Cassell's Saturday Journal, 1893-94. (Cassell and Co.)—There is nothing new
to be said about the Saturday Journal. It is a per- petual surprise to see how well these things are kept up, so large is the mass of reading supplied, and so good the level at which it is commonly maintained. We have some recollection of noticing a falling-off in the humour. This year it has revived, and there is quite the average supply of fun. An epigrammatic discrimi- nation of the three classes of passengers may be quoted. First- class are rude to the guard ; the guard is rude to third-class ; second- class are rude to each other. Happily there are exceptions, but there is a rough sort of truth about this. We may also mention a really powerful tale by Mrs. L. T. Meade, entitled "In a Grip of Iron." We cannot quite accept as probable the way in which the
heroine gets into trouble, but her adventures after she has been sentenced to penal servitude make a really exciting story. In her parting from her child, born after her sentence, a very consider- able height of pathos is reached. This story alone gives good value to the Journal. We venture to suggest a doubt as to an incident that is said to have "occurred not many months ago." The joke turns on an old parish clerk understanding by the new parson being about to be " inducted," that he had to be "ducked." " New passon got to be ducked afore 'e can preach." Some one may have said this, though it is not true; and the narrator is certainly wrong when he says : "It was Saturday evening. On the following morning the new incumbent was ` to read himself in' or be 'inducted.'" The two things are quite different. As a matter of fact, induction, which is a purely secular process of putting the incumbent in possession of the temporalities of the benefice, never takes place on Sunday.
Previous page
