco into England — The Richmond Gem — The Quaker and the Cigarette — Forcing the British Sale — A Great Tobacco Combination — Removal to Holborn Viaduct — Interesting Neighbourhood — The Smithfield Martyrs — Here John Bunyan died — Burial-place of Captain John Smith — Bad Debts — Street Language — Forms of Address — English Proprietary Articles in the United States — Advanced Pharmacy — The Diamond Match Company ....... 66

CHAPTER VI

Dr Joseph Parker — Personal Acquaintance and Friendship — My Father's Visit and Death — Thursday Morning Services — Henry Ward Beecher's Visit to London — Colman's Mustard — Dr Parker's Lectures in the United States — Controversy arises — Lecture Tour abbreviated — Dr Parker's Letters — Plymouth Church — I join the Diaconate of City Temple — Dr and Mrs Parkers Silver Wedding — Presentation of Gifts — Dr Parker's Commandments for Men of Business . 79

CHAPTER VII

English Holiday-making — Our Visits with Dr and Mrs Parker — Mrs Parker's Illness and Death— The Doctor's Grief— He is Heart-broken — Continues his Ministry — His last Holiday with us — Illness and Death ..... 98

CHAPTER VIII

Home Life — Dr Parker and Pearl — Illustrated Letters — My Daughter Pearl's early Life — A Mimic — Her Studiousness — Reads Thackeray — Effect of Toole's Acting and others

— Her First Book — Her First Play Education of my

Sons — Dorothy — Her Marriage . . . 1 1 1

Contents

PACK

CHAPTER IX

First Visit to a Theatre — "Romeo and Juliet" — A morning Call — Tenants and Rent-collecting in New York — My early Acquaintance with Mr Joseph Jefferson the Actor — Edwin Forrest — F. B. Conway — Dan Bryant — The London Stage in 1867-68 — Mrs Dallas Glyn — Her Gifts and Death — An Experience at Stein way Hall — Racers through London . 124

CHAPTER X

Cost of Living in the States and in England — American and English Hotels — The Question of Servants and of Clerks — A dainty English Clerk v. A smart American — House- keeping Expenses and Servants — Cab and Bus Fares — Education in the United States and Great Britain — Food — The American Society — American Charities in London — Applicants for Relief — A Benevolent Fund — Stranded in London — National Monument to the Queen — New Year Calls — Tipping . . . . . .138

CHAPTER XI

The Academy — Scheme of Academy Crowns — London Forty Years ago — Footsteps of the Martyrs — Middle Row dis- appears— Opening of the Viaduct — Alterations in Build- ings and Streets — Railways — Baron Grant and Leicester Square — Athletics — English the better Oarsmen — Field Sports — Mr Cooke of Leeds— The Isle of Wight— Steephill Castle . . . . . . . .159

CHAPTER XII

Walking and Driving Tours in England — Widows as Publicans — Young America in England and Young England in the United States — The Alien American — An " Unnaturalised Alien," — Firms of Americans in London — Continental Experiences — A visit to Canada — Holland — Railway Travel- ling— Porters and Porters . . . . 173

CHAPTER XIII

Revisiting America — The Changes apparent — In Ships crossing the Atlantic — Improved Roads — Sky-scrapers — Servants — Hours of Labour changed — Merchants seen by Everybody — Travelling Facilities — Tyranny of Hackmen — Charity Collections — Eating, Drinking, and Smoking — American Women — The Stage Yankee — Questions of Accent and Pro- nunciation . . . . . . .187

zi

Contents

PAGE

CHAPTER XIV

Social Amenities in American Clubs — Jonathan a Man of Business — The Fashion in Vehicles — English in Clothes, Walking- sticks, Umbrellas, and Hats— Liveries creeping in— Dust- bins— Tomatoes on the Table — " Chicken Food " — Renting Houses — Public Undertakings — What John Bull owes to Jonathan — The Toast Master — The Seasons . . . 204

CHAPTER XV

Popularity of Americans in England — Episcopacy in the States — National Distinctions — Prince of Wales' Visit — American Public Men in England — Story of Mark Twain — The East- Enders of New York — Relief of the Poor and the Sick — " Wake up, England "—Mail-carrying, Old and New — The Pony Express — Sunday Observances . . . 220

ui|pl

CHAPTER XVI

The Times and The Standard as Publishers— The Encyclopedia

Britannica and English Literature Half-a-million spent

in advertising — Company Promoting — Savings Banks in United States— Cheque System— The Waldorf Astoria — United States Officials — Divorce Laws in America — English and American Women— A great Snowstorm . 235

CHAPTER XVII

Commercial Monopolies— The Presidential Platform, 1904— No Loyal or Patriotic Toasts at Banquets in the States — " Our Beggar Pedlar Bouncer is in " — Mock Auctions and Barkers — Camp Meetings — Story by Sir John Millais — Mr Birch and his Work — Mrs Jemima Luke — Conductors on Railways — Art of Criticism — Luck — Precedents . ". . 254

CHAPTER XVIII

Solicitors, Barristers, and Attorneys-at-Law — Bills of Costs — Judges in England and United States — Medical Men — Fire Brigades — Management of Street Traffic — Bank of England — General Post Office — Holidays — Waste caused in England — Bicycles and Tricycles — Freemasons — Clubs — The Sphinx Club — Circulating Libraries — The Times Book Club — Patents— Motors . . . . . :*-> 268

CHAPTER XIX

1905

Afterwords — Gathering up the Threads .... 286

xii

List of Illustrations

Author ........ Frontispiece

Rev. James Richards, D.D. — grandfather ; Thomas Beals,

Banker— grandfather (mother's side) . . facing page 2

The Brothers Field. Taken at Stockbridge, Mass., in 1860, for their Aunt, Mrs Abigail Field Beals, of Canandaigua, New York. Reading from left to right, Henry M. Field, Cyrus W. Field, Jonathan Field, David Dudley Field, Matthew Field, Stephen J. Field . „ 4

Rev. James Richards, D.D. ; Mrs Elizabeth Beals Richards

(from a marble bust taken, 1840) . . „ 6

John Morgan of Aurora, New York (from an oil painting) ;

Morgan Hall, Auburn Theological Seminary . . „ 8

Main Street, Pen Yan, New York ; Bird's Eye View of

Canandaigua, New York . . . . . ,, 10

First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, New Jersey, 1797-

1847 : Public School, Canandaigua, New York . ,, 12

John Morgan Richards at New Orleans, La. (aged 12) ;

Cayuga Lake, Aurora, New York . . „ 16

Edward Cowles Richards; Mrs Elizabeth Beals Richards

(from a pencil drawing, 1845) • • • » l%

Demas Barnes, Merchant, New York ; William Porter

Ward, Merchant, New York . . . . ,, 26

Main Street, Penn Yan, New York ; Brent Good . . „ 28

Joseph Parker — Drawn in the firelight in the study at

"Tynehouse," Hampstead, 1888, by Maude Porter . „ 82

Rev. Dr Parker ; Mrs Parker ; Rev. Henry Ward Beecher

and Mrs Beecher on the Guildford Coach, June 1886 . ,, 86

List of Illustrations

Cyrus W. Field (Atlantic Cable) ; Rev. Dr Joseph Parker,

1875 •'•••'•, » •. • • . facing page 9

Rev Dr Parker at the Zoological Gardens, May 1902 . ,, 102

Facsimiles of Dr Parker's Letters to Pearl Richards . page 112

Pearl Richards (aged 5) . . . . facing page 112

Mrs Craigie at Lancaster Gate . . . . ,,122

Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie . . . . . ,,116

Stage favourites in America in the Sixties and after . . ,,126

Stage favourites in London in the Seventies and after . „ 130

Miss Glyn as Cleopartra, 1853 (from a crayon drawing by

Solomon) .......,, 134

Ventnor, Isle of Wight, looking East. Photo by Broderick

Ryde . ... ,,170

Steephill Castle, Isle of Wight . . . . „ 172

Coaching Party from Steephill Castle, August 1905 . . ,,176

National Bank of North America, New York . . ,, 190

Steamer Pilgrim passing under Brooklyn Suspension Bridge,

East River, New York . . . . ,, 194

Margaret Wilson, the Puritan Martyr, by C. B. Birch, A.R.A. „ 262

Facsimile of Drawing by Phiz, 1879 — Mrs John Morgan

Richards ........ 292

Cartoon by F. C. G. of the Author as President of the

Sphynx Club ...... End paper

With John Bull and Jonathan

CHAPTER I 1841

Birth and Parentage — The inevitable Genealogical Tree — Ancestors on both Sides— Their Settlement in the States— My Mother's Death — Village Life of an American Minister — A Donation Party — Early Friends — First School Experiences — Sports and Pastimes — The Dame's quaint Punishments — " Boys and Girls, turn your Heads "

ERRATA.

Page 62, from line 10, should read : " The only evening newspapers were the Globe, established in 1803, and the Evening Standard in 1827, the Echo being published in 1868. The Echo was the first to be brought out at the price of a halfpenny."

Page 122, third line from bottom, should read : " in October, 1901."

ana, alter serving

settled in the State of Connecticut.

List of Illustrations

Cyrus W. Field (Atlantic Cable) ; Rev. Dr Joseph Parker,

i875

Rev Dr Parker at the Zoological Gardens, May 1902 Facsimiles of Dr Parker's Letters to Pearl Richards Pearl Richards (aged 5) Mrs Craigie at Lancaster Gate Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie .... Stage favourites in America in the Sixties and after . Stage favourites in London in the Seventies and after

facing page 9

,, 10^

* page 112

facing page 112

122

116

126

130

Miss Glyn as Cleopartra, 1853 (from a crayon drawing by Solomon) ...••••

Ventnor, Isle of Wight, looking East. Photo by Broderick

134

170

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CHAPTER I 1841

Birth and Parentage — The inevitable Genealogical Tree — Ancestors on both Sides— Their Settlement in the States— My Mother's Death — Village Life of an American Minister — A Donation Party — Early Friends — First School Experiences — Sports and Pastimes — The Dame's quaint Punishments — " Boys and Girls, turn your Heads" — Begin Life on a Farm — Hard Work — Rejoin my Father — Fly from "Yellow Jack" to a Slave Plantation — Life amongst Slaves in Mississippi — Removal to New Orleans.

WRITERS of fiction and romantic history have a licence in the method of introducing their heroes and heroines which cannot be allowed to the biographer. In the works of the former class, questions of parent- age, birth, and family history may be settled without minute genealogical research. Not so, however, the biographer : he is bound by conventions to account for his progenitors, however tedious the recital, by relating the "truth," which is oftentimes "stranger than fiction."

My family is of English origin. An ancestor on my father's side was a native of Lichfield, Stafford- shire, who left England in the reign of Queen Anne, and, after serving against the French in Canada, settled in the State of Connecticut.

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My grandfather, James Richards, was in the fourth generation, being the son of James, who was the son of James, the son of Samuel, the original settler. He was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, 1767, and was the eldest of nine children. His father was a farmer, and his mother's maiden name was Ruth Hanford. She was a woman of vigorous intellect and of uncom- promising faithfulness in questions of social duty. Children were then subjected to their parents, whom they loved not less, but feared much more, than they do now. Her son James was accustomed to say " his mother governed her family" of nine children "with her eye and forefinger."

My grandfather James Richards entered Yale Col- lege in 1789. He was afterwards licensed to preach in the western district of Fairfield, Conn., by the Presby- terian Association, 1793. Subsequently he preached at Ballston, New York, and at Sag Harbour and Shelter Island, New York State, He married Caroline Cowles of Farmington, Conn. She survived her hus- band a little more than four years, and died at Auburn, New York.

She was great-aunt to Commander William Sheffield Cowles, recently acting as naval attache to the American Embassy in London, who married Miss Anna Roosevelt, sister of the President of the United States.

In 1794 my grandfather was called to the pastoral charge of the Presbyterian Church at Morristown, New Jersey, and was installed in 1797, and in 1805 was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of

With John Bull and Jonathan

the Presbyterian Church. Afterwards, in 1809, he accepted an invitation from the First Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. Finally, in 1823, he accepted a professorship at Auburn Theological Seminary, New York. He died 2nd August 1843.

On my mother's side my grandfather was Thomas Beals, who was born in Boston, Mass., and settled in Canandaigua, Ontario Co., New York, October 1803. His ancestor was John Beals, who emigrated from Hingham, near Attleboro, Norfolk, England, in 1638. He came over with his wife, five children, and two servants in the sailing ship Diligent. There were 133 others from the same village on board ship, nearly all of whom settled in Hingham, Mass.

Thomas Beals was a man of marked attainments, combined with great industry and energy. He estab- lished the Ontario Savings Bank in 1832, and after- wards " The Thomas Beals Bank," locally known as the " Bee Hive." A sign hung over the bank entrance representing this emblem of industry and savings. He became Treasurer of the Church and Schools and various Corporations of the County, was U.S. Pension Agent, and acted as financial adviser and banker to the trading people and farmers of the district. He erected several blocks of buildings, built two large hotels, was interested in all move- ments for the benefit of the town, and was greatly respected. He died at Canandaigua in 1864, in his eighty-second year.

Thomas Beals' sister Lydia, a noted beauty, became the second wife of the Rev. Dr Lyman

3

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Beecher, the father of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Speaking of her, Mr H. W. Beecher wrote she was " the possessor of great personal beauty, a cultivated and intellectual mind, polished manners, and rich in all social acquirements. Her religious awakening

. . assumed the character of a religion solemn, inflexible, vigorous, and sombre."

My grandmother Beals was a Miss Abigail Field, daughter of Captain Timothy Field, who came from Guildford, Connecticut, with her brother, to reside in Canandaigua, and was married to Thomas Beals.

Her brother, the Rev. Timothy Field, became first pastor of the Congregational Church in that village.

This Grandmother was aunt to Cyrus W. Field of Atlantic cable fame ; Stephen J. Field, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court at Washington ; David Dudley Field, jurist of New York ; and of Henry M. Field, editor of The New York Evangelist, a traveller and an author, who is still living at Stockbridge, Mass.

She was also great-aunt to the present David J. Brewer, Associate Judge of the United States Supreme Court, Washington. Thus the singular coincidence was presented, that both uncle and nephew were associate judges, sitting together on the same Bench, in the highest court of justice in the land — the one being 73 years of age and the other 52.

A daughter of David Dudley Field resides in England. She is the widow of the late Sir Anthony Musgrave, G.C.M.G., Governor of Queensland 1883-8.

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My father, Dr James Richards, was the youngest son. He was originally destined for the Church ; but after completing his early education at Union College, Schenectady, New York, declared his preference for the law, and entered upon the necessary studies in the office of Judge Henry W. Taylor at Canandaigua, New York.

As nothing is supposed to happen save the un- expected, James Richards, the young law student, who had no intention at that time of entering the ministry, became acquainted with Elizabeth Beals.

She was the fifth daughter of Thomas Beals, an educated and attractive young woman, deeply imbued with sound religious convictions ; and was currently reported to have vowed that she would never marry anyone but a clergyman.

Her influence soon produced a change in my father's projects, and he determined to give up law and be- come a minister. There was no difficulty in this ; and Dr Richards, then a professor of Auburn Theological Seminary, welcomed his son as a student. After three years he was licensed to preach.

In the autumn of the same year, Dr Richards of Auburn officiated at the marriage of his son to Elizabeth Beals. For many years, long after the death of the bride, one sentence of Dr Richards' ad- dress to the youthful couple was remembered and quoted. He said to them : " God bless you, my dears. Remember that love is as necessary after, as before, marriage."

My father soon after accepted a call to the Presby-

5

With John Bull and Jonathan

terian Church of Aurora, a lovely village on the shores of Cayuga Lake. This call was the more acceptable because there lived here Mr Christopher Morgan, whose son John, was in previous years, a schoolmate and close friend of my father.

While residing here my mother gave birth to my elder brother James ; and two years afterwards my father's good friend, John Morgan, died. By his will 10,000 dollars was left to my father's church, and 2000 dollars for the purchase of a parsonage. These were very substantial reasons for my father and mother, on my birth, i6th February 1841, naming me after their deceased and generous friend John Morgan.

My Father soon after transferred his ministry to the church at Penn Yan, Yates County, New York. Here mother gave birth to my two sisters, Caroline Cowles and Anna Beach. At this period my mother's health seriously declined, and her death soon after- wards took place.

Her life at Penn Yan may be gathered by extracts from letters, which she wrote to her parents and sisters, that have been preserved. There are con- stant references to her increasing illness, and to visits from medical men, whose services were always ren- dered gratuitously, as the custom was with regard to the wives of all ministers.

There are slight glimpses of home life — sewing parties, and of the entertainment of friends, relatives, and ministers. There is one reference to the loss of a double fee for the marrying of two couples at a

6

! I

a js

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place eleven miles distant through the husband's absence from home, and the expression of a regret, as though the fee would have been welcome.

Two other references recall the strictness of prin- ciples in the early days of Puritanism. A discussion arose as to the propriety of sending out invitations to parties seven days in advance — one friend objecting because "his thoughts became so much distracted that the sermons on the Sabbath did him no good " ; the second question was as to the conduct of those suffer- ing from any infirmity. Here is the problem : "Mrs

goes out a great deal, not for exercise, but to

visit. She does not walk a step while in the house ; she reclines on a sofa or sits in a rocking-chair. Dr

and Mr take her in their arms as they

would a child, and carry her out of doors, and place her in the carriage. . . . How she can consent to such things is more than I can account for. Mamma says that if a wise Providence had so afflicted her that she could not go about, as other people did, she would be resigned to her fate, and stay at home. I presume this is the language of many hearts."

These extracts outline the unalluring incidents of their daily life.

In order to provide for the oversight of my brother, my sisters, and myself, and at the same time super- intend the affairs of the house, my father, after the funeral of mother, engaged an excellent housekeeper.

I was sent with my brother to a Dame's school near at hand, and as this was the first school we attended

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the event was regarded by both of us as one of con- siderable importance. There were not more than twenty boys and girls there, and we were taught in classes according to age.

At this school the mistress had quite an original way of punishing recalcitrant scholars. Boys were made to stand on the entrance porch wearing a girl's sun-bonnet while the mail stage-coach passed. Upon one special occasion I was suffering this punishment when Judge Ellsworth, a Member of Congress for the county, who had a son in the school, passed by on the coach, to my great discomfiture.

If a boy had been excessively naughty a more serious punishment was inflicted. The culprit was placed across the knees of the mistress, who, calling out " Boys and girls, turn your faces to the wall ! " spanked the offender with a rule.

Among my earliest school friends was Stewart Ellsworth, son of Judge Ellsworth, who afterwards became a major-general in the United States army, and served during the American Civil War. He visited me in London some years ago.

After the lapse of two years my father took for his second wife Sarah Wisner. She was the daughter of Mr Henry A. Wisner, a distinguished lawyer of the town, and a descendant of Henry Wisner, who was a delegate to the Convention for forming the con- stitution of the State of New York.

This even was almost immediately followed by a call, which was accepted, to the pastorate of a church at Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey, which

8

JOHN MORGAN, OF AURORA, NEW VOKK.

From an Oil Painting.

MORGAN HALL. AUBURN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

With John Bull and Jonathan

Dr Richards, my grandfather, had aforetime filled, and we at once removed to that town.

As soon as we were settled my father placed my brother and myself in the Morris Academy — a partially-endowed and excellent local school. There were about 120 boys and girls there, and the manage- ment was in the hands of a Principal, Mr Isaac A. Blauvelt, whose wife had charge of the girls' depart- ment. The usual curriculum was enforced ; and here, in my eighth year, I was placed in the Latin class.

Amongst the many boys here, with whom we be- came very friendly, only one or two are now living — with one of whom, George Voorhees, a successful merchant in the town, I have held correspondence from the time of leaving school to the present day.

While at this school James and I suffered much from a pleasant custom which existed, known as "A Donation Party." This was held once a year at the Pastor's house, and was attended by members of the church and congregation, and other friends, who came laden with gifts intended to supplement the pastor's salary. No one in the family was exempted from the kind attentions of the visitors, and the gifts, for the most part practical, included eggs and butter, flour, vegetables, loads of firewood, poultry, joints, groceries, and clothing. These last mentioned caused the suffer- ing to which I alluded. The clothing was in most instances second-hand — suits which other boys had outgrown ; dresses of the previous season, a trifle out of fashion in colour or style ; and what was donated had to be worn, lest the donor receive

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offence. My father, however, was exempt from any humiliation on this score. He was so tall that no garment worn by anyone else in the town would fit him ; and, although my stepmother was not altogether exempted, the chief burden of shame, James and I considered, fell upon us. The clothes which came to us were, of course, those which had been worn at school by our fellow-pupils, and had been carefully put aside by the parents against Donation Day.

I shall never forget upon one occasion appearing at school in a pair of second-hand trousers, and being at once accosted by other boys. " Hello ! John Morgan," they cried out, " I guess you've got on Dick S.'s trousers. Ha! ha!"

Upon another "Donation" occasion I was presented with a cap and top-boots — all were new. The cap was so large that I had to place a thick lining of cotton wool inside the head band to keep it on my head. The boots were several sizes beyond my measure. I was greeted at school with some words of chaff regarding the cap — the boots were at once hailed as " canal boats," all to my complete undoing. I absolve the good friends who sent these gifts from any motives other than utter kindness, but they lacked the instinct to understand "boys."

James was more obtrusively pugnacious than I, and when they began upon him he armed him- self with a leaden sling, and gave notice that he would let fly at any boy who jeered him. One of the bigger lads, relying upon his superior years and strength, commenced chaffing him, and at once

10

MAIN STREET, PENN YA\, NEW YORK.

BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK.

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received a blow which cut through the skin of his head. This came to the knowledge of the Principal, who put a stop at once to the annoyances to which we were subjected.

At the very first of these Donation parties held in Morristown my stepmother was presented with a silk dress which had been worn by one of the ladies of the congregation. This she wore on the following Sunday, and while standing in the vesti- bule warming her hands and feet over the register before going inside, the previous owner stepped up to her, and raising the hem of the gown, said : " Wai, Mrs Richards, I think I've seen that dress before." There was a titter among those present ; but my mother replied with great composure: " You certainly showed good taste," and then passed to her seat in church.

After two years my father left Morristown through ill health, which led to the members of our family being scattered. James, my two sisters, and I went to live with our grandparents at Canandaigua, who now assumed all responsibility for the maintenance of my brother and myself as well as my two sisters. No words can fitly describe their unselfish, devoted, and tender care of us. My sisters remained under their roof for some years — after my brother and myself were settled in life, and earning our own living. My stepmother with my two stepsisters, who were born at Morristown, returned to Penn Yan, to her mother's house.

Giving up his ministry, my Father went to reside at Princeton, New Jersey, the site of the present

ii

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University, where he remained for about a year, and then obtained a professorship in the Planters' College, Port Gibson, Mississippi.

My Grandfather at once sent James to the Canandaigua Academy and sent me to a district public school.

As in England, so in the United States, there is a particular sport common to youth in every season of the year. Beginning with the winter months — November, December, and January we had skating and tobogganing — but the latter sport in my days had the simple name of ''sliding downhill." Both boys and girls engaged in these sports, and in skating the girls were always more graceful and more expert than the boys. Nearly every skater then, was able to execute upon the ice, many of the fantastic and skilful figures which have since become well known to professional skaters, and are now shewn by amateurs at skating rinks — which, by the way, is of American introduction to England. In the spring we had baseball and top and marble playing. In summer-time fishing, swimming, and ball-playing were enjoyed to the utmost. Neither football nor cricket was known to us.

My grandfather held the opinion that out-of-door work should be regarded as a part of education, and, in pursuance of that principle, at the end of twelve months, arrangements were made for both of us to learn some of the principles of farming.

My brother James and I were sent to separate farms in the village of East Bloomfield. These farms

12

FIRST PRKSHVTKKIAX CHURCH, MOKRISTOWN, N.J. 1797-1847.

PUBLIC SCHOOL, CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK.

With John Bull and Jonathan

were three miles apart, and eight miles from Canan- daigua. In the State of New York the usual farm- holding was 1 60 acres, and this was the extent of the land worked by the farmers to whom my brother and I were sent. We received no wages, but had our board and "keep." We were most kindly treated as members of the family. I had to take a share in all the " chores " throughout the day. Rising at five o'clock in the morning, I had to assist in milking the cows, grooming, feeding, and watering the horses, and many other jobs about the place. We sat down to breakfast at 6.30 A.M. — taking that meal by candle-light in winter time ; had dinner at noon ; and a tea-supper at six o'clock ; then, after further work, went to bed at nine in the evening. In the spring, summer, and autumn months I found variations of work in the fields. In winter-time there was threshing of grain, corn shelling, feed cutting (hay and straw and roots, for horses and cattle). I had to share in attending "market" with eggs, butter, and poultry; and exchange them with storekeepers for household requirements.

Nor was this all, because there was a maple sugar bush of 300 trees on the farm ; and I was taught how to tap the trees in spring so as to draw off the liquid sugar, and boil this in the sugar-house until formed into a marketable article.

In the winter months I attended school at East Bloomfield village, two miles from the farm.

In the evenings the wife of the farmer was good enough to read aloud to us. Among other works

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thus read was Mrs Beecher Stowe's famous book, " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and I remember that we never heard, at any one time, quite enough of that remarkable story. Our sympathies were strongly aroused in favour of the slaves, and subsequently I had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with a slave estate where no cruelties were ever inflicted upon the slaves.

At this work I continued two years, from my eleventh to my thirteenth birthday ; and I wonder how boys of the present day would like a similar course of work and instruction to prepare them for the business of life.

In 1853 my brother and I rejoined my father at Port Gibson, Mississippi, where we entered as students in the college of which my father was a professor. This involved a journey of upwards of 1600 miles, and the descent of the Ohio and Missis- sippi Rivers from Cincinatti, Ohio, to Grand Gulf, Miss. — a river voyage of seven or eight days, in terrible heat, with mosquitoes galore, and water to drink that no brute or dumb animal on the farm we had just left would touch. The drinking of this water to a Northerner was equivalent to a " bid " for fever and ague and other ills. However, we sur- vived the heat, mosquitoes, and the foul water.

After the lapse of a year yellow fever broke out, and we were driven out of Port Gibson into the interior, away from the Mississippi River, to a slave plantation called " Woodbine." There were about 300 negroes on the estate. Here my brother and I

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had horses and ponies placed at our disposal, and under the guidance of older boys we quickly learned to ride and shoot. We greatly enjoyed our visits to the negro quarters, and their songs, music, and dancing. Our shooting was nothing more serious than the killing of wild ducks, wild pigeons, and squirrels ; but we soon became quite expert in the use of the gun. Coming fresh from the reading of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," I can bear my testimony to the fact that there was neither cruelty nor torture practised at this large plantation.

At the end of four months my father received a call to the pastorate of the second Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, which he accepted.

My brother then left, and was entered as a student of Princeton College, New Jersey ; while I accom- panied my father to his new charge.

CHAPTER II

My Father goes to England — I take his Library and Effects to New York — My First Warehouse Engagement — Manage a Branch at Boston, and marry — Join the Firm of Demas Barnes, and travel — In U.S. and Canada — I canvass the Confederate States — Instructions for a Journey in California — "Create a Sensation" — My Mustang Ponies — Bankers and Credit — Novel Identification — Return to New York — The Firm of Demas Barnes and the Partners— The Beecher-Tilton Affair.

IN 1855 my father resigned the pastorate of the church at New Orleans, and proceeded to England for the benefit of his health, leaving me in charge of friends. Towards the close of his absence he decided to return to America via New York instead of New Orleans, and I received instructions to pack his library, some 3000 volumes, and all other personal effects, and join him in New York. As I was then only in my thirteenth year I was very proud of this commission, which I carried out without any hitch. I remember that I bought suitable cases, packed the whole of them, arranged freight terms by steamer, and conveyed them to New York, a voyage of 1500 miles, reaching that city on 4th July 1855. After meeting my father at the house of my uncle, Edward Cowles Richards, in New York my future career was discussed and settled. I was given the choice of continuing my studies at school, and then following my brother's example by entering college, as he had

16

JOHN MORGAN RICHARDS, AT NEW ORLEANS, LA. AGE 12.

CAYUGA LAKE, AURORA, NEW YORK.

With John Bull and Jonathan

done, or training for a commercial life, and I decided upon the latter course. The responsibility of the maintenance of my brother and myself was from this period assumed by my uncle. He was my father's senior by ten years, had no children, and during the greater part of his life had engaged with great success in the importation of woollen goods from England and the Continent ; but at this time had retired from business, with a high character for hon- ourable dealing as a merchant, and as a land-owner.

His great kindness to those members of his family who had any claim upon his sympathies, or who bore the surname of Richards, and his unwearied benefi- cence on their behalf, stands unrivalled. He died 25th February 1880 at New York, in his seventy- fourth year, and was buried at Auburn. He lived to see many of those whom he assisted in early life rise to honourable positions.

Within four weeks of my arrival in New York I entered upon my first engagement as an office-boy and general clerk, in an agricultural implement and seed warehouse ; for which my previous farming ex- perience had to a certain extent prepared me. The salary at first was but $2.50 (IDS.) a week. My Uncle Edward kindly supplemented this sum with sufficient to find me food and clothes. After the first year I was fortunately able to obtain a salary I could live upon ; and after my sixteenth year had never again to ask pecuniary aid. I remained in this warehouse five years, and in 1860, in my nineteenth year, was appointed by the firm to manage a branch B 17

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of their business in Boston, and while so occupied the Civil War broke out. While in Boston I had the happiness of meeting with Laura Hortense Arnold, the third daughter of Captain Seth Harris Arnold of East Boston, who became my wife on 3 ist December 1863. Captain Arnold, came origin- ally from Mahone Bay, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, and my wife, who was born there, was brought thence when she was three years old. Her grandfather on her mother's side was the Honourable Peter A. Spearwater, who represented Shelburne County, in the Colonial Parliament at Halifax for twenty-five years. During the year and a half of our acquaintance she paid visits to members of my family in Connecticut, and in New York. We were married at Boston. I was then twenty-three years of age.

We remained in Boston for a year after our mar- riage, and in 1864 returned to New York, where I entered the service of Messrs Demas Barnes & Co., a firm occupying a very high position in the mercantile world. I had been acting for them in Boston for upwards of three years, on commission terms, as an adjunct to other business in which I was engaged. They formed an opinion that they could employ my whole time, and proposed a permanent post and salary. Mr Demas Barnes was a very re- markable man of business, possessed of untiring in- dustry, and amazing shrewdness, who had the rare gift of inspiring all about him with confidence, and winning their devotion.

The second day after my new engagement a short

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EDWARD COWLES RICHARDS.

MRS. ELIZABETH BEALS RICHARDS

(From a pencil drawing, 1845.)

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journey in Canada was arranged for me ; after which I was directed to visit every town in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri — the journey to occupy three months.

Mr Barnes said to me : " Stop at every town in these States on the line of railway where there is a church spire, a bank, and a newspaper office." I carried no samples, only a catalogue containing a price list of about 1000 articles in which the firm dealt. I passed from town to town by rail ; but when the next town was at a considerable distance I travelled by night, and so economised my time. Wherever I stopped I always lodged at first-class hotels -^-" Commercial Hotels" were unknown in America. The firm had no fixed allowance per day for their travellers, but liberal out-of-pocket expenses were paid. I remember Mr Barnes saying to me : " The firm does not wish to make money out of your economies, nor may you make profit out of travelling expenses. You are expected to render a careful account of all expenditure." My expenses averaged about $8.00 a day, including railway fares. There are no second or third class travelling facilities in the United States, other than on emigrant trains. We were allowed Pullman cars and sleeping berths if we travelled at night. This journey was regarded as a successful one.

During the following two years, journeys of a similar character were arranged for me, upon each of which I found my experience ripening ; and these continued until I had travelled the whole of the

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United States, from Maine to Georgia, over and over again.

At the close of the war — which lasted from 1861-65 — I was in Louisville, Kentucky, and received a telegram from Mr Barnes to proceed at once through the Confederated territory of Nashville and Chatta- nooga and Memphis, in Tennessee. These towns had been laid under restrictions of travel during the war, but were once more opened to Northern travellers. I was authorised to use my own discretion in dealing with the customers I might discover. Most of the old firms were in existence, with which the firm had done business in one form or another, though many of the previous proprietors had either been killed, or wounded during the war. The dealing with new men required much caution and discretion. I was the first Northerner in our business who had ap- peared among them to advertise in their newspapers. I was regarded with some suspicion at first, but I never had anything unpleasant said to me ; the re- putation of the house which I represented was quite sufficient to disarm suspicion, and on such a footing satisfactory business was possible. The orders which I took were important, and the newspapers gave ex- cellent terms for space, and expressed themselves well pleased to again receive Northern support for their journals. My work comprehended a good deal more than selling goods. The advertisements had to be revised and adapted. Separate and careful accounts of the same had to be kept. This involved much care and attention.

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Throughout 1865 I was continually travelling, ten months being so occupied out of the twelve.

In February 1866 Mr Barnes requested me to undertake a journey to California, on the Pacific coast, and although this would involve an absence of a year I immediately accepted the engagement. At the same time I told him that, upon a great journey such as he proposed, I thought I should feel more content, and accomplish better results for the firm, if my wife were allowed to accompany me. Without a moment's hesitation Mr Barnes said : " Engage passages for yourself and wife at our ex- pense ; we will pay all the cost." This is only one out of many instances which I might quote in illustration of the goodness of heart which regulated the conduct of Mr Barnes. In all business matters he was exact and strict, and his instructions were models of perspicuity, full of shrewd observation, and exhibiting a grasp of every detail, which was never at fault.

In illustration of what I say, the following were

my instructions upon setting out upon this journey

—omitting only a few details about the prices, and

percentages, and credits, upon several classes of

articles ; and the names of places I was to visit : —

"NEW YORK, loth February 1866.

" You will please proceed to California by first steamer, stopping on the Isthmus of Panama one week. . . . Your first business is to advertise in all good family papers possible. Avoid all mining,

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scientific, and agricultural journals. Rely princi- pally upon religious, secular, and literary weeklies. It will hardly pay to advertise in many dailies. San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, are particularly im- portant as emanating centres. Contract for twelve months on best terms you can — longest settlements possible — probably about three months. Make arrangements with some house in San Francisco to receive your duplicate contracts. Examine newspaper vouchers, and pay the accounts on date due. In all advertisements say * Sold by all dealers.' Grant no favours, advertise no man ; we expect all dealers to sell our goods, hence the majority cannot be alienated for the benefit of a few. In making newspaper con- tracts please remember you are not limited in adver- tising to any amount of dollars. ' Create a sensation.' " The Pacific coast is without many railways, and has to rely upon rivers and waggon roads for trans- portation, hence the season has much to do in determining time to visit the different places. You will arrive in San Francisco 2Oth March. After getting everything organised and under weigh, visit following towns (a list of which was given), subject to such changes as we may advise later. Advise me by telegraph once a month, and by letter twice a month. — With best wishes, etc."

In this careful and thoughtful manner, out of his large experience, he gave me the wisest counsel at his command. My wife and I went by steamer as directed, disembarked at Aspinwall, and did business

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there and at Panama, occupying seven days, and caught the s.s. Golden City, on which we sailed for San Francisco. The trip, including the time spent on the Isthmus, occupied exactly twenty-eight days. This was the ordinary course of the mail service before the Pacific Railway was constructed. My introductory work in San Francisco occupied a month. When arranging my long road journey into the interior I came to the conclusion that I should waste a great amount of time by waiting for the mail stage-coach over my routes, and decided, on my own responsibility, to purchase a pair of mustang ponies and a suitable four-wheeled vehicle of sufficient ca- pacity to carry my advertising materials and my assistant. This was soon accomplished. I found my wife a good home with a private family in San Francisco, and started. The principal banking busi- ness on the coast at that period was not done with banks, but with Wells, Fargo & Co., Express Agents, who had offices in every town on the Pacific coast, and the only currency was gold and silver. I carried a letter of credit upon which I could draw on San Francisco for any amount I required, so that it was only necessary for me to carry about with me sufficient for my daily needs.

My methods of identification at the express offices, when any question was raised, was to bare my right arm, and exhibit my name, which was tattooed thereon. This was original, but never failed to satisfy the most sceptical cashier with whom I had to deal.

Now to return to my journey. I drove the mustang

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ponies myself, and covered during my tour with them over 2600 miles. I carried out, as closely as possible, the instructions laid down in Mr Barnes' letter. This really meant visiting every town and mining camp from San Diego to Fraser River. I had many interesting experiences : was often obliged to get shelter for the night in the most primitive of inns ; sleep on the floor in a room with a dozen miners and teamsters ; partake of food of coarsest description, badly cooked ; bar-rooms open all night ; drunken men quarrelling, and sometimes shooting at one another — in fact, " roughing it " as rough as is possible to imagine. The roads were good. I followed the stage routes as far as possible, and tried always to get at night to one of their stations to sleep — if I could not manage a town or camp. The Alkali dust was something fearful to face. I wore linen overalls and jackets, above my woollen clothing to protect my- self, and to be presentable when making business calls.

Northern California in 1866 was a wilderness in contrast with the condition of things to-day. Even then the larger towns, both in California and Nevada, were well laid out, and had many fine buildings, churches, and shops, warehouses, hotels, and flourish- ing newspapers. The gold discovery and the rush to this El Dorado was in 1849. This was seventeen years later. The journey was an important one from a business standpoint. Mr Barnes had not in the least over-estimated the harvest that was possible to be secured for his firm. After reaching Portland,

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Oregon, and putting the ponies to feed and rest for a time, I sold them and my " Concord buggy " to a jobmaster for only £10 less than I paid for them. I had driven them, on the average, twenty miles a day. Before starting, the ponies had been well seasoned, and, I think, came from a travelling circus. I accomplished the journey in one-third less time than was possible by mail-coach, and at less expense — no mishap occurred to buggy, ponies, or myself. I carried a six-chambered revolver in my belt, as was the custom with all men driving on the road or engaged in min- ing, and this I never had the least occasion to use. Once the weapon was jerked from my belt, while standing in a saloon, by a miner, and was pointed at a man with whom he was quarrelling. No firing took place, however, and the revolver was returned to me.

From Portland, Oregon, we took steamer to Victoria, in British Columbia ; then across Puget Sound to Olympia and Seattle, in Washington territory ; back to Portland ; thence by steamer to San Francisco, cleared up all business ; and took steamer to New York, via Panama and Aspinwall, making no stop, and arrived in New York twenty-one days after starting.

I was complimented on the success of my journey, and awarded a generous advance in salary.

At the period of my joining the firm of Demas Barnes & Co., who carried on business at 21 Park Row, New York, the place was known as the United States Medicine Warehouse, and the firm were pro- prietors of, or agents for, or had upon sale, all the

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With John Bull and Jonathan

principal proprietary medicines of the day, foreign and domestic. There were also departments for the sale of druggists' sundries, for perfumery, and for fancy goods.

The firm consisted of Demas Barnes and William Porter Ward; but at the time I left, in 1867, there were five partners, with a branch under the name of Barnes, Ward & Co. trading at New Orleans ; and another branch trading as Barnes, Henry & Co. in Montreal, Canada. In the partner- ship there were Messrs Barnes & Ward, Mr John F. Henry, Amos G. Torrey, and Brent S. H. Good.

I am bound to mention that this firm was an ex- ceptionally interesting one in consequence of the unique personality of the founder, and the remarkable talent he was able to gather about him as partners and workers — the firm not merely buying or manu- facturing goods to be sold at a trading profit ; but the transactions of each day bringing into exercise the best mental effort and genius of those concerned.

Mr Demas Barnes, the head of the firm, was a self-made man — a strong character at every point. In personal appearance he was above medium height, stood very upright, possessed piercing, resolute, deep- set eyes, and high forehead. In his manner he was always conciliatory, if not plausible ; and especially courteous and agreeable to those in his employ. He was prompt in deciding questions submitted to him of every character, and was rarely found in error on a business point, while his acumen was really phenomenal. On coming to a decision he was not

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easily turned away. He was a very industrious man, and an early riser : he was frequently at his desk writing letters at five o'clock in the morning. He made a rule to receive as few calls as possible at his office, on social or political matters. All such ap- pointments were fixed by him at his private residence before breakfast, or after dinner. Correspondence by dictation or the use of typewriting machines was entirely unknown then, and so was the use of the telephone. All letters of instruction to his travellers he took upon himself, and wrote with his own hand. I remember that upon one occasion when I went into his room to see him he was so fatigued that he said : "I do not wish to call down any judgment upon myself, but I could almost hail with delight if my right arm were paralysed, so that I could escape the necessity of further writing, I am so tired." All the same, when away from New York travelling, he found time to correspond with newspapers on topics of the day ; and wrote several books upon his travels at home and abroad. Work was rest to him, and he never absented himself from the office will- ingly. Two of his books which were published were entitled, respectively, " From the Atlantic to the Pacific," and " In Search of Summer Breezes in Northern Europe."

Mr Demas Barnes, after his election to Congress, became part proprietor of The Brooklyn Eagle, one of the most successful daily papers in the state of New York. After his retirement from commercial life in 1870 he started The Brooklyn Argus, a daily

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With John Bull and Jonathan

morning and evening paper. This was never a financial success, though the enterprise and energy he threw into the work astonished the most experi- enced newspaper proprietors in the country.

One incident in proof of this may be mentioned. During his proprietorship of The Argus the so-called confessions of Mrs Theodore Tilton in reference to the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher were made by her. The MS. was brought to Mr Barnes at ten o'clock one night. He at once gave directions that the paper should not be put to press until he gave the word. Repairing to the residence of one of his leader-writers he roused him from sleep by throwing gravel at his bedroom window. A short conference followed. Mr Barnes told him what he had had offered to him, and the price put upon the MS., and asked what he should do. "Accept," was the laconic reply. He hurried back to his office, and set the compositors to work, and next morning the startling story was telegraphed from The Argus, throughout the United States and to Europe. This was the beginning of the Beecher-Tilton controversy.

By a singular coincidence, when in 1886 Mr Barnes came over to England, Henry Ward Beecher and his wife were passengers by the same vessel.

The Argus was not a financial success. Mr Barnes, though editor, did not secure the loyal ser- vice of his writers. They were too independent, and he was unable to control or guide them. In his newspaper enterprises he was so keen that, at the age of fifty, he mastered all the details of the

28

MAIN STREET, 1'ENN YAN, NEW YOEK.

BEENT GOOD.

With John Bull and Jonathan

work, the mechanical methods, as well as composing, imposing, and the laying on and taking off the sheets. He frequently set up certain paragraphs which he wanted kept secret until publication, and dropped them into the forme himself. He sold his shares in The Eagle when he started The Argus ; but subsequently, thoroughly discouraged with his experience as a pro- prietor and editor of a daily paper, he sold The Argus for a mere song, which was then incorporated with another paper in Brooklyn, which is still in existence. His pecuniary loss was enormous at the time ; but by a singular turn of fortune the buildings which he purchased for the production of The Argus became of greatly enhanced value, owing to their proximity to the City Hall and Law Courts ; and upon selling the property he more than recouped his loss on the newspaper venture.

Mr William Porter Ward was to some extent a protege of Mr Barnes, as he joined the firm, in the first place, as one of the office staff. Recognising in him the supreme quality of mastership of detail, not only in stock keeping and purchasing, but in all matters of finance and accounts, he was glad to make him a partner, and to share with him the re- sponsibility of success. He said to me upon one occasion when in London, Mr Ward could manage the Bank of England.

CHAPTER III

I get Tired of Travelling — Resume my Road Work for a brief Time — Engaged by Mr Van Duzer to represent his Firm in England — The s.s. Russia — Cunarders in 1867 — Reach Liverpool, and train for London — The Langham Hotel — Look around on Sunday — Settle down to Work — A Copyright Claim — My First Law-suit — My Wife rejoins me — Madame Tussaud's — Visit America — Partnership dissolved — Begin Business on my own Account.

HAVING now reached my twenty-sixth year, I became quite tired of travelling, which involved long absences from home, so I sought an interview with Mr Barnes in reference to my future position. I explained to him that I had been travelling five years, and had visited all important places in Canada and the United States in the interests of his firm, and that I desired to have a post assigned me in the advertising depart- ment at headquarters. He listened attentively to what I said, declared that he sympathised with my wishes, but pointed out that there was no vacancy in the establishment where I could be suitably placed, and he promised that if I would be patient, the time would come when I should get a position in the office, and an interest in the business also. I therefore resumed my road work.

On returning from my next journey one of the partners told me that Mr S. R. Van Duzer, a well- known wholesale druggist in New York, with a branch

3°

With John Bull and Jonathan

business in London, England, had called that day to ask if they had anyone they could recommend, as an advertising and sales manager, for his English branch, who could sail at once. My name was men- tioned. Mr Barnes was consulted upon the question ; then I was interviewed by Mr Van Duzer ; the result was that I was engaged to go to London immediately. Terms were embodied in a provisional agreement, and I sailed with Mr Van Duzer for England, i3th November 1867, on the Cunard s.s. Russia, which was at that time considered the greyhound of the Atlantic.

The best Atlantic passage of thirty years ago was made by the City of Berlin, which reached Queens- town from New York, in October 1875, in seven days, fifteen hours — the distance being 2820 miles. This record was beaten in 1882 by the Alaska, which covered the same distance in six days, twenty-three hours.

Here I must pause a moment to mention that ten days prior to my sailing for England, my wife gave birth at Boston, Mass., to her first-born child, after- wards christened Pearl.

An ocean voyage to England at that time was regarded as quite an event. The travellers were few, and limited to those seeking health in another climate, and men engaged in business. The voyager for recreation or pleasure was an exception. I remember the scenes in the Cunard Dock, New York, when we embarked. Members of parting families seemed overcome with grief and apprehension. Now, although

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moist eyes and a stray tear are witnessed, smiles and cheers predominate, and people entrust their most precious of human treasures, their best beloved, to strongly-made ships, experienced and skilful captains, with a feeling of confidence, which is a great relief.

The steamer Russia was a very different class of vessel to those of the present day. The first-class dining-saloon was in the after-part of the ship. There were no state-rooms much above the water-line, no music-room, nor lounge, nor smoking-room. Those who wished to smoke had to go on deck, near the smoke-stack for warmth, or go into the " Fiddle," a deck-room amidship. There were coils of rope here, and hard wood benches, and not more than ten could enter at a time.

On the voyage there were about sixty saloon pas- sengers. The food was wholesome, and the service excellent, but no attempt was made at an elaborate menu. There were no electric bells to call the stewards to your room ; no light in state-room, except a fixed lamp set in the partition, and controlled from outside. Stewards were called by shouting. No steering by machinery — the enormous steering-wheel being hand-worked by two seamen. No speaking- tubes — the orders "Port" or " Starboard" were passed by word of mouth to the man at the helm — and sails were spread to supplement the steam power.

We reached Liverpool on the morning of the tenth day from New York. Proceeding to the railway station, Lime Street, we booked at once for London. At that time luggage was placed on the roof of the

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With John Bull and Jonathan

carriage in which one travelled. There was then a six hours' journey to London.

On arrival we drove to the Langham Hotel, Portland Place, at that time the principal hotel in London, and favoured with the largest American patronage. The hotel, however, was not to be compared in appointments or service with any large hotel of any important city in America, or with the "Langham" itself of to-day. All the guests were lighted to bed with candles. The halls, staircases, and quarters were bitterly cold, and there was no heat- ing apparatus of any kind. There were grate fires in the reception and reading rooms. I never re- membered to have suffered from cold to the same extent indoors ; the chilliness of the atmosphere went right to the bones. The coffee-room would compare favourably with the chief dining-room of a Boston or New York hotel at that day. In the street at night I was astonished at the brilliancy of the public houses ; I had never before seen such miles of plate- glass and such blazing gas chandeliers in any part of America. The four-wheeled cabs and hansoms were exactly of the type of the present day, except for the addition of rubber tyres now.

Next morning I was curious to discover what an English breakfast was like. Before ordering, I watched other guests settling down to that meal. I was interested to find that there was no variation in the order given — coffee (or tea), with toast, bacon and eggs, was the cry of each. The eggs were brought in either poached on the bacon, or in egg- c 33

With John Bull and Jonathan

cups, with the shells unbroken, not broken into a glass as was the invariable practice in America. I was astonished to see the egg thus eaten out of the eggshell. On asking for ice water, I was informed "no ice supplied."

That beverage is an absolute essential in every part of the United States, and is immediately served at each meal — a jug of ice water is always sent to your hotel bedroom in answer to the first bell you ring. In contrast with the urgent thirst habit which prevails in America, one ceases to be thirsty in England, and rarely cares to drink except with meals. I doubt if the average Englishman drinks a gallon of water, pure and simple, in a whole year. I am not able to give the reason, but pos- sibly the moisture of the climate allays thirst. An American lady, the wife of an Englishman, told me this year [1905] that her father could not be persuaded to visit England because he had heard that ice water was never served in hotels unless expressly ordered, and the ice charged for as an " extra."

Iced champagne is an American innovation ; no one in England served wine iced twenty years ago. I have known Americans decline iced champagne during this period as " not English." To-day this is the universal custom.

Another surprise was the sideboard, on which were placed huge joints of cold meats of every kind, and I noticed that some of the guests, after eating their eggs and bacon, finished up with a slice of cold meat, either by helping themselves, or pointing out to the

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With John Bull and Jonathan

carver the particular cut which they wanted. There was also oatmeal porridge for all who liked. Of bread there were only two kinds — white and brown ; while in America there were never fewer than four or five, including hot biscuits and Johnny cake, and, in the winter months, there would be buckwheat cakes and fried hominy. I soon followed the lead set me, and ordered bacon and eggs. I am bound to say I liked the breakfast, and, so far as breakfast food is concerned, became an Englishman at once, and have remained one.

I sauntered early out, and found my way to West- minster, looking with strange delight on the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and the Bridge. On this walk I learned my first lesson as to the difference of dress on each side of the Atlantic. I was wearing a soft-felt hat and a military cloak, instead of a top or stiff - brimmed hat, and a tight - fitting topcoat. People eyed me curiously, and made comments.

We attended the Tabernacle at Newington Butts for morning service, and were able to hear the simple oratory of the Rev. Charles Spurgeon, and were thrilled with the force of delivery which he displayed. There was not the slightest apparent attempt to produce a studied effect.

In proof of the immense popularity of this preacher, 30,000 copies of his sermons were sold weekly during his lifetime; and in 1905 20,000 copies of his books and sermons were still sold every week.

In the evening I went to hear the Rev. J. M. Bellew at Bloomsbury Chapel, who had a consider-

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able reputation at the time as a pulpit orator ; but I considered that Spurgeon had by far the better pulpit manner, and was a more interesting preacher.

As soon as the shops were opened on Monday morning I bought a bowler hat and topcoat, and found that my appearance did not attract any further special attention.

Mr Van Duzer and I proceeded early to his ware- house in Hoi born. I carefully went through the books, and at the end of a week he asked me my opinion. I replied : " If it is your pleasure I will complete the provisional agreement as originally con- templated." This was done, and at the end of thirty days I was left in full charge of the business. Mr Van Duzer then gave me full freedom of action to conduct an active advertising campaign, and soon after he sailed for New York.

Mrs Richards and our daughter Pearl joined me three months later.

At the end of two years I had acquired a partner- ship, with a-third interest in profits : that was accord- ing to the agreement at the start, and was contingent upon certain results being accomplished.

The style of the firm now became Van Duzer and Richards.

That people in London are quick to discern differ- ences in dress was again amusingly illustrated by a little adventure Mrs Richards and I had. At Easter 1868 we paid a visit to the famous exhibition of Madame Tussaud, then located in the Portman Rooms, Baker Street. There was an enormous crowd of visitors,

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and I noticed that, as we passed along, people pointed and talked, and there was a good deal of laughing. I did not suspect at first that we were the object of their curiosity. But the interest and excitement continued from room to room, so I asked the door- keeper what was exciting the curiosity and mirth of the people. He at once replied: "The lady is wearing a green veil over her hat and face, which, in London, is just equivalent to shaking a red rag in the face of a bull, and suggests that you are members of the Fenian Association." This was about the time of the Fenian outbreak in London ; and we decided to retire from the building, for fear of provoking something more serious.

I must not omit to mention the little coffee shops on some of the thoroughfares, where I saw, for the first time, food being cooked in the front window in plain sight, the food emitting supposed savoury odours likely to whet the edge of one's appetite. I refer to the fried fish and cook shops, in which fried fish, eels, pork chops and onions, sausages and potatoes, and batter pudding, were thus exhibited, simmering in hot grease. Little tin labels would be displayed on the several metal dishes inscribed as follows : — " Sausage and Plain, 2d. Sausage and Chips, 3d." etc. etc. — the "plain" and "chips" meaning potatoes baked or fried. Then there were the shops for "cooked meats," where a carver in white apron and cap was waiting to serve customers with slices of cold ham, beef and tongue — all sold by weight. This enabled one to take home to his own table cooked and

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carved meat, just as one would call at the baker's for a loaf of bread or cake. Many small families, having limited cooking arrangements, send out joints of meat and meat-pies, also puddings and tarts, pre- pared for the oven in their own pans and basins, to be baked at the baker's shop, a small fee being charged. I also came across the " Muffin and Crumpet " man canvassing in residential streets in London, attracting attention by ringing at intervals a little " tea-bell," and shouting " Hot Muffins and Crumpets ! " The foregoing are London institutions which exist to-day. All were new and strange to me.

In Boston, Mass., many families send out to the public baker the pots of beans and brown bread, to be baked for their standard Sunday morning breakfast.

I had to come to London to see milk served at residences by a milkman or woman, walking, wearing a wooden yoke on the shoulders, with an eight-gallon tin can suspended from each end — the costume of the milkman being the old-fashioned flowing white cotton smock, with the collar and cuff and shoulder portion gathered in pleats. Then there were to be seen goats and asses led about to residences of certain customers, and a half pint or more milked direct from the creatures — meaning "the real thing; no adulteration." This was for delicate infants, and prescribed by the family doctor.

In London I first saw the Royal Arms, with the words " By Special Appointment," emblazoned over the shop entrances of those holding Royal

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Warrants. I was not prepared to see, but I did see in Portland Road, the following : — " Purveyor of Asses' Milk to the Royal Family."

I soon observed the friendly terms existing between the London omnibus driver and conductor, who always address each other as " Bill." If Driver " Bill " wished to communicate with Conductor " Bill," he swishes the lash of his whip to the rear of the bus, and lightly touches " Bill," who stands mounted on the " monkey-board." This " board " has been abandoned since the introduction upon all London omnibuses of the spiral staircase to the roof in place of a ladder, and "garden-seats" in place of the old " knife -board." Now all passengers sit facing the horses instead of sideways. The box-seats alongside of the driver are also with- drawn. Conductor "Bill" mounts the steps, and shouts : " I say, Bill." These messages to and fro are not always intelligible to the passenger. I heard an amusing explanation given by the driver to a passenger on the following message being shouted to him : — " Woman on horseback." Whereupon the driver gave the whip to his steeds. " What does he mean?" said the passenger. "Well you see, sir, that lidy who just got down gave Bill a half-a-sovering for a sixpence."

Taking up the business of an omnibus driver would seem to be a life appointment in London ; and once in the front seat, a driver very rarely abandons the reins again. In the old style of bus there were two seats provided on each side of the driver for passengers, and these were always regarded by strangers as the best seats for viewing London, as

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well as hearing the most amusing accounts of men, women, and things from the driver. An American visitor in such a position is always impressed by the pleasant chatter which he hears, and the entire absence of oaths, or any kind of swearing. The drivers are very fond of chaffing one another as they draw up side by side in a block ; or they make un- pleasant remarks about some fellow-driver's handling of the reins. As the fashion of the bus changes, so will the character of the language used. Thus one would say : " Hallo ! old Garden Roller ! " — being a refer- ence to the garden-seats with which all the busses are fitted. The reply would probably be: " Oo yer getting at ? " or " Wodder you think ? " An angry ex- pression which I have often heard is : " Cum orf hit!" While others expressive of contempt have been : "'E ain't no class ! " and " Corl 'im a gent ! "

Our first home in London was a furnished house near Kennington Gate, and here we resided until January 1869. In 1870 I took the lease of a house in Upper Woburn Place, Tavistock Square, for a dwelling. During our residence here three sons were born : Edward Cowles, in 1870, who died in his second year ; John Morgan, and Nelson.

During the first three or four years of our residence in London we made few English acquaintances, but some of our American friends and relatives were frequently passing through London, and called. I gave my whole time, early and late, to the work, in which I was greatly interested.

Almost the first American visitor to come was Mr

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Brent Good, a member of the firm of Demas Barnes and Co. He spent two or three weeks in London. Since that visit Mr Good has crossed the Atlantic sixty times, and has been a constant visitor, up to the present year. We have had a most happy social and business association for many years. In 1872 Mr and Mrs Demas Barnes came over to England on their first visit, when he renewed a proposition previously made in several letters, that I should rejoin him in business in New York.

I had quite a flood of visitors in 1873, which in- cluded Mr and Mrs Barnes once more. This year, soon after the death of our son, Mrs Van Duzer invited my wife, Pearl, and myself to pay them a visit in New York, which we accepted, this being our first sight of America since 1867-8.

The London business continued to improve from year to year, and about 1875, as the result of negotia- tions with Mr Van Duzer, I renounced my interest in the goodwill and partnership upon certain terms ; and taking newly-built premises at the corner of Great Russell Street and Charlotte Street, Blooms- bury, called Great Russell Buildings, began business in my own name.

When I first began to advertise in England, any novelty in the way of presenting one's business was then, as now, regarded as desirable, and I was desirous of making an experiment which I had some con- fidence would be successful. This was soon after the death of Artemus Ward, the American humorist who had contributed a series of articles to Punch,

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which were afterwards collected in a small volume, published by Mr J. Camden Hotten of Piccadilly. I wrote to Mr Hotten, and asked permission to make extracts from some of Artemus Ward's articles as an advertisement pamphlet, and explained that I wanted to cut freely from the chapters, and inter- leave the same with advertisements of the proprietary articles in which I was interested. His reply to my letter was in the following words : — " You have my hearty consent to do exactly what you have stated in your letter." Upon this I proceeded, and possibly exceeded what Mr Hotten intended. I printed two whole chapters of Artemus Ward — his visit to the British Museum and to the Tower of London — and also gave extracts from several of the other articles. I went to press with the pamphlet to the extent of over 100,000 copies, which I pro- ceeded to distribute amongst the public. To my surprise, within a week of issue I received a letter from the solicitors of Mr Hotten, calling upon me for damages, and insisting that I should immediately withdraw the pamphlet from circulation. After a vain attempt to see Mr Hotten I compromised the matter by paying ^50 as damages and destroying such of the pamphlets as had not been circulated. Mr Hotten founded these proceedings upon the fact that, while I asked only for permission to make ex- tracts, what I had really done was to quote two entire chapters. Since then I have acted more cautiously.

Within a year after this incident I was waited

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upon by a firm of advertising agents, who made proposals to me for a certain space in a selected list of English, Irish, and Scottish papers, the con- dition of acceptance being that there was to be a uniform price throughout all the papers. The posi- tion of each advertisement was clearly stated, and the space they were to occupy, and a contract em- bodying these points was drawn up and signed. At the end of the quarter, on presenting their account, I found that they had inserted the advertisements in all of the cheap and unimportant papers, and had omitted to do so in papers named of large circulation and important standing. The price agreed upon being an average one, I considered that I was right in refusing to pay until the advertisements had ap- peared in each of the mediums agreed upon, a clause being inserted in my agreement to this effect, and that there should be no exemption unless publication of that particular newspaper had ceased. I was immediately served with a writ, and by representing I was a stranger, and likely to leave the country, a lien was placed on my banking account. The manager of the London and Westminster Bank told me what had taken place, but courteously informed me that he would, nevertheless, continue to honour my cheques. By giving bonds, however, I had the order removed within twenty-four hours. At the trial of the action the matter was referred by the judge for examination of the papers, and eventually I was ordered to pay contract price for every paper in which the advertisement appeared, notwithstanding

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the proviso that the appearance in any one was de- pendent upon the same advertisement appearing in all, which, the referee held, was what the plaintiff could not possibly carry out. I therefore paid con- tract price for what was inserted, and the law costs. These were the only two instances which occurred in my advertising career, during thirty-eight years, in which I had any dispute with an owner of a copyright, or an advertising agent.

This firm of agents were quite unknown by adver- tisers, and ceased to exist more than thirty years ago. My relations with advertising agents in England have been of the most satisfactory character. My first business was done through Mr Richard Crossley in 1867. On his death, two years later, his son, Mr Charles R. Crossley, succeeded him — a man of my own age ; and Messrs Crossley & Co. have placed the chief part of my newspaper advertising to this day.

My experience has been that it is unwise to yield to any temptation in the way of very low prices, and offers of exceptional advantages, offered by firms whose standing will not bear the test of careful refer- ences and inquiry : in the case of agents with small capital, and printers with insufficient means, the result is nearly always disappointing. The least delay in payment to the papers causes the advertisement to be left out by the publisher ; and in printing, if workman- ship and paper are not up to sample and agreement, they are unable to bear the loss involved by a return of goods, and beg for mercy.

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The very reasonable practice of the advertiser, to turn to good account any event of the day, whereby to bring into further notice any speciality, has amus- ing illustration in September 1905 at the conclusion of the Treaty of Portsmouth between Russia and Japan. The pen manufacturers from every corner of the earth addressed samples of their wares to the Plenipotenti- aries, each hoping that his particular handiwork might be immortalised as the pen that was mightier than the Far Eastern sword. High diplomacy has happily proved equal to the task of contriving a way out of the difficulty by using QUILLS.

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CHAPTER IV

Proprietary Business and Advertising — English Editors and their Ad- vertising Columns — Sale of Plantation Bitters — A Cute American — River Scenery — A Puzzling Advertisement — Advertising Fire- works—Taxing Proprietary Articles — Pirating English Medicines — A New Fascination — Mr Lever's View — United States for Machinery — England for Cabinet Work — American Boots and Shoes.

To more clearly explain the nature of the business which I had surrendered, and was now taking up on my own account, I should state that this was what is known as a Proprietary one — the results of which depended upon the intrinsic merit of the article, real usefulness, and publicity. My chief training in the United States was the preparation of advertise- ments, and the issue of advertisement literature as belonged to the publication department of such a business. Following out this experience, I set to work in London on a poster for wall space, and devised the first sixteen-sheet double demy poster ever seen in England in connection with a proprietary article. My next work was to endeavour to bring London and Provincial newspapers to allow display advertisements such as were appearing in American journals, and to give further facilities to large advertisers. This was a difficult task, and a sad disappointment, so strongly were the newspaper pro- prietors ensconced behind the barriers of what they

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considered to be the proper and seemly method of English advertising. The Illustrated London News was the first to grant the privilege of inserting an illustrated advertisement with blocks. No daily paper would at that time accept "copy" which they did not first edit, and in some important papers no ad- vertisement was accepted without prepayment being made. In The Times the form of setting up an advertisement was subject to many restrictions. A repetition of the same words line after line would not be received, but the regulation was insisted upon that each such line should be followed by explana- tory matter. No two lines exactly alike could ap- pear in any advertisement, even though a column in length, and costing ^20 per insertion. In illustra- tion, if you wanted a column advertisement about cocoa, as soon as the word appeared in a line there must follow different explanatory or descriptive words, as " Grateful, Comforting." Nothing whatever in the way of display was allowable. Enormous changes have occurred since this time, as The Times> as well as all other London journals, morning and evening, now admit display blocks of the largest and boldest character, and know their value. The old-fashioned system was regulated by the conservative taste of the editor ; and not with a view to fall in with the wishes of the advertiser. Now that policy is exactly reversed. The wishes of the advertiser regulate the character of the display made in the advertising columns. In conjunction with another American firm I believe I was the first to engage a full ad-

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vertisement column in a single issue of a London daily, and a whole back page of several London weeklies. I do remember that Messrs Pears, Bryant and May, and Epps did occupy the back pages of Punch occasionally. This was no novelty in the United States at that day, nor is this now in England. Full pages in both dailies and weeklies are in constant evidence.

A great deal depends upon the way in which an article is advertised whether the object desired is attained. An amusing illustration of this came under my own notice. A friend lost his umbrella at church, and advertised in the usual way, saying the finder would be rewarded ; but this was quite a failure : the umbrella was not forthcoming. Taking the advice of a journalist, he advertised again, but in a different form. The new advertisement read as follows: — " If the gentleman who was seen to take a silver-handled

umbrella from St Church on Sunday attaches

any value to the Christian character he has hitherto borne, he will return the article immediately to No.

Street. He is known." Within three days

twelve umbrellas were sent to his house, several with notes — apologising for the inadvertence.

Before the early seventies, in the United States, posters in colours or of large dimensions were almost unknown, and the only coloured posters which I can remember were those issued by the managers of circus companies. Commercial posters rarely ex- ceeded a two-sheet double demy, with words in black letters on a white ground. There was then no system

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of protected stations, and posting was done with the knowledge that possibly the poster would be covered up within twenty - four hours. Posting was then usually done at night, to avoid the possibility of encountering an opponent.

A common form of posting in the United States was called " Gutter Snipes." These were composed of narrow strips of paper, from two to three feet in length, which would be found in a morning lining the gutters the entire length of Broadway from the Water-works to the Battery.

The Bill posters of England at that time were greatly in advance of those practising in the United States. The " Snipes " in the gutter would probably disappear about midday ; but before that hour every foot passenger, and everyone riding along the thoroughfare, would have read, and remembered what was advertised.

London hoardings at the present day exhibit picture posters which have been designed by many of the most eminent painters of the day, including a number of Royal Academicians ; at the same time, the fact should be borne in mind that these pictures were not originally intended for advertisements. Many of the large protected hoardings in London thorough- fares measure from 300 to 400 feet in length. In fact, as soon as ever a new building site is taken, or a street improvement is entered upon, an advertise- ment contractor will at once secure the hoarding space to let to advertisers ; and the contract is usually based upon a fixed price per sheet per week. D 49

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" Art " in advertising is, therefore, a correct expres- sion to use in describing the artistic work carried out in the advertisements which cover street hoardings. The showcards also which are seen in shop windows bear the hall mark of high artistic merit. I have never seen in the United States, or in any city upon the Continent, any posters which can compare with the artistic elegance of those which are displayed upon hoardings in the streets of the metropolis. This survey also includes shop windows, hotel walls, omnibuses, street cars, railway approaches, and rail- way stations. The art of designing a poster is worthy of the highest gifts of a modern painter.

Bill-posting contractors of the present day now form an important section of the advertising trade, and have a very large capital invested in the business.

The income derived by omnibus and tramway companies from their advertising spaces forms a large part of their revenue, and swells the dividends paid to the shareholders.

At the present moment search is being made for some metal other than iron for display signs which would be lighter for the omnibuses to carry.

In the street Omnibus traffic there is room for great improvement in the indication of routes which they carry on their sides. London is probably the only city in the world which gives the names of public- houses as the starting - places and termini of these public vehicles : the Angel, Mother Red Cap, Elephant and Castle, and Swiss Cottage are only a few which may be quoted as examples in point.

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Much amusement is often enjoyed by strangers at hearing the manner in which conductors shout out the names of well-known places : thus the Bank is always " Benk," Westminster is "Minster" or "Habbey," and Victoria Station never anything else but " Toria."

As to the value of Advertising, an interesting illus- tration recurs to mind. When in the service of Demas Barnes & Co. I was among other things advertising and selling " Plantation Bitters," which is a specific for fever, ague, and other ills arising from climatic influences. I was in Boston at the time, and, having full liberty in the matter of adver- tising, I ordered column and half-column advertise- ments in all the principal daily and weekly papers in the city, and the neighbourhood, This was kept up for a month, and I remained on the spot to watch the result, all the time canvassing the trade to obtain orders. At the end of the month I was so discouraged by what orders came in that I wrote to Mr Barnes, telling him that, as all my previous experiences ap- peared to be contradicted by orders in this case, I was of opinion that the article advertised was not likely to be successful " Down East," and suggested that I should cease advertising. This happened to be in the beginning of July, and the answer I received from Mr Barnes was practically in the following words : — ' You will please renew the advertisements, taking double the amount of space in every medium now under contract in Boston. Please also arrange with the authorities having charge of the illuminations on

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the evening of Independence Day on Boston Common, to be allowed to display three large pieces containing the name of the article you are advertising, at an expense of ^150 to ^200. I am in no way dis- couraged by what you have accomplished. In about four weeks the State of Massachusetts will require 'Plantation Bitters.'"

His prediction was absolutely correct, and I was able before the month was out to take important orders from all the leading houses in the trade ; and was welcomed by certain establishments where a month previously I had almost had the door closed in my face.

This article was first largely advertised throughout the United States in the fall of 1861, and rapidly became the success of the day, because of the enormous amount of placarding given to the cabalistic characters "S — T — 1860 — X," which was a description of the medicine. Those strange letters and figures stared upon the people from wall and fence and tree, in every leading town throughout the United States. They were painted on the rocks of the Hudson River to such an extent that the attention of the Legislature was drawn to the fact, and a law was passed to prevent the further disfigurement of river scenery. Naturally, comment and inquiry arose, and people were invited to make guesses as to what the letters and figures meant. The result was that newspapers teemed with attempted solutions, some of which were very amusing. Thus one was " Started Trade in 1860 with $10," but no one hit upon the correct

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solution. The fact was that the basis of Plantation Bitters was " St Croix Rum," and the casks in which this rum was imported were marked " S — T " for "Saint"; then the year of importation 1860 — and then " X," the last letter of the word " Croix " — which meant that it was St Croix Rum of the vintage of 1860. That was a device of Mr Barnes to advertise the mixture and puzzle the people.

No article at that period ever received the same amount of publicity and achieved so gigantic a sale. "Plantation Bitters" was billed in the Sutlers' de- partments in all the armies of the North, and implicit faith grew up in the specific. The outlay on advertis- ing was enormous, but the results were prodigious. In a single year the sale ran up to thousands of dozens. The Bitters were placed in corrugated dark amber glass bottles, resembling the old plantation log cabin ; and the labels and printed matter sur- rounding the bottles were the special work of Mr Barnes. In fact, every word which was written, every advertisement used, and every showcard pro- duced, were under his direction, or suggested and revised by him. This illustrates the thoroughness with which he entered into the business which fell into his hands.

The Government of the United States was not slow to appreciate the importance of the trade which had grown up in the proprietary medicines, and during the Civil War a stamp tax was levied on all advertised medicines which produced a large income, and was continued until 1884. In that year a committee [of

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which Mr Brent Good, of the firm of Demas Barnes, was a member] succeeded in inducing the Congress to abolish the impost ; but a similar tax was imposed during the Spanish War, which was abolished when the campaign terminated. All proprietary articles, as well as perfumery, were included in the list of articles so taxed.

Proprietors were allowed, contrary to English regulations, to get up designs of their own for stamp duty, which, of course, had to be adapted to the size of the article sold. The stamp used by the firm of Messrs Demas Barnes bore his own portrait, names of the various articles controlled, and was printed on bank-note paper, being engraved by the American Bank-note Company. The Government received a fee of 1000 dollars (^200) for engrav- ing the plate, but made no charge for printing.

Many popular English medicines were imitated and sold in the United States at this time, having a forged English stamp thereon. I personally called the attention of the Board of Inland Revenue at Somerset House to this fact, and furnished them with examples of the counterfeits so used. The reply I received was that the matter did not concern the English Board of Revenue ; that if the pro- prietors of such forged articles were interested they should take action, and the Board would thereby be protected. One medicine so pirated was Holloway's Ointment and Pills. The sale became very large, and the original proprietor has now lost his sole control of the copyright in America.

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In the United States there is no prejudice against the advertising of medicines ; but at one time, in England, there was an apparent misconception as to the value of proprietary articles which are advertised ; many holding the opinion that the advertisement sells the article, and not the merit of the medicine.

Those who have been engaged in advertising campaigns know that nothing is more wasteful, or would lead more quickly to financial ruin, than a large expenditure upon a worthless article. No proprietary article has any lasting value, nor en- riches the inventor, unless possessing undoubted merit, and which, in a marked degree, accomplishes the purpose stated. No single purchase would repay the proprietor of an article, but the renewed purchases after use ; and the recommendation of those who have bought once, creates the demand, and ensures success. This is the history of every patent medicine and proprietary article of renown in the United States and Great Britain.

Out of the thousands and tens of thousands of proprietary articles issued in different parts of the world, there are said to be really less than 1000 which are successful ; and possibly those upon which great fortunes have been made may be counted upon the fingers of both hands.

The method of judging the value of a new invention is, having made a certain outlay on advertising, to mark the indications of results in various directions, and if they are not up to a particular standard, then the result is not satis-

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factory — either the public do not require the article, or the advertising has not been properly arranged. Misplaced efforts of the latter class would enrich the newspaper proprietor and printer, but beggar the owner of the article. Things which are most largely advertised are usually well worth buying.

An expert would undertake to definitely pronounce as to the success or failure of any article advertised provided the following facts were submitted to him : — Evidence as to the actual merits ; the advertisement which is being placed ; the extent of advertising ; the papers used ; the districts covered ; the actual amount of money expended during the first three months ; a correct list of each sale effected ; and the total of actual sales at the end of three months. Though the result might appear to contradict every possibility of success, an expert would not be led to any false conclusion. I should be glad if advertising could be reduced to an exact science.

After an experience of over fifty years I consider that advertising as a profession is the most fascinat- ing form of speculation in existence. Instead of scouring the columns of the morning paper for the latest Stock Exchange news, or the final betting, you can speculate upon the deliveries from the postman's bag, and sum up the result of your advertising. These always vary in their character, and are never for two days alike. In the experience of many advertisers the result for a week may turn out so small that one is almost driven to the conclusion that the public believed one had retired from

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business, and yet on the eighth day an avalanche of orders may descend upon the firm. Occasionally, after doubling and trebling the advertisement orders, the first month's returns would suggest that you were killing the article, and yet after that the harvest comes — perhaps.

I remember a good story told upon one occasion by Mr W. H. Lever of Sunlight Soap fame. After an enormous struggle with the public by advertising, Mr Lever has landed himself at Port Sunlight, probably the most successful man of the day in this particular line of business. Soon after commencing his advertising scheme, and occupying large spaces in the newspapers, which were attracting much attention and with satisfactory results, he found upon his counting-house desk one morning, a telegram signed with a name he did not recognise, asking him for half-an-hour's interview the next day, as he wished to consult him upon a very important question. The request was so unique that he resolved to give the man an interview, and he replied in the affirmative, fixing the hour of one the next day.

Mr Lever was then in the habit of occupying a workman's cottage, near the works for his own convenience, during the week, his private residence being at Bolton ; and he and his wife spent from Monday to Friday in the cottage at Port Sunlight. This place was only partly furnished. The draw- ing-room windows were fitted with curtains to make people believe that the room was occupied, but was

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used as a receptacle for empty boxes. The only furnished rooms were the breakfast-room, a bedroom, and the servant's room. At one o'clock Mr Lever went to the cottage for lunch, and in the course of the meal the door bell rang, and the mysterious stranger was announced. He was at once shown into the drawing-room, amongst the empty packing- cases, and word was given that Mr Lever would see him in a few moments. After apologising for keeping him waiting, Mr Lever invited him to state as briefly as possible what his business was. The stranger had a very melancholy expression on his face, and evidently the appearance of the drawing- room had caused this, as he had only a packing- case to sit upon. In reply he managed to blurt out this sentence : "Mr Lever, how soon after a man begins to advertise ought he to expect handsome results? I have been advertising now for six months, and nothing has happened, except a demand from the printer and the newspaper, for payments of their bills." Treating the question half seriously, and to have another jest with him, Mr Lever replied : " We have been advertising for a very considerable time ; look around this room and see the condition we are in, and we are still waiting for orders to come." The effect of his reply was of so crushing a nature that Mr Lever took pity on his visitor, and added: "After all, I cannot give you any data. If you have a good article, go on advertising, ad- vertising, advertising ; printing, printing, printing ; and paying, paying, paying."

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To make a comparison of the effect of advertising in the United States and Great Britain is very diffi- cult. Great Britain had a population of 41,609,091 souls in 1901, and possesses 9500 newspapers, besides journals and magazines, in which to advertise. The United States contained a population of 76,000,000 souls in 1900, and 23,265 newspapers. I consider that advertising in Great Britain should produce as prompt and satisfactory results, in pro- portion, as in the United States.

With regard to the advertising of an English article in the United States, or an American article in England, many points have to be considered. After an experience of nearly forty years, and possessing exact knowledge with regard to all American articles introduced into this country, either by means of advertising or other processes, I am convinced that no American article can succeed in Great Britain in any direct competition with an English article of the same character, quality, and price. The American articles which have succeeded in Great Britain are not great in number, and in every instance with which I am acquainted have contained some element of originality and superiority which contrasted favourably for them with the English article, or were entirely new in idea and purpose.

Take, for example, American furniture, which has been largely imported into this country on account of cheapness. With the exception of roll-top desks, letter-file cabinets, and rocking-chairs — all of which

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were novel and also new ideas — nothing has suc- ceeded. Advertising American sideboards, sofas, and the like have been condemned as dear at any price, and their exportation has yielded a loss to the shippers. The reason for this is that they could not compare, in quality and finish, even with the cheapest British-made articles. American furni- ture is glued where it ought to be morticed, and nailed where screws should be used, and nothing whatever carefully finished, except the portion visible to the eye. The wrong side of any piece of furniture is seldom even planed, and shows plainly the teeth of the saw.

A surprising success, however, has been made in this country with American boots and shoes. This may seem contradictory to my statement already made about the superiority of English products. The machinery which is employed in boot and shoe making by all the large manufacturers in Great Britain is of American invention. The machine boot-making industry in the United States is very large and important, and the Americans, when they discovered that English boots were being made with the help of American machinery, attempted to sell their completed footgear in this country. At first the experiment was tried in a very small way ; but the success was immediate and enormous, and for the reason that much neater shaped boots and shoes, and better-fitting articles, were produced. There is no longer any necessity for a person in this country, however unshapely the

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natural foot may be, to imagine that he cannot be fitted with ready - made boots. The American Company supplies every size of boot and shoe, with such minute gradations that "made to order" is no longer necessary. The best-fitting and best- working boots and shoes now worn in England are of American make.

Since writing the foregoing, I find that the English Consul at Boston, Mass., enters his protest in his annual report (1904) against the large importation of American boots into England. " That England should import in one year from Boston alone," he says, " 5 30,01 5 pairs of boots and shoes, of a value of ,£239,097, whilst Scotland took 59,334 pairs, valued ,£26,526, and Ireland 82,549 pairs, of a value of £"27,446, is a matter for the consideration of the British shoe industry. Why cannot this demand be supplied by British manufacturers?"

American labour - saving inventions have always been successful in England, either as applied to domestic use, tools for mechanics, printing processes, or agricultural machinery. American sweets, canned fruits, vegetables, salmon, have had an enormous sale.

An American visiting England for the first time is always impressed with the admirable quality and handsome finish of every article of furniture, from the Windsor kitchen chair to the most delicate inlaid cab- inets, ornamental tables, or secretaires. In the matter of sideboards, no country in the world can produce such examples of the beautiful as the early English side-

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board and cabinet— and the history of English furni- ture will prove this.

On my first visit to The Times offices, when I was courteously shown over the premises by Mr Moberly Bell, opening the door of the machinery department, with a wave of the hand he exclaimed : " All American ! "

The growth and improvement in regard to news- papers during the period under review are pheno- menal. The only London evening newspaper in 1867 and 1870 was The Echo, which was the first to be brought out at the price of a halfpenny. There was a serious struggle for existence at first, and the strongest possibility of a failure, until Mr Albert Grant came to the rescue. At that time he was considered a financial king, and the capital he ad- vanced caused a rapid rise in the circulation of the paper until a position was secured. After a fitful life The Echo ceased publication this year — 1905. There are in London to-day four evening penny papers, and three halfpenny papers, and all have important circulations. There are six halfpenny daily papers, all well supported, both as to circulation and advertisement income. The Daily Mail leads the way. The Express, Leader, Chronicle, Daily News have more recently entered the field, the last two being penny papers for many years previously.

Another class of publication has come into being during the last ten or fifteen years with which the advertiser has to reckon, and with advantage to him- self and the publisher. The circulation of such penny

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journals as Tit - Bits, Answers, M.A.P., T. P's Weekly, and others, have become enormous, and command the highest rates for advertisements. The popularity of this class of publication seems boundless. Mr T. P. O'Connor, M.P., was the founder of, and is the editor of, both M.A.P. and T. P.'s Weekly, and has turned to most profitable account his remarkable journalistic genius and his wealth of ideas in Mainly About People (M.A.P.}. The amount of literary work Mr O'Connor can accomplish week by week, and yet give attention to his Parliamentary duties, is one of the marvels of English journalism and authorship. Mr O'Connor is an Irishman who has had an American experience and training — and then, too, he has married an American lady. Mrs O'Connor has won distinction in many branches of journalism, and as author-actress as well. As a reader of the plantation negro dialect she is without a rival. I had the pleasure of hearing her read from Thomas Nelson Page's " Massa Chan," at the residence of the late Dr Parker at Hampstead, on the occasion of a large reception given to Henry Ward Beecher during his last visit to England. The praise she received upon that occasion would have delighted the author. All her work has been taken up and accomplished from pure love, and as recreation and pastime.

In illustrated journalism in 1867 The Illustrated London News had no rival. On the breaking out of the Franco-German War the Graphic appeared, and soon became a popular success. Then came Black and White, The Pictorial World, the several

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illustrated ladies' papers, The Sketch ; and, more re- cently, we have the Sphere and Taller, both of the latter under the wise editorship and direction of Mr Clement Shorter, than whom there is no more accom- plished and able editor of illustrated journalism living. Mr Shorter had previously the editorial management of the Illustrated London News, the proprietors of which started The Sketch, which was projected by him. He, therefore, took up the The Sphere and Taller with ripe experience. Many said, as new illus- trated papers appeared, "they cannot live"; "there is no field or demand for another." The actual ex- perience is that, while nominally they are rivals, they really assist each other. The invention of the "pro- cess block," by which means photographs can be reproduced, has so enlarged the facilities for accurate illustration that the public demand is insatiable for views, and descriptions of events, places, and peoples, that all these papers have very large and important circulations, and vie with each other to produce the best and most for the "nimble sixpence." Thousands of families subscribe to three and four of these papers weekly. The growth and extension of the monthly magazines and reviews, religious and class weeklies of every description, have also advanced with giant strides during the last fifteen years.

Of American daily newspapers, the price is usually two cents, or five cents for special Sunday editions. The Sunday editions of American newspapers issued in chief cities are gigantic collections of news and literary matter, illustrations and advertisements.

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I recently spread upon the floor the separate sheets of a New York Sunday World, and found by measure- ment that it covered 363 square feet, and, of course, printed upon both sides — making an issue of 528 columns of 18 inches each.

Sunday editions of The London Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail were attempted a few years ago, but were discontinued after a very short run in answer to adverse public opinion.

The London newspapers are themselves large advertisers. " Largest circulation in the world " is a phrase to be seen on huge posters everywhere. They also take up important spaces in the advertis- ing columns of their contemporaries when wishing to attract attention to some new feature of their publication.

The provincial press of Great Britain rivals London in the enterprise and importance of its daily news- papers. In great centres — like Liverpool, Birming- ham, Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin, etc. — papers are issued of the highest class, and cannot be ignored in any advertising campaign. Nearly all have offices in London, with private wires and tele- phones connecting with headquarters, and are as con- venient of approach for business and news purposes as though visited in the towns where they are published.

CHAPTER V

My New Business — The First Introduction of American Cigarettes and Smoking Tobacco into England — The Richmond Gem — The Quaker and the Cigarette — Forcing the British Sale — A Great Tobacco Combination— Removal to Holborn Viaduct— Interesting Neighbourhood — The Smithfield Martyrs — Here John Bunyan died — Burial-place of Captain John Smith — Bad Debts — Street Language — Forms of Address — English Proprietary Articles in the United States— Advanced Pharmacy— The Diamond Match Company.

AFTER the dissolution of partnership with Mr Van Duzer I commenced business on my own account in April 1876 with one of the proprietary articles formerly owned by Van Duzer & Richards, which came to me in the course of settlement, and to this article was shortly afterwards added others. I also became the purchasing agent in London of all English goods for the firm of John F. Henry & Co. of New York ; and in 1877 I undertook the sale and exclusive agency for Great Britain and the British colonies of J. F. Allen & Co., the Virginia manu- facturers of American cigarettes and smoking tobaccos, At that time there was not a single American cigar- ette sold in this country, so I am responsible foi the introduction to this country of American cigarettes, and had for nearly ten years the entire control of the product of Messrs Allen & Ginter, and for a con- siderable period the branch of Messrs J. R. Duke

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and Co. Although considerable advertising was at once resorted to, and travellers were employed to call upon retail tobacconists, I found the cigarettes made no headway ; and the " Richmond Gems " were absolutely refused, though they were the pro- duct of an eminent Virginian firm. The smoking of cigarettes of any sort or kind was extremely limited ; in a few shops in localities frequented by foreigners one could buy a packet of "Caporal" or " La FermeY' also Egyptian and Turkish brands of a few sorts — but Englishmen did not then care for cigarettes. The trade in them and their popularity is at the present time almost beyond computation.

But I was determined not to be beaten, and as a last resort I conceived the plan of offering to purchase a tobacco dealer's licence for every chemist in the United Kingdom who would place the American cigarettes on their counters, and undertake their sale. In a short time this proposition turned out highly success- ful, and the chemists themselves were greatly pleased with the result ; and then the retail tobacconists, who had turned their backs upon us suddenly awoke to the fact that the American cigarettes were appreciated and required in this country, and they had no choice but to stock and sell the Richmond Gem Cigarettes. As soon as the retail dealers came to this conclusion I decided to give them the utmost support possible by advertising, and in this I was backed up by the firm in Virginia.

Just at that time we produced as a poster and

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showcard the now well-known old Quaker smoker, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, who very soon made acquaintance and won his way to the hearts of all British smokers. This was copyrighted for Great Britain and the United States, and to-day remains the principal trade mark of the various brands of tobacco manufactured by Messrs Allen & Ginter, the Richmond Gem Tobacco and Cigarette Manu- facturers. Every kind of ingenious method was employed to advertise their goods, and experts have admitted that no advertising was better done or with a more satisfactory result. The first welcome given to these cigarettes did not come from the west, but the east of London, and dealers in the west doggedly refused to take up the sale. There- upon a tobacco shop was rented at the Piccadilly corner of the Circus, and styled "The Ole Virginny Tobacco Shop." The windows were dressed in the most attractive form, and in a very short time the brand became the fashion. Then the cigarettes crept into the hotels, clubs, and public-houses, and everybody began to demand the Richmond Gem Cigarettes and Tobacco.

Allen & Ginter held the monopoly of American cigarettes for perhaps two years, but at the end of that time the demand for cigarettes became so enor- mous that every tobacco manufacturer in the United States entered the market, and began turning out cigarettes, shipping them to England. English manu- facturers began the manufacture also. At the present time the cigarette industry exceeds that of all manu-

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factured tobacco, and the rivalry created by the sale caused the creation of that important amalgamation known as the " American Tobacco Co." and the " Imperial Tobacco Co."

This business, so lucrative and so extensive, I regret to say, was lost to me and those interested with me without a farthing compensation, although I had introduced and created the demand for the cigarette in Great Britain. When the American Tobacco Co. was formed, all the important cigarette manufacturers in the United States, with agencies in England, were included, and they elected to conduct the business for the future in their own name, on their own premises, and with one staff, to represent the whole of the members, under one manager. Since that day the Imperial Tobacco Co. of Great Britain has absorbed the combined American companies, and the capital runs into some millions of money. At first the cigarettes were all hand made ; but the great demand stimulated the inventive genius of America, and now all cigarettes are made by patented machinery, under various American patents.

I was associated in this tobacco business with my brother-in-law, Mr Henry K. Terry, and as soon as the business became important, separate premises were rented, in which the business was carried on. The fret and worry of this business were enormous, on account of the wearisome restrictions with which every dealing with a dutiable commodity is sur- rounded.

The general increase of my special business in

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proprietary articles at length became larger, and I was obliged to remove from Great Russell Street to more capacious premises at No. 46 Holborn Viaduct ; and at that time quite three-fourths of the buildings in that locality were unoccupied. Prior to the con- struction of the Viaduct, vehicles had to descend a steep road on Holborn Hill, cross Farringdon Street, and ascend the steep face of Snow Hill, to gain the level of the city in Newgate Street.

This was the road traversed by the martyrs on their way from the old Fleet Prison in Farringdon Street (now covered by the Memorial Hall) to Smithfield, where they were burned at the stake. The exact spot of martyrdom in Smithfield is now marked by a red pillar-box for the posting of letters, on the north side of the market opposite St Bartholomew's Hospital. Here Anne Askew, Rogers, Bradford, and Philpot suffered death with many others. My new premises stand on what was called Snow Hill, where, 300 years ago, one John Strudwick, a grocer, kept a shop, in whose house John Bunyan died, and from here the procession passed to his burial in the Bunhill Fields, where he was laid in the vault of his host.

At the east end of the Viaduct stands the Church of St Sepulchre, where Captain John Smith lies buried, the lover of Pocahontas ; and on the right hand is the New Sessions Court, on the old site of Newgate.

Dr Parker's City Temple is almost opposite my premises on the Viaduct.

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Speaking of trading in Great Britain, such as I have experienced : — I am not, of course, familiar with the course of all trades, but I can with pleasure bear my testimony to the honourable character of that trading with which I have come in contact. In the thirty-eight years I have been trading in London I have not lost ^"200 by bad debts. There are com- mercial agencies which make inquiry into the stand- ing of a tradesman who would do business with you ; and cautious people can also refer to bankers as to monetary position, or obtain references when dealing with new firms, and the credit system is less abused, in my experience, by default, than I have found else- where to be the case.

Where a firm is believed to have made a success in a particular line of business, applications are fre- quently made from various people, anxious to improve their financial position, who are full of ideas and in- ventions which, they declare, would yield great fortunes if the firm would only take them up.

I have been interviewed by several, who have looked furtively round my office, and asked if I were sure no one would be able to overhear our conversa- tion. Then, when assured no one could possibly hear what passed, they have told me of some poor formula, or process of manufacture, utterly worthless, in bated breath, as if they were divulging a great State secret. Occasionally a professional man has honoured me with his confidence, and been tortured while he spoke lest I should pierce his anonymity, and ruin his reputa- tion by disclosing that he was engaged in anything so

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mercenary as trade ! In no single instance have I ever had anything placed before me, under such circumstances as I have described, that I could enter- tain for a single moment, and I think I have been able, in every instance, to satisfy my interviewer that his proposal was impracticable, if not silly, and con- tained nothing new or important.

Since removing to the Viaduct an interesting plan in connection with luncheon has been adopted among a group of Americans who are engaged in kindred pursuits. This began with fifteen or more lunching daily at the Holburn Viaduct Hotel from i to 2 P.M. For their exclusive use Messrs Spiers & Pond have set apart in the coffee-room a large table, which has been for twenty years known as "the American Round Table " ; and here, Americans resident in London regularly lunch together, with their friends. During this period I have met at that Round Table nearly every important advertiser and advertisement agent in England, and many from the United States, and from all parts of the Continent. This Round Table forms a very pleasant rendezvous for those having mutual interests, and an opportunity for ex- changing views and finding new friends.

The table is now so well known that no surprise is caused by former guests sending from all parts of the Continent telegrams addressed to "The Round Table, Viaduct Hotel, London," and timing their arrival for the luncheon hour.

One hears of Americans being strongly criticised as to their manners at hotel tables and elsewhere.

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Well-bred Americans are as careful and particular as well-bred Englishmen, or the well-mannered of any country. If 100,000 English were to pass through New York and Boston every year, doubtless among that number, visiting hotels and popular restaurants, would be found occasionally, both men and women whose table manners could be improved. One must not expect an entire community to be precise and exact in every detail of politeness. I was told the other day of a foreigner at an American restaurant, who, on taking his seat at a table, and while giving his order to the waiter, in rather peremptory language, meantime proceeded to tuck the end of his table- napkin under his chin. The waiter, being a little irritated by his manner, suddenly jerked the napkin from the man's neck, saying : "I beg pardon, sir, your order was for a lunch, not a shave."

Forty years ago swearing in the United States on the part of boys and adults in all classes, was alto- gether shocking ; but now, as in England, swearing is "not good form," or rather "the very worst form." English labourers and mechanics, as they walk along the streets, interlard their conversation with such words as "bloody fool" and " bloomin' idyit," but rarely anything stronger. A lady who walked within ear-shot of a number of workmen and labourers, from the Marble Arch to Lancaster Gate one evening, heard the words "bloody" and "bloomin'" uttered over sixty times. These are not refined expres- sions, but they are a great improvement upon the too frequent use of an oath. Even street boys and errand

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lads do not swear in London ; and an American friend, walking with me in the Strand, at a time when the evening papers were being published, remarked, with some surprise: "Why, London newsboys wear shoes, and comb their hair"; and he added: " Bus- drivers wear silk hats, and gloves, and the conductors say 'thank-you." These were new experiences for him.

Americans have frequently asked me by what rule a man may tell when one in England should be addressed as " Mr," and when as " Esq." in writing to a private gentleman. The difference is one of compliment only ; but it is an established custom that private gentlemen, and those commercially and pro- fessionally occupied, shall be addressed as " Esq." Men in the "services," or holding titles, prefix or affix such titles to their names, not only upon their visiting cards, but painted or stamped upon their trunks and cases : such a practice is both proper and convenient, so that their precise position is disclosed at a glance.

The fact is an important one to remember, that the profit of the London Telephone service in 1894 was ,£93,000 ; while the whole profit of the Post Office department, which included telegraphs and parcel post, was practically £5,000,000.

The inventor of the Post-Card was Dr Emmanuel Hermann, Councillor of the Austrian Ministry of Commerce, who first suggested the idea. His pro- posal was at once adopted by the Austrian Post- Office, when the price for the card was fixed at less

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than a half-penny. The number of words was limited to twenty ; but this was very soon increased.

The question of cab fares is always a fruitful source of annoyance and trouble in London. All fares are supposed to be regulated by law ; but in practice this is entirely ignored. A passenger can insist upon being carried two legal miles for one shilling, but he is not likely to attempt this twice. A stranger taking a cab in London will be sure to have ascer- tained beforehand, from a friend, the fare he ought to pay. If the Cabman 'would only accept his legal fare courteously, I am sure he would find his takings at the close of the day much more satisfactory than at present. Possibly, however, a Cabman will never reach the point of contentment, however the fare may be arranged. I am sure many people would volun- tarily add a " tip " if cabby asked no more than his legal fare.

Here let me again briefly refer to the subject of International Trading. All English proprietary articles seeking a sale in the United States, owing to enormous import duties, cannot approach the consumer on equal terms with the home manufacturer. Few, therefore, of the great manufacturers of branded goods of any kind, have attempted a serious advertising campaign in America. Among the British successes Pears' Soap, Worcester Sauce, Crosse & Blackwell, Huntley & Palmer, Peak, Frean & Co., and Liebig's Extract may be named.

The price of these articles in the United States would be nearly double the price charged in Great

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Britain, and they do not come into competition, to any extent, with what Brother Jonathan offers. What may happen when "John Bull" establishes factories in America is another question.

Of products of "Advanced Pharmacy" mention must be made of the ready recognition on the part of the medical profession of Great Britain of the im- proved method of preparing drugs for accurate dis- pensing, which has been introduced by American manufacturing chemists and pharmacists. Apart from such preparations as have been introduced by me, mention should be made of the exceptional and elaborate formulae issued by such well-known American firms as Messrs Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., Seabury and Johnson, Parke Davis & Co., Fairchild Bros., Foster, John Wyeth & Sons, M'Kessor & Robbins, and others. I think I may claim to be the first to get the ear and support of the profession, and hospitals, for American digestive ferments — prepared from Pepsin and Pancreatine — also for American Extract of Malt. In 1880 Mr Silas Mainville Burroughs called upon me in Great Russell Street with a letter of intro- duction. He was a handsome young fellow, of about thirty years of age, blonde of complexion, with fine, pale blue eyes. He was full of enthusiasm as to his purpose to establish the products of Messrs John Wyeth & Sons of Philadelphia, with whom he had been long associated. He rented a little office of two rooms on the first floor of Great Russell Street Build- ings, and, with samples in hand, began a canvass among the London doctors and hospitals without

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delay. He had a magnetic personality, and the items he had to offer were new and important. He suc- ceeded from the very first, at the end of a year taking quite large premises at Snow Hill, and adding a factory for the manufacture of a malt extract and beef wine and iron. He travelled constantly, making friends and customers. He was joined later by Mr Henry S. Wellcome, also a young man of experience and ability, and the firm became Burroughs, Wellcome and Co., and they then removed to the premises at the top of Snow Hill, corner of the Viaduct, with a new and important factory at Wandsworth, sub- sequently removed to Dartford, Kent. Mr Burroughs and I were warm personal friends from the day of his arrival. He was having a holiday at Cannes in 1895, took a severe cold, through some inadvertence, and died suddenly of pneumonia. He lived to see the seed sown by him blossom into success, but not the full development which has been reached by his surviving partner. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the estab- lishment of the firm was held in July of the present year.

In my observations concerning American industries which have gained a footing in Great Britain I must mention the Diamond Match Company of Maryland, which erected a gigantic plant and works near Liver- pool some years ago. There was an immediate demand for these cheap, excellent matches, which were produced by automatic, novel, and patented machinery at prices that could not be equalled by British manufacturers. Four years ago this business

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was acquired by Messrs Bryant & May, the eminent match manufacturers of this country. The result of this is that the united industries of these two great concerns control the market for every description of matches, from the " Patent Safety " to Wax Vestas, with intermediate lines of every conceivable form of match. Quite recently I had the pleasure of going over these works, and inspecting the manufacture of matches. Passing from one machine to another, I soon discovered on the polished brass plates attached to the "almost human" machines the familiar names " Salem, Ohio," " Cleveland, Ohio," "Chicago, 111." "Yes," said the manager; "they are all American." I timidly asked: "How many matches do you produce per day ? " " Exactly eight times the number of the population of the United Kingdom " was the reply. " Eight matches for every human being ! "

CHAPTER VI

Dr Joseph Parker — Personal Acquaintance and Friendship — My Father's Visit and Death — Thursday Morning Services — Henry Ward Beecher's Visit to London — Colman's Mustard — Dr Parker's Lectures in the United States — Controversy arises — Lecture Tour abbreviated — Dr Parker's Letters — Plymouth Church — I join the Diaconate of City Temple — Dr and Mrs Parker's Silver Wedding — Presentation of Gifts — Dr Parker's Commandments for Men of Business.

ALTHOUGH I was the son and the grandson of Pres- byterian ministers, by early habit and inclination, and also by youthful constraint, an attendant at religious services, I cannot say that I had in early life any decided leaning to one special form of religi- ous worship. While quite a little boy I attended two services on the Sabbath in my father's church. These were in the morning and afternoon : early in the evening I was sent to bed. When I went to reside with my grandfather I found he was a strict Sab- batarian, and never would allow of any domestic work being done unless most urgent, so I had to fall in with his wishes. But when I began my travelling, I think that I became less observant of attendance at church on the Sabbath. On coming to London, however, this feeling passed away after a time. As I was not specially interested in any particular branch of the Christian Church I was at first content to accompany my American visitors to such places

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of worship as they most desired to visit. The most popular preachers in London amongst Americans from 1867 to 1872 was certainly the Rev. Charles Spurgeon and Rev. Newman Hall, and I must have taken be- tween these years several hundreds to hear those ministers preach.

I was but rarely asked to accompany visitors to hear the Church of England clergy. The visitors to St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and other historic churches seemed only anxious to see the edifice, the marvellous painted windows, and the memorials to the illustrious dead. If I were asked to name the clergymen of the Established Church best known to Americans in the seventies, I would answer Dean Stanley, Archdeacon Farrar, the Dean of Rochester, Rev. Charles Haweis — all of whom are now deceased. To-day I would mention Bishop Weldon, late head-master of Harrow, and Archdeacon Sinclair of St Paul's Cathedral. Both of these eloquent and distinguished clergymen have a very large acquaint- ance with Americans, and are greatly appreciated and beloved by them.

The most popular preachers in New York in the seventies were Henry Ward Beecher, Rev. Dr John Hall, Rev. Dr Thompson, Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, Rev. Dr G. B. Cheever, Rev. Dr Stephen H. Tyng, and Rev. Dr T. L. Cuyler.

During the summer of 1873 my attention was attracted to an article in The New York Evangelist, which was written by the Rev. Dr Theodore L. Cuyler, describing visits to London churches, and

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very strong expressions were used in praise of the preaching of the Rev. Dr Joseph Parker. Services were being temporarily held at the Cannon Street Hotel, as the Poultry Chapel, of which he was pastor, had been sold to the Corporation of the City of London, and the trustees had only then completed the purchase of a plot of land from the Corporation, on the Holborn Viaduct, for the erection of what is now called the City Temple.

The Sunday following the reading of the article I went to the Cannon Street Hotel in the morning, but was disappointed to find that the Doctor was taking a holiday, and that the services would only be resumed the last Sunday in September, when he would preach there in the morning, and at Exeter Hall in the evening. I took special care to be present at that evening service. By going early I was able to obtain seats for my wife, myself, and three friends near to the platform, on the ground floor, so that I could judge for myself whether Dr Cuyler had over-praised Dr Parker's eloquence and power. There was a small table on the platform, by which the Doctor sat, with a deacon on each side of him. When service began I watched the Doctor closely. Dr Cuyler said, in the course of his article: "You will see in him a man with a head like a lion, with a voice that could roar like a lion, but which could be lowered to the gentlest whisper, and yet the whisper could be heard in any part of the hall." I tested this for myself, and found that the description was absolutely correct. His F 81

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personality was remarkable ; his appearance most striking — enormous head and broad forehead. At that time he wore his hair very long, and had full beard, leaving upper lip and upper part of chin clean shaven ; hair and beard raven black. He wore no gown, only a plain black frock coat and black tie.

I noticed particularly that he had a small and shapely hand. He began, I think, with a short in- vocation— " Lord, abide with us, for it is toward even- ing, and the day is far spent " — which was followed by the giving out of a hymn. After reading in the most impressive manner the first two lines —

" Hail, Thou once despised Jesus, Hail, Thou Galilean King " —

he said : " This is not a funeral hymn — it must be sung with fire." The whole congregation, being over 3000 persons, took up the singing with great hearti- ness. There was not a word spoken in the sermon which he delivered that I did not follow with the closest attention and delight, and I afterwards never failed to attend the service there, generally accompanied by five or six others.

Dr Parker delivered his sermons extempore, and the notes he carried into the pulpit could be written on a visiting-card — just a few " Feathers for Arrows," as he called them. Did this mean that he could preach three sermons a week without previous preparation ? Certainly not. He was a deep student. Every subject of discourse was settled definitely in his mind.

He once told me he had frequently to reply to

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JOSEPH PAEKEE.

Drawn in the firelight in the Study at '; Tynehome," Hampstead, 1888, by MAUDE POSTER.

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brother ministers who would say : "How easy and simple, Dr Parker, is your work: thirty minutes' sermon, Thursday ; two thirty-minute discourses on Sunday. No sermon- writing." The irony of his answer was in the tone of voice in which he would say: " Go thou and do likewise."

His final word at the finish of a sermon was always delivered sharp and abrupt, with a rising inflection : he then would slowly close the Bible.

At the conclusion of an invocation or prayer his habit always was to make a pause of a few seconds before pronouncing "AMEN." This was most im- pressive.

He spoke such words as "Goo" — " JESUS CHRIST" — "No" — "YES" — "NOTHING" in a way to give more value to each word than any speaker I have ever heard.

His Bible-reading at services never exceeded a dozen verses, but the reading was remarkable, com- manding the attention of everyone.

Dr Parker never cared to see anyone in his private vestry before any service. He wished to be quite alone for half-an-hour or more before preaching. He never hurried or rushed to his work.

I was present at the laying of the corner-stone of the City Temple by the Rev. Thomas Binney, and at the dedication service by Rev. Professor W. Lind- say Alexander, D.D., of Edinburgh.

In the new building I rented a pew holding seven people on the ground floor, where I was only distant five pews from the pulpit. I did not make the per-

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sonal acquaintance of the Doctor and his wife until several months after the opening of the City Temple, although we attended the services regularly, and occasionally the Thursday morning service also. I had, however, learned much concerning him from others. He was the son of a Northumbrian stone mason, a rugged, dogmatic old Puritan, stern of manner and of thought — one who lived hardly, and was righteous. His son inherited many of these traits, united with an irrepressible industry, which never would admit fatigue. His life was one long devotion to the service of his Master.

In 1874 my father paid me a visit, and, naturally, accompanied me to the City Temple upon the first Sunday of his being in London, and I took him into the vestry, and introduced him. Then visits were interchanged between us. He came to my house in Upper Woburn Place, and my wife and I called upon him and Mrs Parker in the Quadrant, Highbury. This was approaching the time for the summer holiday, and Dr Parker invited my father to preach for him on one Sunday in August at the City Temple. The week before this Sunday came my father left London on a visit to Scotland. I took him to Euston Station ; and received a post card from him the next morning, dated Melrose, in which he said he had just visited the Abbey, should spend the night at Melrose, and go forward to Abbotsford in the morning, and proceed thence to Edinburgh in the evening. The following morning, however, I read a paragraph in The Daily Telegraph

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stating that a clergyman, answering my father's de- scription, and with letters in his pocket bearing his name, had met with an accident at the Waverley Station, and that he had been conveyed to the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh. A few hours later I received a telegram from the house surgeon stating that my father had died.

I left London immediately with my wife for Edinburgh ; and the only particulars that I could obtain with respect to the accident were that he was seen by one of the porters at the Waverley Station crossing the track, and judging by the position in which he was found, the supposition was that he caught his foot in a rail, and pitched head first against a stone buttress, which fractured his skull. He died within two hours, without having spoken a word.

Dr and Mrs Parker were abroad at this time ; but both telegraphed their condolences to us, and upon their return were the first to call and express their sympathy.

My father's body was removed to America, and was finally interred at Auburn, New York, in the same cemetery and plot, where his mother and father are buried.

From this time until his death, in 1902, there never passed one week, without my seeing or hear- ing from Dr Parker. The Doctor was pleased, in the course of time, to honour me with his confidence in a marked degree, as though he recognised in me some quality which satisfied his judgment, that I

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could be trusted in business questions quite apart from those relating to his church. He was not only a born preacher, but possessed a marvellous grasp of sound practical knowledge upon the affairs of the day. I often consulted with him regarding my own affairs, always getting the most practical help.

In 1886 the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and his wife came to England, on the invitation of Dr and Mrs Parker to pay them a visit, and he was also under an engagement at that time to Major J. B. Pond to deliver a course of lectures in Great Britain. The first lecture was to be delivered in the City Temple, and on the Sunday previous Dr Parker made reference to his presence, and made a slight allusion to the matter of the Beecher-Tilton controversy, in which the Doctor declared Mr Beecher had been entirely exonerated, and remarked that Mr Beecher deserved their warmest sympathy for having been laid under such a dense cloud of suspicion.

Calls were made from the congregation for Mr Beecher, whereupon he went into the pulpit, and said : " I must immediately disclaim what Dr Parker has just said, that during the months or year of the controversy to which he has referred I was in any condition of doubt or gloom or unrest. My friends may have been ; but my spirits were never checked, my night's rest never disturbed, and I can truly say that I never felt in the smallest degree but that in the end I should be entirely exonerated."

I have often heard Dr and Mrs Parker say how greatly cheered they were by Mr Beecher's visit,

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and astonished at his wonderful powers and vitality ; and that his amusing companionship had greatly delighted them, and they were very reluctant to part when the time came for Mr Beecher and his wife to return to New York. They remained in England three months, and during the first month of the lecture tour Dr and Mrs Parker accompanied them to every important place where Mr Beecher had to lecture. Dr Parker was with him on the platform of every place where he lectured in London.

I remember Mrs Parker telling me an amusing story of an occurrence on the first day of the arrival at their house in Hampstead. On sitting down to dinner that day, Mr Beecher said to her : " Mrs Parker, I want you to tell me what mustard you use in this family." She was very much surprised at such a question, and replied : " Well, Mr Beecher, do tell me why you want to know, because I cannot answer without consulting the cook." He said : " Consult the cook, then, because I cannot eat a mouthful until my question is answered." The cook was at once questioned, and forthwith came the answer: "Colman's." "Very well," said Mr Beecher, "then I will proceed with my dinner; but all the way up from Liverpool, at every railway station, and on every hoarding near the track, I read the legend : ' Colman's Mustard is the best.' That decided me that I must prove the truth of that assertion on the first occasion that I dined in London."

During ten or fifteen years I had many interests in which Dr Parker was concerned — notably in the

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publication of The Foimtain, The Daisy Family Story Paper, and afterwards The Christian Chronicle. Upon one occasion we were joint owners of The Citizen, a well-known city weekly, for forty-eight hours. Immediately after the purchase of that paper a city merchant, desiring to become the owner, offered a handsome addition to what we had paid, and the copyright was at once handed over without our having published a single number. Amongst other traits I found Dr Parker to be one of the most correct and punctual men I ever met with. He never broke an engagement except from physical inability. His working powers were marvellous, and his industry never tired. During the thirty-three years of his London ministry he issued many volumes of sermons, wrote several novels, published all the volumes of the " People's Bible" and the "People's Prayer-Book," and he was constantly writing for the press, or reviewing books, while at the same time conducting an enormous private correspondence. In the matter of book publishing and the author's prospect he once said that when about to issue his first book, when his manuscript had been accepted, and he was in high expectation of results in the way of copies sold, he began to make up a list of those to whom he was personally known, all of whom were certain to purchase at least one copy. The total list ran to several hundreds. Alas ! for human calculation, he found that all his friends did not subscribe, and was unable to trace a dozen copies to their patronage.

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In telling this, he remarked that, both as preacher and author, he had put his trust in the great public, adding: "Do not rely upon the patronage of a set or of individuals. Look to your work ; the public will find you if the work is worthy."

Dr Parker's labour was without end, because he was in great request for the opening of bazaars, the laying of corner-stones, and preaching sermons at the opening of new chapels and school-rooms, in all parts of the country. Then he had frequently the far more difficult duty of presiding over conferences of ministerial brethren ; or at meetings held upon questions of great social importance.

In the City Temple he renewed the Thursday morning services previously held by him in the Poultry Chapel, and carried these on for thirty years — to the close of his life. His service furnished an admirable opportunity to strangers who wished to hear him when they visited the Metropolis. After the public services anyone who so desired might have an interview with him in the vestry, but he always insisted upon these being brief. I have met in his vestry during the last twenty-five years of his ministry many of the most distinguished men of the day, in every department of life, and from nearly every country in the world.

Upon one occasion a gentleman entered the vestry, and asked him to be so good as to fix a day when he would give him a two hours' interview for a con- versation on a most important matter, in which Dr Parker would be interested. " Never," said the Doctor

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impressively, to his visitor's astonishment. " Why not?" he asked. "I could never be interested in anything which required two hours to tell. I am perfectly certain whatever you want to communicate can be told in fifteen minutes. That is the utmost time I can spare, and you can begin now if you are ready." The visitor, however, resented the limita- tion, and retired.

There were so many of this class of visitors that the Doctor had an electric wire placed under the mat at his table in the vestry where he sat, which communicated with a bell in the outer vestry, and whenever that bell was heard the sexton would enter with the Doctor's hat and coat, or intimated that some other visitor was waiting an interview, and so the "bore," male or female, was checkmated.

In one of his books he writes : " One of the plagues of a minister's life is that people will use so many words in talking to him ; they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. In my early ministry I used to take down in shorthand the wordy speeches of one most persistent bore, and I found that he used eighteen words where six were enough. If ever I were rash enough to ask him how he was, he would say : * Well, sir, in regards of that, you touch a rather delicate point, for as I was saying, no longer back than yesterday, when we put things together, and

consider what sort of weather ' And so on, until

my poor patience utterly gave way, and if I had not been a minister I should have slain him with a frown. "

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Yet he had plenty of patience with anyone who had a really genuine tale to tell, but he seemed in- tuitively to detect the simple bore.

At his own residence he was the soul of hospitality, and would enter into the sport of the occasion with the ardour and simplicity of a child. He was possessed of a wonderful fund of stories, and told them in the quaint manner of a native of the country in which they originated.

Although Dr Parker had paid several visits to the United States on pleasure, not until 1887 did he finally assent to the oft-repeated suggestion that he should deliver a series of lectures in the States, and he then entered into an agreement with Major James B. Pond to deliver fifty lectures in the course of three months in the principal cities and towns. These were to begin at New York, and extend as far west as Chicago ; and, crossing into Canada, de- liver fix or six in that country. The subjects were to be secular, and the Doctor selected " Gladstone," and one entitled " Clocks and Watches." His first public appearance was to be in the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, where he was to deliver a promised eulogy upon the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. This he had written out very carefully, and committed to memory, so that upon delivery he did not use any notes. The Doctor left the MS. with me, with in- structions that upon receipt of a telegram that the eulogy was delivered the MS. should be sent to The Christian World for publication in London. This was done.

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Dr Parker was invited to deliver this eulogy in the following words by cable : —

" Plymouth Church grateful for sympathy. Invite you to deliver eulogy. All expenses of journey and visit of Mrs Parker and yourself paid by us."

In America a serious controversy broke out over this lecture, because Major Pond insisted that this should be treated as one of the course to be de- livered, and the cost deducted from the sale of tickets received.

The Doctor delivered about thirty lectures, when the constant travelling, at the most killing time of year, coupled with the worry he suffered from the newspaper controversy, decided him to return to England at once, and take up again his work at the City Temple in January 1888, instead of in March as he had previously intended. He preached in Plymouth Church on the Sunday morning before he sailed ; but to the surprise of the congregation he left the pulpit the moment he had finished his sermon, and declined to see anybody or receive anyone. He preached the sermon because he had promised to do so ; but he felt so offended at the tone adopted by the Press and some of the members of the church, that he determined not to meet any member of the congregation, or do anything more than what he had promised.

With regard to this visit, a few extracts from his letters to me will give the view he entertained of this unfortunate dispute :

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EVERETT HOUSE, 29^ August 1887.

Fourteen reporters first day, ten to-day. Everybody most kind. Shall be glad to escape N.Y. More taken out of me in one day than in a month at home.

You know how large and true is the love we send, so I conclude with a monogram and a blessing.

J. P.

EVERETT HOUSE, N.Y., tfh October.

We have been almost overwhelmed with kindness, yet we long, long, long to see how old London looks, and we long to meander in the fragrant neighbourhood of the Viaduct. I am quietly endeavouring to abbreviate my tour. . . . This is our thought and our hope. ... I cannot conceive the circumstances under which I would settle here, even if I had an op- portunity. Think of exchanging London for Brooklyn ! ... In bonds indissoluble,

Yours,

JOSEPH PARKER.

BUFFALO, N.Y., 29^ October 1887.

. . . Your sunshine-letter came, and rejoiced us like a jubilee at cold Toronto. It is just possible we may go to some restful place in England in early December. . . . The long, long journeys, and then an exciting lecture, are too much for me. ... A month's rest in England will be invaluable to me. ... I write in furious haste, but with the double love of E. J.— J. P.

WEST HOTEL, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., i%th November 1887.

Pity me so far away from home ! I really do feel lonesome. I long for home. I preach in Plymouth Church on 4th December, and they give me a reception during the week. ... I cannot write the particulars about Plymouth Church, but you will know all when we meet. Every- thing is more than satisfactory.

I can settle here (in America) on an income of ^5000 (pounds) a year easily made! But I

WON'T.

The opportunities I have had are simply astounding, and as for kind- ness— call it infinite. Our best love to you both. I did think Laurie

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would have written me one line, but princes, dukes, and belted earls quench such sparks as a dissenting preacher. Lord pity us 1 . . . . . . Longing, longing, longing. O, so wearily.

Ever in heartiest love,

Yours,

J. P.

EVERETT HOUSE, UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK. 4th December, 1887.

Some of your newspaper countrymen have been scalping me in open day, and telling lies about twice as big as America. They said I charged a fee, or received a fee, for my eulogy. A bigger lie was never invented since the serpent conferred with Eve in the fragrant Garden of Eden. On the contrary, I received 100 dollars less than I was actually out of pocket ! The Eulogy Committee, vindi- cated me in the best possible manner, and after my vindication (I could not before) I gave the whole sum I received towards the fund for erecting the monument, so I have had the pleasure of delivering the eulogy, and paying every penny of our united expenses. I do not ^wplain, I only explain. . . . But the newspapers can lie ! At one hotel Mrs Beecher was sent away when she called, with the explanation that I could not see her because I was "at prayer"! Another reporter says he called upon me, and found me playing dominoes, whereas I do not know one domino from another. Yes ; they can lie. ... On arriving at home I shall need the assurance that I have some friends somewhere, and that assurance will find its way back to America. Please blame only the right parties, viz. : the infamous newspaper reporters and interviewers, and hangers-on. The gentlemen of America have been true, and kind, and noble.

Our love, our true love, our growing love, to you and yours.

J. P.

In 1892 I was invited to join the diaconate of the City Temple, which I did.

Dr Parker was an extremely charitable man, and dispensed large sums of money from his private purse, as well as from funds placed at his disposal, to persons in circumstances of need. As a judge of character

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he was rarely at fault, and on a second or third appeal being made to him by the same person, if there were the slightest variation in the story, he detected the imposture at once. Once, in reference to an applicant who had disappointed him, he used the following words : — " Keep her at the utmost dis- tance, she is a consummate beggar. How many sovereigns and half-sovereigns she has had from here (the City Temple) I dare not inquire."

In May 1894, on the conclusion of twenty-five years' ministry in the City Temple, opportunity was taken to present Dr and Mrs Parker with suitable gifts, as marks of the public appreciation of his ministry. To Dr Parker was presented pulpit robes, a cheque for 1000 guineas, and a portrait in oils by Mr Robert Gibb, R.S.A., which now hangs in the vestry of the City Temple. These gifts were accompanied by an album containing the autographs of the donors. The presentation to Mrs Parker, which consisted of a beautiful diamond brooch, was made by me. Dr Parker, in responding upon this occasion, observed : " I am touched especially by the words of my long-tried friend, Mr Richards, con- cerning my wife. The diamonds are of great value, their radiance is indisputable, but I am here, after thirty years' experience and observation, to say that the radiance of the diamonds is eclipsed and quenched by the glory of the life they are intended to adorn."

This presentation is duly recorded on a tablet in the vestibule.

His pulpit jubilee was celebrated iQth July 1898,

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and the services were attended by enormous crowds of people.

One of the most remarkable booklets which Dr Parker wrote was the result of many talks we had together upon business, and business methods. This was originally intended for private circulation, but was subsequently published by the well-known firm of Messrs Hazell, Watson & Viney, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the quotation following. The work was entitled " Successful Business ; How to Get it, Keep it, and Make the Most of it," and closes with the following : — " Ten General Command- ments for Men of Business " : —

1. Thou shalt not in any wise boast, brag, bounce, or bluster, or the wise man will hold thee in low esteem.

2. Thou shalt not permit thy wife to be living at the rate of ^200 a year when thy business is not yielding more than ^199; nor shalt thou withhold from her the business information which, as an help- meet, she is entitled to receive.

3. Thou shalt not mock the unsuccessful man, for he may be richer in his poverty than thou art in thy boasted abundance.

4. Thou shalt not carry the counting-house into the domestic circle, nor in any wise spoil the children's hour by recapitulating the bankruptcies of the day.

5. Thou shalt not hob-nob with idle persons, nor smoke with them, nor encourage them, nor approve their evil life.

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6. Thou shalt not keep company with an un- punctual man, for he will certainly lead thee to carelessness and ruin.

7. Thou shalt not forget that a servant who can tell \\esfor thee, may one day tell lies to thee.

8. As to hours of slumber and sleep, remember the good old rule :

11 Nature requires five, Custom gives seven, Laziness takes nine, And wickedness eleven.

9. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, but give where well-bestowed, right cheerfully.

10. Be honest in copper, and in gold thy honesty will be sure.

These are the commandments truly, which will ensure success in business.

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CHAPTER VII

English Holiday-making — Our Visits with Dr and Mrs Parker — Mrs Parker's Illness and Death— The Doctor's Grief— He is Heart-broken — Continues his Ministry — His last Holiday with us — Illness and Death.

THE method of taking summer holidays in England was one of the first things which interested me, as being in such strange and marked contrast with the American habit. Across the Atlantic, on setting out for a holiday, the town house would be shut up, locked, and no caretaker left in the place. The family would migrate to the countryside or the seaside, and engage rooms, with full board, at a hotel or boarding-house at a fixed price per week, and remain away during June, July, and August, when the air of the city is at greatest heat — the head of the family taking an occasional run to town on business.

I soon found out that in England, except amongst the richer classes, a fortnight or three weeks was the customary length of a summer holiday ; and the system involved negotiations being carried out with the keepers of seaside lodgings, or at farmhouses at the countryside — the prices varying according to the location and the character of the accommodation. A fixed price was paid for the rooms, all food supplies being regulated on a separate basis, or the food

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could be purchased by the visitors, and a small charge made for cooking and serving. This plan means that you are practically carrying out your ordinary home life in lodgings, or in furnished houses. Not infrequently families of six or eight persons were to be found who considered their position very satisfactory with only one sitting-room and three or four bedrooms.

The seaside hotels in England forty years ago were more of them constructed on the scale and plan of those at Newport, Narragansett Pier, Long Branch, Manhattan Beach, Saratoga, or in the White Mountains. Many of these hotels have ac- commodation for 1000 guests, and at the inclusive price of $2.50 to $6.00 per day. There are English seaside hotels of the present day that will take 300 guests, and at fixed tariff, from 155. a day.

The lodging-house system exists in London, and in all large towns in England ; but the boarding- house system is distinctly limited, though in many cases one hears of extremely desirable and comfortable establishments of that kind. At all these places there are discomforts of a more or less serious character.

The amusements and diversions at English resorts are not of the social character of those in the United States. Families keep together, and there is very little attempt to form new acquaintances or join other families in bathing, promenades, or driving. Even- ing amusements are quiet, and " early to bed " rules prevail.

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Many of our summer holidays were passed with Dr and Mrs Parker in visiting notable places in England. I remember upon one occasion, while staying together in the Isle of Wight, Dr Parker said to me : "I wish to give you and your wife a holiday with us, but the invitation can only be accepted upon one condition. You are to place yourselves unreservedly in our hands ; you are to have no responsibility of any kind whatever. This will be a holiday at Lake Windermere ; but you are not to have anything to do with choosing the hotel, your room, ordering your meals, or planning any excursions, walks, or drives. I want you to be relieved for one whole week of having to make any suggestion to anybody on earth. Your usual holidays which have come under my observation have been taken up with making arrangements for other people. Will you come ? "

" Enthusiastically — yes," was my reply.

These were the same words which he had used himself upon one occasion when accepting an invita- tion under similar circumstances from me. A more enjoyable ten days' holiday could not have been experienced by anyone in the world. We were taken to see everything of interest in the Lake District — the Wordsworth country. Nothing was omitted, and the journey was the more enjoyable because I really had no responsibility of any kind.

Dr and Mrs Parker always took their holidays together, and the Doctor never left London for the country on a preaching excursion for one day, upon

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which she did not accompany him. So constantly were they in one another's society that Mrs Parker told me that the only written communication which had ever passed between them was a post card written in shorthand which he sent to her at Sunderland, at the time of the death of her mother. On this occasion she was obliged to go alone, because Dr Parker had a preaching engagement which he felt he could not postpone.

The last visit which they paid together to Mrs Richards and myself was at Norris Castle, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. They were with us two weeks in September, which were delightfully spent ; and so far as human foresight could foretell, they left us in absolutely perfect health for their journey home to Hampstead — he to recommence his work at the City Temple, on the first Sunday of October.

Three weeks after their return Mrs Parker was declared to be very seriously ill — but there was no danger, so the medical men declared. A surgical operation was performed, for the removal of a malignant growth, which was declared to be entirely successful, and her prompt recovery was anticipated. Her symptoms changed from better to worse, and on 27th January 1899 she died. I became ac- quainted with the sad fact by receiving a wire from the Doctor in the following words : —

" She is not here : she has risen."

I immediately went to his house at Hampstead, and on being admitted went up to his study. He was sitting in a chair in front of the fire, almost bent

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double : he was crushed by the sorrow which had fallen upon him.

He saw me enter the room, but did not speak a word. Then he rose, and taking me by the hand, led me in silence to the darkened room in which the body lay, and remained for a few moments — no words were spoken.

He led me out of the room and to the door ; with a hand- clasp we parted.

During Mrs Parker's illness, which lasted two months, I saw her repeatedly, and she always spoke to me in terms of hope about her recovery. Over and over again she said : " Never mind what the doctors say, or any personal expressions you may hear, I think I shall get well."

The medical men held a consultation, after which, on 1 4th December 1898, I received a telegram from her in these words : " Greatly better ; splendid night " ; and a letter from Dr Parker, in which he told me that Mrs Parker's recovery was assured. On the last occasion of my seeing her she said : " I am not in any pain."

In my opinion, if she realised the fatal character of her illness, she was afraid the announcement would have a serious effect upon Dr Parker, and was not prepared herself to tell him.

The funeral service was held at the house — " Tyne- house," Lyndhurst Gardens, South Hampstead — the Rev. Principal Vaughan Pryce, President of New College, officiating. Many ministerial and lay friends were present. Mrs Parker was buried in a plot of

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ground in Hampstead Cemetery, and at his request I wrote the following inscription, which appears upon the monument : —

"tto tbe flftemotB of EMMA JANE PARKER

Born, June 2oth, 1846. Ascended, January 27th, 1899.

For more than 34 years the loving and devoted wife of Joseph Parker, Minister of the City Temple, London.

Gratefully erected by the Church and Congregation.

'Purer, dearer, With eyes clearer On the Home shore.'"

The concluding lines were quoted from her own poem, " Perchance," published in a volume entitled " Summer Sonnets," and issued during her last illness.

Dr Parker was, of course, present at the funeral in the cemetery, but never visited the grave after- wards. Her death broke his heart, but not the purpose of his life ; and what she would have wished him to do was the after inspiration of every act of his life. He would say : " I have come to see you because I know she would have wished me to do so " ; or : "I will go there because I know she would have me go." Behind all this was the resignation of despair. He prayed morning and evening ever afterwards that he might die ; and his prayer was shortly answered.

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In the meantime he went on with his ministerial work — "She would have wished this," he continually said to me.

The following summer Dr Parker came to visit us at Old Park, near Ventnor, and again in 1900 he visited us at Steephill Castle, Ventnor, and finally in the following summer, 1901.

Dr Parker was gifted with a high sense of humour, and greatly delighted his friends on many occasions by telling stories in the dialect of the people where they originated : thus he told tales in the North- umbrian tongue, and he was equally at home with those of Irish, Scottish, or Welsh origin, and in some degree had mastered the American accent. He had an enormous fund of amusing stories, and, whether new or old, his manner of telling them was the feature of such entertainment. One can repeat the stories, not the genius in telling them.

No one who was present at the time in Steephill Castle can ever forget the jest under cover of which he left the dining-room one evening when we were sitting rather late. " Let me tell you an Irish story," he began ; and those present became silent at once. "There was an Irish priest, upon one occasion, preaching in a village church to the peasants, and he spoke thus at the conclusion of a sermon on the virtues and wisdom of St Patrick." Here he adopted a broad Irish brogue, and continued : " * Now, my dear children, where shall we put St Patrick ? Shall we put him where the sapphire river rolls around the throne of the Almighty ? No ; we will not put him

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there. Shall we put him where the golden light plays around the golden city ? No ; we will not put him there. Shall we put him in a boat sailing over the golden lake when the angels are calling? No ; we will not put him there.' For the fourth time he demanded in a loud voice : ' Where shall we put St Patrick ? ' Then at that moment a peasant called out : ' Well then, shure, you can put him here, for I'm going." And with a bow the Doctor rose, and retired to his bedchamber, leaving those present convulsed with laughter.

Dr Parker was much sought after by the leading men of the day, and he was in the habit, where possible, of inviting them to the Thursday morning service at the City Temple. Upon one occasion the subject he announced was : " What has the Pew to say to the Pulpit?" He called upon Mr Glad- stone, in view of this service, with whom he had been upon most friendly terms, to arrange the date. Upon returning from Harley Street, Dr Parker told me that Mr Gladstone had promised to attend, and that on leaving he said : " Now, Mr Gladstone, I have to announce this from the pulpit, so may I consider it as such a definite engagement as you can give?" To this Mr Gladstone replied: "Nothing but the inevitable will prevent."

Mr Gladstone duly attended the service, and opened the discussion, which was regarded as one of the most important services ever held in the City Temple.

Amongst other visitors to the City Temple, on

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similar occasions, were the great Earl of Shaftesbury and Dean Stanley.

The names of these and other visitors were signed in the pulpit Bible, which is now enclosed in a glass case, and stands below the pulpit.

Soon after the visit of Mr Gladstone he and his wife accepted an invitation to a garden party at Dr Parker's residence, Daleham Gardens, Hampstead, where the venerable statesman met a distinguished company of clergymen, ministers, and laymen. A similar party was given during the visit of Mr Beecher, when there was also an important gathering. Mr Gladstone soon afterwards invited Dr and Mrs Parker, and the Rev. H. Ward Beecher and Mrs Beecher, to breakfast with him in Downing Street.

Mrs Parker was a lady of many accomplishments, and a devoted helpmeet. In Dr Parker's work of preparation at home, and in the execution of many labours at the Temple, she was his comrade and his right hand. She was the leader of his choir, and an excellent singer herself; and, as an excellent stenographer, she took down in shorthand many hundreds of his sermons, and wrote them out for the Press. More than all this, she sympathised with him in many whims and fancies, and indulged him to the "utmost of his bent" in the harmless amusements of the day. One of these was that of mind telegraphy, or the directing of the thoughts of a third person, and, assisted by his wife, he con- stantly practised this power upon his friends or visitors. He would agree with Mrs Parker that,

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when a certain person would sit down at lunch or dinner with them, they would concentrate their will power in one direction upon him ; and he has declared to me that, whenever they adopted this plan, they were always successful. One instance he told me of related to a visit paid him by Professor Newth, who was well known for his antipathy to Mr Gladstone. After Dr and Mrs Parker had exercised their will power over him with special regard to Mr Gladstone, they were immensely amused to hear him all at once ask the Doctor a question regarding that statesman.

In the holidays of 1902 he said he was afraid of the trip across the Solent. So the holiday was spent in a visit to Mrs Burnett Smith, "Annie Swan" (the well-known writer). He invited me to visit him there, but pressure of business engagements prevented me, to my great regret.

In May 1902 Dr Parker, on the invitation of Mrs Richards, accompanied her to the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park, and, at her request, was photo- graphed standing by the lion's cage. This is, I believe, the last photograph taken of Dr Parker.

At that time he frequently complained of not feeling up to the mark : he suffered from shortness of breath and a pressure upon his chest, which often took him when speaking ; nor could he walk far without feeling fatigue, which was entirely contrary to his usual ex- perience. The fact is well known that he used to walk from his house in Hampstead, a distance of four miles, to the City Temple on Thursday morning and

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on Sunday, allowing himself plenty of time, and taking a bath in the vestry before entering the pulpit.

Before his last holiday he announced that he should take up his usual work at the City Temple on the first Sunday in September 1902, and that he would make the experiment of preaching on the previous Thursday to test his voice and strength. During the last three or four months before the holidays he invariably arranged with a brother minister or one of his deacons to sit near the pulpit, and if they noticed a certain sign, to come to the pulpit and continue the service — he was afraid of a collapse.

So far as his personal appearance was concerned he showed little sign of weakness or illness, though there was loss of weight and vigour. His manner towards those about him was as cheerful and cordial as ever.

I saw him after the morning service of Thursday, 25th September 1902, and took my leave of him, as I was sailing on the following Saturday for a short visit to New York. In taking my hand at part'ng Dr Parker said, in a voice full of emotion : " God be with you. I shall not say good-bye."

I was only a fortnight in America, and during that time learned from the newspapers that the Doctor preached on Sunday morning and evening, 28th September, and again on the Thursday morning following, but that on the next Sunday, although no notice had been given by him, he failed to appear

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at the City Temple in the morning. Then the fact became known that he was seriously ill, and doubts were at once published as to whether he would ever enter the pulpit again.

I returned to England on 25th October, and im- mediately wrote to him to know how he was ; in reply I received a private message to go to see him at once. I found him sitting in an arm-chair, his legs stretched out in front of him. He put out both his hands to welcome me, and said : " I cannot rise." He was much interested to hear about my visit to the States, and asked many questions about mutual friends. So far as his voice was concerned, he spoke firmly and without effort. I said : " Tell me how you really feel. Are you in pain ? " He replied : " Yes ; in terrible pain at times, but at the present moment I am free from pain ; but I am sure my case is beyond medical relief, and I am glad this is so. I have finished all my work in this world, and I am chiefly thinking of what is going on up there ! I long to go." I spoke to him cheerfully, but not lightly, of his ailments. I left after the lapse of half-an-hour. I had spoken to him of his brave attempt to resume his work during the previous month, and he remarked : " I was determined to do so, even if I fell on the pulpit stairs." He alluded with considerable feeling to an invitation sent him by the Bishop of Ripon to use his marine residence if he so desired. He also said that he was thankful The Times newspaper had published his letter on the Education Act, but added : " I shall never know,

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on this earth, what the result of this educational controversy will be."

This was my last interview with him. I received daily bulletins as to his health until his death, 28th November 1902. He was buried in the same plot of ground at Hampstead where his wife lay.

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CHAPTER VIII

Home Life — Dr Parker and Pearl — Illustrated Letters — My Daughter Pearl's Early Life — A Mimic — Her Studiousness — Reads Thackeray — Effect of Toole's Acting and Others — Her First Book — Her First Play — Education of my Sons — Dorothy — Her Marriage.

IN 1880 we removed to Porchester Terrace, Hyde Park, to a house named by me " Sandyhook," of which I had taken a lease of twenty-one years. This was a charming residence, with gardens in front and rear, and ivy covering porch and windows. Here my second daughter and youngest child was born — Dorothy Christine. My family then consisted of Pearl, my eldest daughter ; John Morgan, Nelson, and Dorothy.

Dr Parker took a deep interest in Pearl from a very early age. He was especially fond of children, and he delighted in their ideas. Much to Pearl's amuse- ment, Dr Parker occasionally wrote illustrated notes to her, of which the two following in fac-simile are samples.

These gave infinite pleasure to my daughter, and have been preserved with care. At a later date Dr Parker wrote of her : " How did she begin the world of letters ? I can tell you. She has always been a devotee of the family ink-horn, and early she went in even for printers' ink. Probably I was the first

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editor who received and printed the writings of Pearl Richards. Do you wonder, then, that I feel upon my face a sheen of reflected glory ? " Dr Parker delighted to show his friends the copy of her first book of any size — " A Study in Temptations," which she inscribed: "To my first Reviewer, Dr Joseph Parker, the first also to encourage my childish at- tempts at literary composition ; the first to prize work which was only remarkable for its gigantic intentions."

Pearl from early infancy manifested traits which indicated a faculty for literary composition. As a child she was a keen observer of those about her, and imitated their peculiarities of speech and manners. She was a born mimic, inheriting this faculty from her mother ; while through my ancestry she grew up with perhaps unusually strong religious instincts, manifested in early womanhood by the constant analysis of the serious problems of life.

Upon one occasion, in a Congregational Church where the Holy Communion was to be celebrated the preacher requested those who desired to com- municate to sit on the right-hand side of the church and non-communicants on the left. To this she made the strongest objection, because in her mind she could not disassociate the division from the separation of the sheep and the goats.

Her mother and I were always interested to note

the keenness she possessed in observing occurrences

that were in any way unusual, and we allowed her

to follow out the little plans she formed for amuse-

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ment. As she was our only child for some time, she invented imaginary companions to whom she told stories by the hour. She was also fond of dressing up, and acting plays of her own improvisation. As she grew older her powers of mimicry were still further developed ; and on returning from her daily walk in the park or the streets, she greatly amused her Mother by imitating the voices of people she had casually seen, actually quoting snatches of the dia- logues she had heard ; the upbraiding of one another by poor people, threats used by mothers to their children, or tender words spoken by sweethearts. Strange words were caught up in this way, and re- peated innocently in the very tone of voice used, and accompanied with the facial expression of those who had uttered them.

A few intimate friends who heard and saw these child actings were greatly surprised, and urged her Mother to check these manifestations, which she in her better wisdom declined to do.

She became the natural leader in all gatherings of children of her own age, and even older than herself. Their games were always those which she suggested, and taught to those who were ignorant of their character. She instilled into each the enthusi- asm and merriment with which she was liberally endowed ; and the greatest joy always pervaded the children's parties in my house, while she be- came the chosen favourite of every party given by friends.

In this way she passed from age to age in child-

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hood. When the time came for the appearance of a governess she entered upon her lessons with en- thusiasm, and her Mother never had to say to her : " Go and study your lessons." The appetite to learn grew in strength as she advanced in years. She petitioned me and her mother to indulge in fresh studies, and not to reduce the number of those which were set her. She was educated in London, Boston, and Paris — chiefly by tutors.

Her progress was such as to occasionally cause embarrassment and surprise, to her teachers. One lady gravely confided to her mother the fact that the girl knew "the whole of" Thackeray, and read him in school-hours, and she did not think Thackeray was an author any girl of thirteen ought to be allowed to read. As a matter of fact, no restriction was placed upon her reading, and although she read, no doubt, every work of fiction she could find, she also read a great deal of history, poetry, and philosophy. She had a love of Picture Galleries and Museums, and went constantly to the National Gallery and the British Museum.

She became an excellent musician, and developed a sweet voice of great flexibility.

At an early period she indulged her cosmopolitan instincts by inducing her nurse to place her on the table in the nursery, and wheel the table from side to side, while she stretched cords across the room to hooks in the walls, and, attaching small pulleys, drew little parcels towards herself from all quarters of the globe.

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As soon as she was capable of writing with ease she indulged in the composition of fiction — and this took a singular turn. She wrote for the maid-servants letters to their sweethearts, and the unconventionality of these missives often led to quarrels and misunder- standings between the lovers. It is possible that her ironic humour was scarcely soothing to the vanity of an adored police sergeant.

The dramatic instinct was so strong that she en- treated me to buy a toy theatre for her, with pasteboard figures representing the characters ; and she would invent the story to fit the drama, making little speeches for each character as she pushed them on to the stage. This love of the theatre, I should confess, she may have inherited from me.

A governess at the school she attended told my wife in great alarm that Pearl was in the habit of sitting on a table, with the girls around her, crying with laughter, at her imitations of the men and women she had met in the street.

When in her ninth year Pearl was presented to the late General U. S. Grant. The occasion was this. After the term of his second Presidency of the United States ended, he made the grand tour of Europe, and coming to London, a reception was held at the house of Mr John Welsh, the United States Minister. Mrs Richards and I were invited ; but neither of us could attend, and, to her great delight, Pearl was entrusted with a bouquet of roses, cornflowers, and lilies, to present to the General. This was accomplished in a very graceful manner,

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and General Grant rewarded her with a soldier's hearty thanks.

A curious experience befell my wife, myself, and Pearl on our first visit to Paris in 1869. The novelty of our surroundings was delightful, and we were quite fascinated with the city.

Pearl was then a child of three years, and we were assured, before starting, that there was no necessity for our taking a nurse specially to look after her. We, however, were rudely awakened from our con- fidence at dinner-time. This was at table d'hote, in the hotel. Walking into the dining-room, we were stopped by the Manager, who politely informed us that a child was not allowed to dine with the adults in the public dining-room. I was at first rather indignant, but quickly saw the reasonableness of the prohibition. The manager suggested that we should leave our daughter in the care of the femme de chambre, which we did, and then proceeded to our meal. We felt that this course would be very in- convenient, to be separated at each meal, and the difficulty was solved by removing to a private hotel. Here the Manageress informed us that there was a Spanish nurse in want of an engagement stopping in the hotel, and we engaged this young woman at once. She had been in the service of the Queen of Spain, who was then living with her son, the Prince of Asturias, in her own mansion near the Arc de Triomphe ; and here the nurse on several occasions took Pearl to play with the Prince, who afterwards became King of Spain under the title of Alfonso XII.

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On the first occasion I took her to the theatre, which she had expressed a longing to attend, the play was "The Steeple Chase;" or, " Toole in Pig- skins," with John L. Toole playing the part of "Tittums." To my astonishment, before he had been on the stage thirty minutes, she began to cry, and made such a disturbance that I was obliged to take her out. Toole appeared as a guest in a hotel very much neglected. He was continually ringing the bells, putting his head out of the door, and shouting out to the servants for first one thing — his boots, then hot water, and finishing up each demand with the ex- clamation : " Oh, this does make me so wild ! " Pearl took the matter too seriously, and sympathised with the actor so sincerely as to be completely overcome with anguish.

Upon another occasion, when I took her to the Haymarket to see Mr and Mrs Kendal in " Pygmalion and Galatea," a similar experience befell me, my daughter being overcome by Pygmalion's appeal to the statue to return to life. She soon forgot the sorrow of her experiences, however, and up to her tenth year there was scarcely a week passed in which she did not attend an afternoon performance at one or other of the theatres, accompanied by a nurse. I re- member taking her myself to see the late Joseph Jefferson in " Rip Van Winkle" at the Princess Theatre, and her appreciation of that marvellous actor was not less sincere than my own.

As a child she went frequently on voyages to and fro the United States, and accompanied me often on

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my journeys to France, Germany, and elsewhere. Then she has visited friends in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Her taste for describing foreign places and char- acters is due to the fact that her earliest impressions were formed, no doubt, travelling ; and although her life, since she was sixteen, has been mostly spent in England, she has lived a great deal abroad, and in many parts of the world. It is quite certain that she has never drawn any scene, or presented any situa- tion, or analysed any type of temperament, except through the light of absolute personal knowledge and observation.

Her first professional literary work was journalism and art criticism, which she began soon after her marriage, at nineteen, with Mr Reginald Walpole Craigie, in February 1887.

Mrs Craigie devoted herself with great assiduity to the serious composition of literary work, and her first published book was entitled : " Some Emotions and a Moral." It was published in her twenty- third year. When this was ready for publication she refused all help in obtaining a publisher, and insisted that whatever she wrote should re- ceive no other help towards publication, than the merit there was in the composition. The MS. was first offered by her to Messrs Macmillan, and in returning this with a kind note, they sug- gested that the title of the book should be altered, and that the last chapter should be revised, when they would be glad to become the publishers.

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This she declined to do, and the MS. was next offered to Mr Fisher Unwin, who accepted the work for his Pseudonym Library. At first, Mr Unwin has since told me, he felt a little nervous as to the result; but a week after the publication he wrote Mrs Craigie, saying: " Your book is a success for both author and publisher." Since that time, with one or two excep- tions only, Mr Fisher Unwin has published all her works.

The first play she wrote was " Journeys End in Lovers Meeting" — a proverb, which was performed at Daly's Theatre by Miss Ellen Terry, Mr Forbes Robertson, and the late William Terris, and was greatly commended. Miss Ellen Terry bought the copyright, and has many times since appeared therein, both at the Lyceum Theatre, London, and when on tour in the United States.

"The Ambassador," her next play, was produced at the St James's Theatre, under the management of Mr George Alexander, in 1899. The success of the piece is well known, and the play is now famous as having enjoyed the longest run of any piece pro- duced by Mr Alexander at the St James's Theatre.

Another highly successful play was " The Bishop's Move," in which Mr Arthur Bourchier gave a most touching and impressive performance of the old French Bishop. Her one-act play "A Repentance," which was as generously praised as it was curiously misunderstood, is considered by many one of her best dramatic works. It was first produced at the St James's Theatre, and especially performed at Caris-

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brooke Castle during the reign of the late Queen. It has since been translated into Italian, Spanish, and French. Possibly its subject — the first Carlist War — was not sufficiently local for the average London play-goer.

The question as to the education of my sons occupied my thoughts and those of Mrs Richards very much during their infancy. They were first taught to read and write at home. Then, when old enough, they went to Mr Wilkinson's school in Orme Square, and two years later to Appuldur Combe School, in the Isle of Wight, recently pur- chased by a French religious community. The school buildings were previously the residence of the Earl of Yarborough — a most attractive place. After two years they were entered at Eastbourne College, and remained there until they went up to Cambridge. My eldest son entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and my second Trinity Hall, and each remained the full term prescribed. On leaving Cambridge both, from choice, entered my business establish- ment, and after the preliminary training had been gone through, my firm having been turned into a limited liability company, they became directors, and obtained an interest in the company.

In my boyhood I was very fond of reading a series of books called the " Rollo Books," written by Jacob Abbot, a clergyman, and a distinguished writer of juvenile books. The " Rollo Philosophy " was re- garded as perfect teaching for little American boys. The series included such topics as "At Work," "At

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Play," " Vacation," and "At School"; and the Philos- ophy included the subjects of Water, Air, Fire, and Sky. In 1882, on one of my visits to New York, I purchased a set of these volumes, and returned with them as a present to my sons. I explained my early interest in them, and their great popularity among school lads of my day, and suggested that the books should have an early reading. I soon discovered that neither of my boys cared for them, and said frankly they were not interesting to them. I said "Lend the books to some of your schoolfellows." The result was the same — they would not read them. I was puzzled to know why not. The best answer I could get was that the method was too simple, lacked fire, and they thought them weak stuff. The teaching of the American boy is quite as robust as the English, age for age : I had to conclude that forty years had wrought changes, and perhaps my favourite Rollo Books were now read and appreciated by much younger boys than in the days I refer to ; that tame adventures in which some highly moral truth was developed were not interesting. The boy of the present day preferring the "adventures" and the " moral " in stronger, and separate, doses.

Nelson Richards married in 1898 Dorothy Bishop, daughter of our neighbour, Captain Edgar Bishop ; they have two sons, Arnold and James ; but my eldest son remains a bachelor.

In October 1902 my daughter Dorothy was married to Mr George W. Y. Prendergast, eldest son of General Sir Harry Prendergast, V.C., G.C.B.

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MRS. CRAIGIE AT LANCASTER GATE.

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Directly after marriage she proceeded with her hus- band to Scutari, Albania, where he held the post of British Vice-Consul, and Charge d'Affaires at Cettinge. Taken ill in 1903, he obtained leave of absence, and on his way to England was obliged to loiter for a while at Mentone, where he died in January 1903, leaving one son, born in August 1902, named Jeffrey.

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CHAPTER IX

First Visit to a Theatre — " Romeo and Juliet " — A morning Call — Tenants and Rent-collecting in New York — My early Acquaintance with Mr Joseph Jefferson the Actor — Edwin Forrest — F. B. Conway — Dan Bryant — The London Stage in 1867-68. — Mrs Dallas Glyn — Her Gifts and Death — An Experience at Steinway Hall — Racers through London.

FROM my earliest years I had a very unusual inclination to visiting theatres, and went as often as possible. The first playhouse I ever visited was the St Charles' Theatre in New Orleans, when in my twelfth year, when I was taken to see " Romeo and Juliet." Mr Charles Pope, a popular young actor in the Southern States, took the part of Romeo, and the part of Juliet was taken by Miss Julia Dean. A curtain-raiser preceded the drama, entitled "The Morning Call." This was only a duologue, in which Pope and Julia Dean took part, and, to the disappointment of friends who took me to the theatre, I was more interested in " The Morning Call " than I was in Shakespeare's great drama. I indulged my love of the theatre so much that, while yet a boy, I had witnessed the perform- ances of nearly every popular player of the day, and most of the important productions of all play- wrights. On first entering upon work in New York, my uncle, Mr Edward Cowles Richards (to whom

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I have already referred as a large real estate owner in New York), employed me to collect his rents, which I did in the evening, after work hours. The rents were drawn chiefly from monthly tenants. From a list I have preserved I find I had upwards of sixty people to call upon every month. Some of the people occupied single floors in tenement houses, while others occupied an entire house.

Amongst the latter was a house in East Twelfth Street, New York, which was in the occupation of Mr Joseph Jefferson, the famous actor, who at that time was fulfilling an engagement at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York, as Asa Trenchard in " Our American Cousin." Mr Jefferson nearly always detained me when I called for the rent to have a little conversation with him, and I was never loth to stay. Upon one occasion, after a summer holiday, he told me he had been amongst the Kaatskill Mountains, the scene of Washington Irving's story which he had dramatised ; and also at an old Dutch farmhouse in Paradise Valley, foot of Pocono Mountain, in Pennsylvania, and that he had been trying to learn to speak the Knickerbocker Dutch, as he intended, after the run of " Our American Cousin," to produce, if possible, the play of " Rip Van Winkle " ; in which character he made his life- long success on both sides of the Atlantic. To illustrate his proficiency in the study of the Dutch dialect he sang for me, in the presence of his wife, the famous Dutch drinking song, and also spoke the well-known toast : " Here's good health ; your

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family's good health : may you all live long, and prosper," which I must have heard a long time before any public audience.

During one of my calls he explained that he should not introduce the dog "Schneider" in the coming play, and gave a reason which I do not remember. But I have since read that he gave the following reply to the inquiry, " Why not have the dog in the play?": — "I dislike realism in art. Shakespeare tells us : ' Hold the mirror up to Nature,' which means : ' Don't hold Nature up, but a reflection of the thing.' " When asked : " Why do you not refuse the cup which Gretchen offers you at the end