THE HUMOUR OF LONDON.f
IN addition to writing innumerable excellent stories of lower middle-class life, Mr. Pett Ridge is (or was) in the habit of lecturing up and down the country on the humour of various sides of London life. It is from these lectures, we imagine, that the greater part of this new book has been compiled. It is a volume of reminiscences, reinforced by a number of chapters on such subjects as London Youngsters, Cockney Humour, Gentlemen of Leisure (a very well-written account of the city loafer), the London Sunday, and so forth. Mr. Pett Ridge's manner is deft and easy, and his matter is • Irish Indiscretion& By Warm B. Wells. London : 'George Allen and Unwin. [7s. 6d. l t A Story Teller : Forty Tears in London. By W. Pett Ridge. London : Hodder and Stoughton. 11584 light -without being entirely superficial ; and his book will be chiefly enjoyed-and reme-nbered as a fine treasure-house of good stories, many of them quite new. There are some capital anecdotes of Gilbert, Tree, Barrie and other celebrities around whose names good stories seem to gather. There is an amusing account of Dean Inge . at an annual meeting of the Waifs and Strays Society. Royalty was present, and a long line of very aristocratic children came forward to hand in purses. When it came to the Dean's turn to speak, he said that as an Eugenist, many of his views had been upset by the spectacle witnessed that afternoon, for it was amazing to think that the dear little people who had made a procession were in most cases the offspring of neglectful, perhaps criminal— At this point, Mr. Pett Ridge tells us, "a shiver went through the hail; mothers from Belgravia gave moans of protest ; folk close to the Dean tried to put him right, but, unable to hear them, he went on. It was left to the next speaker to point out that the children were not waifs and strays." But this was not so bad as the absent-minded Bishop we read of here who was asked to say a few words of comfort -to a widower, standing near an open grave in a freshly extended part of the burying-ground. "Good afternoon, my dear sir," said his Lordship, approaching genially, "good afternoon. Our new cemetery is—er- filling up nicely ! " This last phrase reminds us that ambitious after-dinner speakers will find this volume a tower of strength.
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