[To me Ems. or sits "Srserovon."1
Sru,—Many of your readers will have felt indebted to you for the suggestive article in your last week's issue under the heading "The Casual Reader." Although it may seem to be going from the sublime to the ridiculous, may I venture to put on record an early use of the popular catchword "I don't think'? Are there many people who would ascribe it to Dickens? Yet here is a quotation from Martin Chunlewit (p.125, Fireside Edition): "Tom Pinch .. . pursued his rumina- tions thus 'I'm a nice man, I don't think, as John used to say (John was a kind, merry-hearted fellow I wish he had liked Pecksaiff better)? " Perhaps popular slang, like fashions in clothes, reappears in cycles, and it would be interesting to know if this particular specimen was a catchword more than half a century ago, and has been revived after lying dormant in the interval. Or perhaps it is only a coincidence.—I am,
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