"TRANSLATION."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The observations of your correspondent, "W. J. P.," in the Spectator of April 16th, regarding the peculiar use of the word " translation " in certain parts of the Metropolis, recall to my mind an old acquaintance, the self-sacrificing incumbent of a city parish, who was in the habit of stating that, of his parishioners, the most respectable were a "cat's-meat man" and a "translator." To those who were puzzled by the word "translator" in such a connection, he was wont to explain that a " translator " was one whose occupation was to buy all kinds of shoes and boots, which he pulled to pieces, and to reconstruct, so to say, new ones out of the individual portions which might be serviceable for the purpose. I should cer- tainly infer, as your correspondent suggests, that he is called a " translator " because he " translates " a portion of one or more old boots to another. This clergyman was a son of the late Bishop of Chester (Dr. Jacobson), and his life was shortened by his devotion to his duty and by his unselfish abstinence from the necessaries of life, exercised in order
that he might have the wherewithal to give to the poor
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