One hundred years ago
(Londres. Par Jules Degregny. Paris: Lib- rairie Moderne, 7 Rue St. Benoit.) UNDER the growing habit which travellers of one nation are developing of writing books about another, we are getting pretty well used to all kinds of judgments on ourselves, our character- istics, and our habits. But for a really good vanity-crusher, we would com- mend our readers to the book before us. It is called a realistic sketch, and is the result of a week's visit to London. . . . Though the author himself was never robbed, a friend of his, went into a "bar" in the City to have a drink with his little boy, aged six. He left hold of the boy's hand to get a sixpence from his pocket; he turned round; the boy had disappeared. The father runs to look for him; he sees some ruffians rolling a cask towards the Thames; he rushes up; the villains fly; and in the bottom of the cask is his son "naked as a worm." They were going, he says, to murder the boy for the sake of his clothes; though as the boy was already stripped of his clothes, one does not quite see why the robbers should want to roll his body into the Thames.
The Spectator, 10 August 1889
Previous page
