text:
Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/229

Rh at least one million for the purpose of introducing crocodiles into the Great Lake of Tasmania.

And now a most incredible and astonishing scene took place in this strangest of all Parliaments that I ever saw or heard of. A whisper—a horrid whisper—arose in the assembly during a lull after its late confusion. I heard with the utmost terror and anguish the name of Ubertus bandied about from lip to lip—at first, as I have said, in a low whisper, then in an increasing sound, like the rising of a distant flood, and at last in a tumultuous roar as when that flood bursts in an overwhelming torrent upon the inhabitants of a village, who realize the fact that it is too late for them to save themselves. 'Ubertus, Ubertus!' rose in a mighty whirlwind of voices; 'we will hear Ubertus!' I did not stir. The deafening clamour continued: 'Ubertus, we will hear Ubertus!' was shouted in all directions; and as I still turned a deaf ear, it was succeeded by shrieks, groans, serpent-like hisses, catcalls, and ferocious whistling. Matters were becoming most serious. It was in vain that the Thunderer rose up, and put on his hat, and threw his arms into the air, and rung his bell, and waved his tail over his head. In vain several of the more peaceably disposed members rushed, about and tried to stop the tumult. I would have fled from the chamber, but could not. 'Put him on the table,' now became the cry. 'Let our orders be obeyed: seize him—hold him—force him to speak; on the table—on the table!'

The grim sergeant-at-arms approached me, and laid down his glittering sword. His horrid breath was like a blast from a furnace on my cheek, as he seized me by my coat collar, pressed the muzzle of his revolver to my heart, and compelled me to walk to the table, upon which I was lifted bodily by powerful arms, and then left to myself. The cries of the members were now changed into volleys of


text:
Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/230

222 cheers and 'Hear, hear,' and then the fearful tempest was entirely hushed.

I suddenly bethought me of Parliamentary etiquette, and 'caught the Thunderer's eye,' no very difficult feat, considering that every eye in the vast apartment, including Bellagranda's ravishing pair, was fixed upon me. My speech will hardly bear reporting by the public press. I spoke or rather blundered out my ideas—or my unintelligible jargon—in short convulsive gasps, which were as little likely to give pleasure to my hearers as they did to me. My 'hems' and 'haws' were most painful; my coughs, to gain time, horrible. I used my pocket-handkerchief with a shocking report that resounded through the room, and made many of the facetious members laugh aloud. The wonder is that I did not faint away, or die on the spot.

'Mr. Thunderer ("Hear, hear"). Mr. Thunderer, sir, I find myself in a very (hem) astonishing, and most painful position, one in—no, I mean of—which I am thoroughly and undesirably ashamed. I am on the horns—(disapprobation,—I beg pardon, a great many times—of a surmountable and incombustible dilemma. I feel like the noble New Ireland dog, who found himself—hem, her—surrounded by an immense concourse of b-b-baboons, and was so terrified that his tail he could not wag (laughter, "Hear hear," "No no!" "Turn him out!"). Sir, I humbly crave the pardon of this Honourable House: it is far, a great many miles, from my intention to insult, or to imitate—no, irritate, hem, learned and honourable members. I pity that man who, in this dignified and munificent House, cannot discriminate, or I mean assimilate, between what is noble and undisciplined, and what is entirely unworthy of profound imitation and utterly—demoniacal (sensation)—Mr. Thunderer, Sir, I am a very humble and a highly exalted—no, I mean a protracted, and

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/231

Rh, individual. I am, as you will be undoubtedly, bad enough—hem, ha—to perceive ("Hear, hear" and loud laughter) almost equivalent, or equidistant, to the great I. I. I. himself, whoever he may be. I'm sure I don't care a pinch of snuff (laughter). And now, sir, with regard to the greatest, and most important question in the whole solar system—yes, without which the outermost planets, Neptune and Uranus, could not circumvolate (roars of laughter)—I mean Home Rule, for dear old Ireland ("Hear, hear," and "Did you e'er have the luck to see Donnybrook Fair?" sung by an hon. member). I have the greatest, most incomprehensible, pleasure in assuring this Honourable House that it is a matter of the greatest possible importance, that I was—yes, sir, that I myself was born, and so was Paddy from Cork, and so was the Duke of Wellington: what am I saying?—was born in that supremely happy and totally insalubrious island—my blessings on it for ever (loud cheers)!

(loud laughter)—by Irish luck, ladies and gentlemen ("Order, order!" "Chair, chair!"). Sir, Mr. Thunderer, I beg a thousand pardons—as I was saying when courteously interrupted, by Irish luck I mean, hem, a facility, or rather an unaccountable inaptitude for getting my head broken, or else getting into lions' mouths, which would instantly gnash their teeth and wag their cruel tails (loud roars of "Order, order! Knock him down!" etc.). I humbly implore the protection of the chair. I really mean no offence, no offence whatever. Home Rule is, I have no doubt, in high favour with this most Honourable House ("Hear, hear," and loud cheers). My own opinion is not worth two brass farthings, and I will not trouble them with it, notwithstanding it is this: Home Rule will be the rule of


text:
Page:Evolution of the thermometer.djvu/1

 {|
 * | Evolution of the Thermometer 1592-1743 pg 10.png
 * | Dalencé's Thermometer 1688.
 * }
 * }


text: Page:Evolution of the thermometer.djvu/3


text: Page:Evolution of the thermometer.djvu/4


text:
Page:Evolution of the thermometer.djvu/6

Discoveries and inventions are sometimes the product of the genius or of the intelligent industry of a single person and leave his hand in a perfect state, as was the case with the barometer invented by Torricelli, but more often the seed of the invention is planted by one, cultivated by others, and the fruit is gathered only after slow growth by some one who ignores the original sower. In studying the origin and tracing the history of certain discoveries of scientific and practical value one is often perplexed by encountering several claimants for priority, this is partly due to the circumstance that "coincidence of independent thought is often the cause of two or more persons reaching the same result" about the same time; and partly to the effort of each nation to secure for its own people credit and renown. Again, the origin of a prime invention is 1


text:
Page:Evolution of the thermometer.djvu/7

 obscured by the failure of the discoverer to claim definitely the product of his inspiration owing to the fact that he himself failed to appreciate its high importance and its utility. The task of sketching the origin of the thermometer is fraught with similar difficulties; the actual inventor is known only at second hand, its development from a crude toy to an instrument of precision occupied more than a century, and its early history is encumbered with erroneous statements that have been reiterated with such dogmatism that they have received the false stamp of authority.

One of the most persistent of these errors is the assertion that the thermometer was invented about the year 1608 by a Hollander named Cornelius Drebbel. Wohlwill and Burckhardt have shown how this blunder originated. In 1624 a book was published at Pont-à-Mousson, entitled "La Récréation Mathématicque," over the pen-name A. van Etten, but written by the Jesuit Father Jean Leurechon, in which the author describes and figures a "thermometer, an instrument for measuring degrees of heat and cold that are in the air." The book was popular, passed through many editions and was translated into several


text:
Page:Evolution of the thermometer.djvu/8

 Casper Ens inserted in his "Thaumaturgus mathematicus," published at Cologne in 1651, a translation of the "76th Problem" of Leurechon, containing an account of the thermometer, and added to the word "instrumentum" the adjective "Drebbelianum." Reyer, Sturm, and others copied the phrase and it was incorporated in an article published in the "Journal des Sçavans," 1678, thus becoming a part of authoritative literature.

Ten years later, Dalencé, drawing his inspiration from the "Journal des Sçavans," published an attractive, illustrated volume entitled "Traittez des baromètres, thermomètres, et notiomètres, ou hygromètres, Amsterdam, 1688;" in this he wrote: "The thermometer was invented by a peasant of North Holland, named Drebbel," and he added that Drebbel was "called to the court of King James where he also invented the microscope." This statement was accepted by the Dutch savants Boerhaave and Musschenbroek, the French Abbé Nollet and others, and on their authority has been repeated over and over again, so that until very recently all encyclopedias, dictionaries of science and historical essays in natural philosophy adopted without reservation the phrase:


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/54

Up in the diggings, and in fact pretty well all over the colonies, the good, old, genteel Elizabethan oath, "By our Lady!" has been contracted by frequent usage to "Bloody!" and formed three parts of the common language. Apparently there was no adjective or number of them considered so comprehensive. No sentence was complete without it. It was applied to everything—long, short, tall, thick or thin, high or low, deep or shallow, far or near, white, black or any color, quick or slow, good, bad or indifferent. There was no place where it was not dragged into service, except perhaps in the churches or public schools. And as there was no church at Maytown and the school-house was way off on a hill by itself, the refining influences of these two exceptional establishments were without effect.

If a penny had really been put in the tin can with a slit in the lid every time that particular oath was used in the bar of "Mine Haus" its landlord could long ago have retired from business. But his invitation to his patrons to fine themselves this modest sum each time they swore had gone disregarded for years, and the tin can stood upon the bar counter as a curio rather than as regulator of the language and morals of Maytown. Though the landlord who had first placed it there still ran the "pub," the miners swore unpunished, because for years it was "the only bloody pub in a hundred bloody miles."

"Mine Haus," as he called it, had been kept for years—in fact ever since the "good times" at Maytown—by a thick-set little German named Ahlers. He had several sons and daughters—one in the

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/54


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/55

48 ," so he said; one in a convent at Cooktown learning "bianner und bainting"; one son was a miner on his own account, and another carried the mail round to Palmerville, a route of over two hundred miles, and he did it every week. So they all worked hard.

Ahlers also had a wife who went by the name of "Mine Vife," and dog he called "Shmoker."

The Prince of Wales Hotel, the official name of "Mine Haus"—stood in the middle of the right-hand side of the only street in Maytown. On its left was a dilapidated and empty shanty that in the "good times" used to be the Queensland National Bank, and on its right was a vacant lot covered with empty meat and jam tins. Among these a few dirty aboriginees [sic] squatted, smoking stumpy old bits of broken pipes—and the goats browsed. Beyond this was the hut of a Chinaman—he was the cook at "Mine Haus"—and beyond that two tumbledown shanties, which ended the street.

The other side was occupied by three Chinese stores and by a place that in the old days was a "pub," but which at the time of this incident was inhabited by a man and his wife who acted as caretakers of a lot of worn-out old mining machinery; also of the premises of the deserted bank before mentioned. This family was notable chiefly for a lot of squalling children and for one fat daughter who played upon a broken-down piano with one finger. Below them was chaos and goats as far as Paddy Fahy's, which had lately blossomed into a licensed house where drinks cost only sixpence as against a shilling at "Mine Haus."

Because of this there was war between "Mine Haus" and "Dot Damned Irish Shanty," where drinks cost but sixpence, for it is cheaper to get drunk at sixpence a drink than at double that, a fact that Maytown did not take long to grasp. The landlord of "Mine Haus" could recollect the time when the

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/55


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/56

Rh meal tables "vas full mit von hundert und vorty to vifty miners—efery day! Und dere vas vifteen pubs vot I could count from mine door—zo it vas—und dey vas drink all night, ain't it? Und now I vas tell you, for Gosstruth, I cannot make de zwei ends meet—und dot damned Irish shanty below sellin' der visky und grog for sixpence, ain't it?

"Noaw Harry, vot you vas krumble for zo moch? You ought ter pe 'shamed mit yerself komparing dot low-down shanty mit de Printz obt Vales, so you ought. Get out, Shmoker! Vot I told you? Haf I not toldt it you to get out mit you?" And poor "Shmoker, warned by the dulcet-toned voice of "Mine Vife," would just escape the broom handle and Harry's foot as he scuttled out of the dining room, over the veranda and into the street.

"Dere gets avay dot damnt dog akain! Shmoker, kom here! Kom here! Do you hear me? I vas shain you op mit youself!" And poor "Shmoker" would slink back, to be chained up beneath the water tank in a corner of the yard, where he could see no one and amuse himself with nothing except a stray duckling, which persistently waddled over to the wet ground beneath the leaky tap to fancy itself in a pond.

Poor old Shmoker! He was a sad mongrel, with a long nose that turned up and a tail about an inch out of the proper line—of no breed at all except that in some forgotten age an ancestor must have casually met with an Irish terrier. But Shmoker and I were pals. I used to take him bits of bread, talk doggie-talk to him, and scratch his back with a stick just where the ticks were and he couldn't reach. He loved that.

Shmoker wouldn't let a nigger or a Chinaman near the place at night without raising Cain, so that was where he came in and what made him "vorth his tucker" to "Mine Haus." But he led an awful life;

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/56


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/57

50 so did the ducks and the geese and the fowls, although you wouldn't think it to see them all cluster about Ahlers when he came down the yard each day with a can of corn. For one old duck had a broken wing, and the hens and geese knew more about broom handles than did even poor Shmoker, and one and all they knew "Gott in Himmel" and "Gott tam" as well as they knew the broom.

Such was the sad state of affairs at "Mine Haus" when the miners began to desert it. But there was one crowd living out at the "Comet," headed by Bob Jenkins and his brother Jack, that rode in to it regularly every week for a good drink. They did not patronize "Paddy Fahy's," because their account at Ahler's had grown so big they hadn't the face. They had not the money to "wipe the slate."

Besides Bob and Jack Jenkins there was Isaac Brown, who looked upon himself as "King of Maytown," because he was "our own correspondent" for the Cooktown Independent. Brown used to call an accident "a melancholy catastrophe," and he announced the arrival of Mrs. Brown's baby as "a son and heir was ushered into the world." Oh, Brown was a great man! He had a long, black, bushy beard, of which he always chewed the ends, and a "breath" that he had been cultivating "on the cheap" for many years, in fact ever since he had lost his first wife.

To go back to Bob Jenkins: Bob ran a battery out at the "Comet." It belonged to another man—nobody knew how he got it—but now and then he would cart headings to it from some old claim and have a crushing. All Maytown knew when Bob had a good crushing, and Ahlers was delighted, for he had visions of Bob's score being wiped out—but it never was. Bob got drunk all the same, however.

Bob had just finished a crushing that cleaned up badly. He had put through about fifty tons, but there

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/57


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/58

Rh was the firewood and the carting to be counted. As he put it, "The God damned stuff only went five bloody weights and all my bloody work gone for a whole bloody fortnight."

Well, after this crushing, Bob and Jack rode into Maytown together, rounded up Isaac, "shouted" for old Ahlers and Charley, who had just come in "off the census," and lounged all together into the bar of "Mine Haus," where they got down to business.

"Vy you fellers no go down mit the Irish shanty, ain't it?" asked Ahlers after the third round.

"Oh, damn the Irish shanty," answered Bob. "Look here, Ahlers, you and me's known each other for years and I've allers drunk at this bloody pub, and I ain't a-goin' to shift down to that bloody shanty anyway."

"Vell, Bob, I alvays haf done my best for you. You can't say that I haf not, can yer?"

"No bloody fear, Harry, I can't. Come on, let's have another. Wot's it to be? Here, Charley, wot's yours? Jack, fill up again. Isaac?"

Isaac broke in sharply, "Same!" He never let a chance slip.

"You, Harry, wot are yer goin' to do?"

"Shoost the same, Bob, shoost the same."

And so it went until Charley Ahlers said he was going home.

"G'long!" It was about ten o'clock now and Bob and Jack were both drunk.

"G'long!" said Bob. "Have another."

"No, Bob, no more."

"You're no bloody good, you ain't," cried Jack.

"I'm as good as you and chance it." Charley laughed.

"I'm damned if you are."

"Yes, I am, and you know it."

"Put yer bloody hands up and see," shouted Jack, "you—you—"

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/58


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/59

52 "Mein Gott, Bob, no fightin' here!"

"Oh, you go to hell, you bloody Dutchman."

"Look here, Jack, don't you go to insulting my father!" chirped up Charley, getting a bit ugly.

"I say he kin go ter Hell and you with him. Come out in the road and I'll belt Hell out of yer and every bloody Dutchman in the place."

"Yer can do it, too, Jack, can't yer?" yelled Bob, now gloriously drunk.

"My bloody colonial oath!"

"Well, you keep a civil tongue in yer head, Jack—that's all," and Charley turned away to go.

"Ah, yer bloody Dutch whelp—take that!" and Jack lunged viciousy at young Ahlers, hitting him heavily.

Now, Charley was one of those long-limbed, wiry, sinewy Colonials, used to working hard, seldom drinking and leading a decent sort of a life. Once roused, however, he was a terror, and now he was fairly roused.

The fight didn't last long, for Jack fell about all over the place while Charley pounded him.

O'Reagan, the constable, strolled down when he thought that the fight had gone as far as did good, and separated the men. He summoned Bob and Jack to appear in court the next day for creating a disturbance and using obscene language in a public place, and it cost Bob and Jack about three pounds in fines and costs.

But Bob found another thing yet a bitterer pill to swallow. Father Ahlers, having been summoned as a witness, appeared against him. When it was all over Bob made straight for the old German and shook his fist in his face.

"Never again—so help me—will I touch another bloody drop in your bloody house," he yelled. "By God. and this is what you call gratitude! And I—I—I've kept your bloody house open for years!"

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/59


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/60

Rh "Und how?" cried the furious old man, "und how? Mit a slate!"

Next week Bob took his cargo aboard at "dot damned Irish shanty," but when too drunk to move or be moved he coiled himself up on the verandah of "Mine Haus." Here Paddy Fahy saw him and chuckled.

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/60


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/73

Rh and a shower of arrows, and waving above her head a great silken banner embroidered with the fleur-de-lis. Again, one lingers before the "Fêtes de Paris," attracted by its

fine decorative qualities. Of an entirely different kind is the delicious little poster which the artist did for an exhibition of his own work at the Salon des Cent in 1894; in the naïve simplicity of the thing,

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/73


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/74

54 with its fine decorative quality, there is a hint of Botticelli and the old Italians. The contrast between this poster, slightly archaic as it is, and the realistic "Odéon Théatre" is complete. The latter represents a charmingly graceful girl, in a delicious modern gown, watching a play. She is accompanied by a highly-proper looking matron, whose self-importance is enhanced by the possession of a handsome dress and a wealth of jewels. Very pretty, again, is the "Librairie Romantique," with the facade of Nôtre Dame in the background. Less worthy of Grasset is the "A la Place Clichy," which, in spite of the majestic old oriental who descants on the merits of an elaborate carpet to a critical European, is somewhat commonplace. Among the other productions of this artist, some of them excellent, but not calling for special description, are the "Histoire de France," "Napoléon," "Chocolat Mexicain," and "L'Encre Marquet," as well as those done to advertise a work on the capital cities of the world, and the exhibition of the productions of French decorative artists held in 1893 at the Grafton Gallery. A bill designed for the South of France Railway Company is curious, insomuch as it is unlike the other productions of its designer. It consists of a series of pleasant little landscapes wreathed in the characteristic fruits and flowers of the Riviera. The colour is striking and the

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/74


text: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/75

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/75


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/79

Rh poster full of sunshine. It is one of the merits of Grasset that he is not, even in what is to him so small a matter as poster-designing, the slave of a single style,

although all his works are obviously from the same hand. Before leaving him, it should in fairness be stated that the lettering of his bills is ever appropriate and

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/79


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/80

60. True artist that he is, he neglects no detail whatsoever; in the smallest thing

as in the greatest, he is not merely scrupulous, but even fastidious.

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/80


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/81

Rh It is no dispraise of Chéret and Grasset to say that the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is more fascinating than theirs. The designs of the former two are alike in

that they are charming, though charming in manner entirely different; Lautrec's productions, alluring and powerful as they are, can by no stretch of the word be so

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/81


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/82

62 scribed. He does not seek to attract you by joyousness of colour or grace of pattern, but rather to compel your attention by the force of his realism or the curiosity of his grotesqueness. For his posters are at once realistic and grotesque; they are delineations of life as seen by a man who, possessing the most acute powers of observation, is poignantly impressed by the incongruities of modern life, the physical peculiarities of modern men. He has some points of similarity with Hogarth, with Rowlandson, and the like, but his art is quite non-moral; he has no mission to depict vice as either hideous or ridiculous. His extraordinary "Reine de Joie," perhaps the most powerful, and certainly the least agreeable, of his posters, is a statement of fact rather than a criticism. This great bill, owing to the vehemence of the expression on the faces of the three people it represents, to the wonderful vigour of its line, to its extraordinarily effective, though simple, colour, is one of the most powerful designs of the kind ever accomplished. It may be doubted whether any book has been advertised in so unforgettable a manner as La Reine de Joie.

For the Paris café chantant artiste who possesses the charming name of Jane Avril, this designer has devised a grotesque decoration, which could not fail imperiously to call attention to her talents as a dancer. Inspired it may be by her name, it may be

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/82


text: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/83

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/83


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/85

Rh by a happy accident, Lautrec has employed a scheme of colour in which are found the pale

sulphur hue of the primrose, the deeper yellow of the daffodil, the crimson of the

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/85


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/86

66 tulip. Once having seen this work, the name, and indeed something of the personality, of Jane Avril is impressed on ones mind. Moreover, one easily recalls this unassuming poster vividly, when works of art, consecrated by the admiration of generations of critics, are quite forgotten, or only faintly remembered. No man of more passionate and curious talent than Aristide Bruant has ever devoted himself to the business of light amusement, and it was no doubt quite congenial to Lautrec to advertise the performances which he gives in his cabaret. Again, the artist's picture of another entertainer, Caudieux, represented in the act of quitting the stage, is masterly for its indication of movement and its powerful characterization. Bad from the advertisers point of view, but most interesting from that of the collector, is the extremely rare "Le rendu," a production which for weird and intense tragedy compares to advantage with any of the artist's posters. Scarcely less rare, though by no means so important, is the affiche done to advertise the performances of La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge. A far more agreeable design is the "Divan Japonais," in which a fearful and wonderful girl, accompanied by a man as fashionable as he seems to be imbecile, is represented under the spell of Yvette Guilbert, whose tall, thin figure is seen across the orchestra, her arms, in the famous black gloves, being

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/86


text: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/87

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/87


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/95

Rh crossed in front of her with characteristic nonchalance.

It is in no way astonishing that Mile. Guilbert has strongly attracted Lautrec, and that he has frequently made her the subject of his work. No music-hall performer has, so far, approached this brilliant woman in ability or in artistic prestige. Like Patti and Sarah Bernhardt, she is implored to testify to the merits of every brand of soap or every new perfume; like them her reputation extends beyond the bounds of her native place, and she is the admired of several foreign capitals. If the flower of French art and literature assemble to honour Zola, the proceedings are incomplete without a song from her; if the fastidious De Goncourt is presented with the rosette of the Legion of Honour, what more fitting than that she should deliver a recitation? In some degree she sees the life of modern Paris in the same light as Lautrec; her wonderful delineations are realistic as are his, though their realism is touched with a suspicion of the grotesque. Amongst other things, she has inspired Lautrec to a series of illustrations remarkable alike in drawing and colour; and he has not disdained to design lithographs to adorn the covers of different items of her répertoire. Owing to his kindness, I am enabled to reproduce, as the frontispiece to this volume, a sketch for a poster which he designed for her, but which,

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/95


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/96

76, has never got beyond the experimental stage. It seems to me a specially interesting example of a remarkable talent applied to a very congenial subject. The posters of Lautrec are something more than works of art; they are human documents strangely eloquent of their moment. For this reason, their value may be more permanent than that of the productions either of Chéret or Grasset, delightfully fantastic as are the former, charmingly decorative as are the latter.

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/96


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/97

It is not for a moment to be pretended that the artists with whom this chapter deals are in any sense members of a single school: they have, indeed, many more points of difference than of similarity. I deal with them together, because, speaking roughly, their designs are saturated with the spirit of the day: their decorations are realistic, rather than fantastic or picturesque. They lean towards Lautrec, rather than towards Chéret or Grasset, but they are in no sense his imitators; some of them, indeed, are actually his predecessors.

Willette is an artist of such astonishing facility and variety, that he has, comparatively speaking, devoted little time to the affiche, and save in one or two conspicuous instances, he has failed to achieve compelling advertisements. And yet his artistic personality is so curious and so powerful that his posters are nearly all interesting to the

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/97


text:
Page:Picture Posters.djvu/98

 collector,—more interesting to the collector, it may well be, than satisfactory to the advertiser. Willette is master of several manners. He can be realistic to the point of brutality, symbolical, graceful; while now and then he is almost austerely classical. There are, happily, few posters so impregnated with race hatred as the anti-Semitic bill intended to forward the artist's candidature at the Elections législatives of the 22nd of September, 1889. The design is ugly in the last degree, but it is, nevertheless, strangely powerful. Very different and very much more pleasing is the lithograph in black—admirably composed and executed —which advertised the successful pantomime, entitled L’Enfant Prodigue. The design is at once graceful and dramatic, and it is not surprising that a proof before letters is one of the gems of a collection of the posters of Willette. No more interesting souvenir of an experiment which fascinated both Paris and London can be conceived. Again, the bill advertising the International Exhibition of Commerce and Industry, held some time ago at the Champs de Mars (an unlettered proof of which commands no less than two pounds), is very desirable. The little bill in colours bearing the legend,

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/98


text: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/99

title: Page:Picture Posters.djvu/99


text:
Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/69

64 happy; while by neglect or unkindness they are as certainly made miserable.

I can not then believe, but that it might be a help to mothers in the moral training of their children, to allow them the care of animals; because, without drawing into the scheme of education these lower creatures, it is impossible that a child should stand in the position of a responsible being as regards the welfare of others. If, however, the mother should so far lose sight of the end she ought to have in view, as to permit her child merely to caress it favorites, instead of providing for their support, and making them comfortable in every way; if the gardener is to feed the rabbits, and little miss and master are to call them their own; or if the housemaid is to put the aviary in order, while they fondle the birds; then, indeed, the dignified sense of being possessors of property had better be done away with altogether, for any good it is likely to effect. Better, a thousand times, to open the cage, or the rabbit-house, and let the captives go, than suffer little masters and mistresses to grow up in the belief that they are really kind, when they do nothing toward putting their kind feelings into operation for the good of others. If, too, the mother should be so negligent as to allow creatures thus confined to suffer from neglect, she will, as the instrument of inflicting misery, be little qualified for teaching her children how to pity. The only safe and effectual method of turning this system to good account, is for the mother to inspect, or to depute some one else to watch over the welfare of the animals for their good; while, for the good of her children, she allows them to act as if they were the only responsible agents in the whole matter. All neglect must therefore be chargeable upon them; while the health, happiness, and general prosperity of the establishment, must be attributed, so far as it can be with justice, to their good management.

It is a remarkable fact, that the most amiable mothers sometimes train up the most unamiable children. This, however, will only be found to be the case where the mother is either ignorant or inconsiderate. A woman who is merely amiable, and who has never accustomed herself to think of the moral tendency of certain actions, who only

title: Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/69


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/62

Good Lord, how it rained! It wasn't a shower or a squall; it came down in bucketsful; the whole reservoir of Heaven seemed to have burst and emptied the accumulated water of centuries upon our devoted decks. I was one of the mates of a big passenger liner, a large three-masted, ship-rigged vessel with double top-gallant yards, not then so much in use as they are today. She was the "Thomas Stevens," one of the quickest and smartest ships afloat with passengers from Melbourne to London. We were swinging into position to enter the Milwall docks. My foot touched land for the first time for ninety days when I leaped from the rail onto the dolphin at the Dock gates, slipped the end of our guess-warp over the bollard, and sang out to them inboard to take in the slack.

"Hullo!" came a hail from the pier-head, muffled by the mist and noise of the falling rain.

I looked around. On the pier I could see indistinctly a few miserably wet-looking men and one or two dockhands comfortably enveloped in oilskins, off which the water poured in torrents.

"Hullo!" came the hail again. "Hullo, is that you, Harold?"

Harold was my name right enough, but I didn't know who on earth could be hailing me. I had been out in Australia for nearly five years. My dear father was dead. My sisters were married; one was in India, the other with her husband's regiment God knows where, and my elder brother had been in Canada for many years, and for all I knew was still there. I hadn't a friend in the world I could expect to greet me. Though I heard my name, I thought there must be some man among the passengers with the same name, so I took no notice. When the ship swung alongside the dolphin

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/62


text:
Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/70

Rh desired that her children should be made happy for the time being, without any idea of their future welfare, will punish and deny herself to almost any extent, for the purpose of procuring them a momentary gratification; and then perhaps she will feel hurt at their want of gratitude and esteem toward herself.

This, as well as other strange anomalies in the characters of what are called amiable women, have done much to convince me, that sound principle and common sense, with unquestionably a due proportion of warm-heartedness, are in the long-run more conducive to individual, as well as social happiness, than those ungoverned springs of tenderness and love, which burst forth and exhaust themselves, without calculation or restraint.

A merely amiable woman, who has never submitted her feelings to the government of common sense, will reject the idea of its being a duty to make her own comfort and convenience objects of primary consideration among her children. She will reject this idea, under the impression that it is too selfish for her to act upon. Her principle is one of disinterested love, and therefore she never places herself in the way of her children's gratification, never requires anything of them toward her own comfort, allows them to eat all their good things without asking her to partake, and to seize every means of gratification which may fall in their way, without the slightest reference to her. That such children will naturally grow up greedy, selfish, and regardless of their mother, it is scarcely necessary to say. Yet what is to be done where the mother is so amiable, so meek, and so disinterested, that she absolutely can not consent to make herself an object of consideration?

It would certainly be a very interesting and charming alternative in this difficult case, if, while the sweet mother should purposely shrink into nothing in comparison with her children, the father would draw her merits forth to view, and place her first on every occasion in the attention and regard of his family. Such a picture of domestic life might indeed embellish the pages of a novel; but unfortunately the real world in which we live is so constituted that fathers of families have little time for adorning their wives

title: Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/70


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/63

56 I jumped aboard into the mizzen-rigging and then, just as I reached the deck, out of the mist came the hail again.

"Hullo, Harold, is that you?"

I turned and peered through the rain. A slight, clean-shaven man stood on the pier-head waving a stick. God, how wet he was! I looked again. There was something familiar about him. The voice, too, I seemed to have heard before.

The ship was creeping nearer every moment, and the figures ashore getting more distinct. Out of the mist came the voice again:

"Is Harold Bellew on board?"

There was no mistake about that anyway. I turned and sang out, "Yes, who are you?"

"Evelyn," came the answer.

It was my brother. We had not met for thirteen years. We stood staring at each other speechless.

When we got alongside he climbed aboard. He had heard by some means that I had shipped on the "Thomas Stephens" and come down to meet me at the dock. I was enveloped in oilskins, and he, poor chap, was soaked to the bone. We couldn't speak, either of us, and I felt a lump in my throat, and was glad it was raining. Hurrying him into my berth to put on some of my dry clothes, I returned on deck to my duties, which would end when the decks were cleared up.

"That will do, men," sang out the mate.

Wet as they were, the hands tumbled over the side and went off in a body to get their first drink at a little public house outside the gates.

"What are yo going to do, Mr. Bellew?" asked the mate as we walked aft together.

"I don't know till I get ashore."

I had shipped only for the run home, and I knew the owners would have another man of their own to take my place on the ship's next voyage.

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/63


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/64

Rh My brother and I were about the same size, so my clothes fitted him all right. "Where shall I go?" I asked him.

"I have a room up in Maida Vale, near dad's old church. Come there with me, old chap."

So I went.

We had sorry stories to tell each other. He was down to his last penny, and I, after the ship paid off, found myself the possessor of just eight pounds in the world. We divided the money and then discussed the past. Poor old fellow! he's dead now. He had made just as big a mess of life as I had, worse even, for he had greater chances which he had thrown to the winds. He had gone to America with McHenry, the great railroad magnate, and might have done anything, for he was a splendid engineer. But he had got bitten by an absurd stage fever and thrown up everything to follow the fortunes of a company of players in Toronto. How many years he had been roaming about doing what he could to keep body and soul together he didn't say. But, at my father's death, he had come home, and when we met on that pelting wet August morning he was literally strapped.

We discussed the question what was to be done.

"I can't get anything to do. The theatrical managers won't look at me," he told me. The truth was, poor chap, he never was a good actor.

"I must go back to engineering," he admitted, "but how—how—how? Every billet seems to be full."

He scanned the columns of the Daily Telegraph. There were lots of "Wanteds." He told me he had answered hundreds until he was sick of being turned down and of getting no answers to his letters.

In the middle of one column my eyes fell upon the following advertisement, which I read out aloud:

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/64


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/65

58

"Won't that do?" I asked him.

"Good God, that's been there for a week. I've sat on the doorsteps of the Adelphi for hours only to get turned down for my pains."

"Well," said I, "I haven't got a ship. I don't see any chance of getting one. I won't go before the mast. I can't starve, and I haven't any money except these few sovereigns. I'm the lightest comedian I know just now and I'm going to have a shot at Charles Barrington, Esquire."

My brother laughed at me. "What sort of a chance have you got?" he cried.

"There are lots of damned fools who know no more than I do and get billets every day in other businesses. I'll have a try, anyway."

"If you give your name as 'Bellew' he'll tarn you down at once. He will think it is I and refuse to see you."

"That's easily fixed. I'll send in my Christian name, 'Harold Kyrle.' That sounds like a theatrical name, anyway."

After considering the matter further it was agreed that I should go to the Adelphia the next morning and try my luck. I had no clothes except what I had been wearing at sea. My best coat, a blue serge, bore the gilt anchor-buttons the company insisted that its officers should wear. We went out, and finding a little tailor's shop where "Repairs Neatly Executed" was posted in the window, we went in, and the little tailor soon clipped off my buttons and in their place sewed a set of neat plain black ones. Barring my cap, which

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/65


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/66

Rh bore the company's badge, I was now turned into a civilian.

"Now for a pot-hat," cried I, "and I'm all ready to pass for a 'light comedian.'"

The eventful morning arrived. At half-past ten I found myself ushered into the presence of a very pale, thin-faced, clean-shaven, mouse-colored man who was sitting at a table busy opening letters taken from a pile scattered in front of him. He looked up for an instant, and then, resuming his work, said in rather a soft, pleasant voice:

"You wish to see me, Mr.—Mr.—?"

"Kyrle, Harold Kyrle, sir," I broke in as he took up the little piece of paper on which my name was written.

"Kyrle—Kyrle, I don't think I know the name," he said, still gazing at the piece of paper. "What can I do for you?" He settled back, his elbows resting upon the arms of his chair and joining the tips of his fingers, looked me up and down.

I was bronzed, hard as a nail and salt-pickled—a direct contrast to the anaemic gentleman before me. I remember feeling a kind of pity for him, he looked so weak and puny.

"I came to see Mr. Charles Barrington in answer to this advertisement in the Daily Telegraph.

"Oh!" said he, "I am Mr. Barrington. Are you a light comedian? I don't remember your name."

"Probably not," I answered; "I only arrived from Australia a couple of days ago."

"Australia? Oh! Have you had much experience out there?"

Experience! thought I to myself. I had been in every mortal thing a man could be except in gaol. As he failed to specify what kind of experience I answered boldly:

"Any amount."

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/66


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/67

60 "Ah! They change the bill very frequently out there—stock companies, I believe?"

"Very frequently," I replied, which was quite true.

"It must be very hard work, I should imagine."

I assented.

Our conversation continued in this way for some time. During it all he never asked me once directly or indirectly whether I had ever been upon the stage, so I felt my conscience perfectly clear in conforming my answers to the questions he put without volunteering anything else.

At last Mr. Barrington seemed satisfied. "Well, Mr. Harold Kyrle," he said, "I think you will suit me. Go round to Blackmore's, the agents, in Garrick Street, give him this note and he will give you a contract. The salary will be two pounds per week. We find costumes, except wigs, shoes, stockings, swords, jewelry and laces. Will that suit you?"

Anything would have suited me! With a profusion of thanks in my heart, which I carefully concealed from him, I bowed myself out of Mr. Charles Barrington's presence and walked out into the strand.

My poor brother was waiting for me nearby. When I told him of my success he stared at me open-mouthed.

"Well, I'm damned!" he said.

"All right, old chap, don't anticipate things," I responded gleefully. "Now let's go up to this bally agent's, or whatever he is, 'sign on,' and then we'll go and 'wet' the commission. Where is Blackmore's?"

"You don't mean to say that he has made you go to Blackmore's?" exclaimed my brother.

"He has. Why shouldn't he?"

"Only that Blackmore will take ten per cent of your miserable salary for ten weeks, that is all."

"The devil he will," cried I.

"It's a sort of authorized custom of the profession," explained my brother. "You'll have to submit until

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/67


text:
Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/71

66 with honors which they blush to wear. Fathers of families in the present day, and the fact can not be acknowledged without serious regret, are for the most part too deeply engaged in the pursuit of objects widely differing in their nature from those which belong to the moral discipline of home; and therefore it becomes more the duty of mothers, especially those of the middle class of society, to look beyond the things of the moment, to consider the almost double responsibility which devolves upon them, and to inquire earnestly into the probable means of ensuring the future good of their children.

It is not, however, so generally from an excess of humility that mothers neglect the opportunity, while their children are young, of inspiring them with a grateful regard for the maternal character, as from a mistaken idea that in the natural relation of a child to its mother, there exists a bond cf such inherent power that circumstances can neither strengthen nor destroy it. They forget that we do not love our relations simply because they are such, and that even the revered name of mother derives its sacred and endearing character from the associations of early life,, rather than from any feeling of mere relationship on the part of the child; though it is a great happiness that, in after life, and when these associations have been tender and endearing, the idea of relationship gives stability and warmth to our feelings of affection.

Of all the disappointments which assail the peace of mothers, and unquestionably they are many, I believe those which originate in the mistaken notion here alluded to, are by far the most numerous; and if the wounded feeling which in after years so often takes possession of the maternal breast, on finding that all the personal sufferings endured, the sacrifices made, and the care bestowed upon the helplessness of childhood, seem to be forgotten as regards, the tender and devoted being from whom originated this constant flow of disinterested love—if such feelings could be obviated by the exercise of a little more calculation as to cause and effect in the training of childhood, what a different position the mothers of some families might hold! while in proportion to the satisfaction of their own minds

title: Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/71


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/68

Rh you are strong enough to tell the agents all to go to the Devil."

I determined that time should come—and it did eventually.

To make a long story short, I went to the agent's and came away with a contract in my pocket to play light comedy on a provincial tour under the management of Mr. Charles Barrington for two pounds a week. And I was muleted of ten shillings and ten per cent of my salary for ten weeks, just for the privilege of inscribing my name on Mr. Blackmore's books.

But anyway, I was a full-fledged actor now! Ten days later I found myself, about half-past eight at night, walking onto the stage of the Theatre Royal, Brighton, dressed up in a gorgeous costume of pale blue and silver, and with a long fair-haired wig upon my head, acting "Lord Woodstock" in Tom Taylor's successful and picturesque play, "Clancarty."

The papers the next morning—shall I ever forget them?—said I "played splendidly."

The moral of this story is doubtful, but it only goes to show what a sailor with a face like a brazen image and illimitable cheek can do when put to it.

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/68


text: Short Stories (Bellew)/Mine Haus

title: Short Stories (Bellew)/Mine Haus


text: Short Stories (Bellew)/How I Got on the Stage


text:
Talk:The Slavery of Our Times

Leo Tolstoy, graf, (1828-1910).- The Slavery of Our Times, 1900. .

title: Talk:The Slavery of Our Times


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/70

They were very hard up, for times were bad in the theatre world, and nobody seemed to want either one or the other. But no one knew it except themselves. They used to look helplessly into each other's eyes every morning, when he would come up from his dingy little home to where she lived, to see if, Micawber-like, anything had turned up.

"Nothing, Chicken?"—his name for her.

"Nothing, Hen!"—her name for him.

And another hopeless day would drag along.

So it went for months.

They had been pals for years—players together all over the world—won together—rejoiced together suffered together—and he had watched over her just like an old hen over her one chicken.

So she called him "Hen-mother," then "Hen" for short.

And now things looked very blue.

In early life he had been at sea, but drifted away into the Australian bush, while his ship lay at Sandridge Pier and a new rush broke out. The rush was way up north on the Palmer; plenty of gold and lots of fever; he got some of both, and it became a question whether to get rich and die or get out. So he "humped his drum" to. the coast. But he had seen gold. One day, camping at noon, he knocked a piece of stone off the cap of a reef which showed color freely.

Gold had come too late! He crawled away along the ghastly track through Maytown to Hell's Gates and on to Cooktown where he stowed away on a ship bound south.

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/70


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/71

64 They played together in Australia years afterwards, and he often spent an hour telling her of the old life on the Palmer River. They did well, made money and came back to London, where things prospered for them both, until one awful November day when she said she "felt gray"—and for three months doctors watched her hanging between life and death. Every night on his way to the theatre he would look up into the murky London sky and pray God for her life. And God was very good and listened, and he thanked God from his heart. It was soon after this that things got so bad, and they came across a man they had known in the Colonies and all got to talking gold.

"I know where there's gold," said Hen.

"Where?"

"Up on the Palmer."

"Palmer's abandoned years ago."

"So was Bendigo once."

"How do you know gold's up there?"

"I've seen it."

"But it's all worked out."

"I don't think so."

And they looked over Dr. Jack's latest geological map and found no reef marked where Hen said there was gold.

"There's a fortune up there." Hen put his finger on a spot that lay about twenty-six miles to the southeast of Maytown.

"Why don't you go and get it if you're so sure?"

And the man laughed.

And the "Chicken" sighed.

And the "Hen" folded up the map and put it way.

But a few weeks later, at the "Stores," he and she were buying a few cheap necessaries for some one who was going into the tropics.

"I want a pillow of some sort—anything will do," said Hen.

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/71


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/72

Rh There were many sorts to choose from, but all seemed very dear, they thought, for money was very scarce. That friend whom they had told had lent Hen enough to get out to the Palmer.

"I want you to have a comfortable pillow, Hen. What does it matter—a few shillings—and it will be so much better. Flock gets into such horrid lumps—and it's so hot and study—horse-hair will keep you cool."

"How much are these horse-hair pillows" asked Hen.

"A guinea, sir."

Hen looked up and drew a quick breath.

Chicken sighed.

"That settles it! Flock—three and six—will do for me."

Chicken turned away and seemed very interested in an advertisement of somebody's soap. When she thought no one noticed, she quickly brushed her cheek with her handkerchief. She had a horse-hair pillow at home.

But Hen-mother had seen. hen they left the "Stores," he chaffed about feather pillows and such luxuries, and told her that a clean sheet of Stringy-bark with a saddle for a pillow made as comfortable a bed as anyone could possibly want in the bush.

He was going back again—after twenty years—to look for gold. It seemed a wild idea, a hopeless sort of scheme, this going out to Australia, but they had talked it over and thrashed it out and isit (?) [sic] seemed best. And so one day he came up in the morning for the last time. It was ten o'clock, and his ship was to sail from the Albert Dock at twelve.

For the first time in twelve years they were parted.

On the ship he commenced a diary and the opening words were: January 18, 1900. The most miserable day of my life.

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/72


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/73

66 Weeks after, when he got her first letter, which was written the day he left, he read through dim eyes.

"My Hen-mother—I couldn't see anyone—I just locked my door—and threw myself down on my bed—and buried my face in the pillow—and then I thought of your poor old head on the horrid flock pillow—and my heart broke. . . ."

He had an old photograph of her he always carried, and, sitting in his tent at the Laura River thousands of miles away, he looked at it and kissed the beautiful face it pictured to him.

Time went on. Fortune seemed turning for them both. She had one or two good offers in London and wrote out, "Don't worry, my Hen, about me. If the piece is a success I shall be all right." And it was a success.

And he wrote home to her, "I am in luck. I found the old spot where I camped years ago and broke the stone. The country is wild, unutterably wild and lonely. There is nothing within miles of me. I am absolutely alone. I have worked on the reef, which is a very fine one, and shows gold freely. It is on the top of a spur, and the other day I was fossicking in the gully below when I came across some nice little pieces of gold. But it is lonely—lonely—lonely—beyond words."

Months went by until one day she received a cable from Reuter and her heart stood still. She trembled and hesitated to open it for it was from Australia. What had happened?

She shut herself up and turned the key in the door, then knelt down by the desk where she kept all her letters and murmured, "God grant there is nothing wrong!" Then she opened the envelope and read the cable.

"Maytown.

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/73


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/75

68 little bags of gold before sending the quartz to Aldershot to be crushed and assayed.

A couple of weeks later the sensation of the evening paper in Brisbane was as follows:

Hen traveled by the first P. & Q. boat that started after he had lodged the gold in the bank and received a draft for it on London payable at ninety days to Chicken. His Palmer gold proved to be as good as any in the world and fetched over four pounds an ounce at the Sydney Mint.

So now, what with the gold itself and the purchase money for the mine, he was rich. As he came over the gangway of the steamer, a rather disreputable-looking digger's "swag" was being hoisted on board. Lashed to this were a pick, a shovel and a pan, with labels on them, "Sydney to London." They were old friends that had "seen him through," and in the heart of the

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/75


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/76

Rh "swag" was a very much worn and clay-stained flock pillow.

"I'll keep the old traps as curios," he said to the third officer, who asked him why on earth he was shipping such a kit as that.

It was midsummer when he reached home and she was living up the river where he found her one glorious evening looking radiantly beautiful and happy. They would neither of them speak—their hearts were too full—and the tears started to their eyes as their hands met. At last he said:

"Chicken, I have brought home something for you—here it is." And he put his hand in his pocket and from an old worn leather case produced a faded photograph of her, round which was wrapped a draft for twelve thousand pounds.

"It helped to stuff my pillow along with the flock."

They both laughed nervously.

He held out the paper. Mechanically she took it and saw what it was, then wanted to speak but no words came. She was choking but, dimly, through the rush of her own feelings saw the tears trickle down his gaunt, bronzed cheeks. Then all got blurred and she sobbed out, her heart clasped close in his arms.

They were drifting in a punt alone on the river. In the moonlight, he had told her all his life since he had left her a year ago and she had told him all hers. He was still a young man as men go, and she in the prime of her beauty and womanhood. He had loved her for years but he had been too poor to talk of anything to her but work.

"What will you get from the "Hen and Chicken?" she asked.

They sat together on the cushions in the middle of the punt. He turned the paddle slightly with which he steered. "All told about a hundred and thirty to a hundred and fifty thousand." He turned, looked

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/76


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/77

70 into her beautiful eyes in the moonlight and smiled happily. "Half of that's yours, Chicken."

"Mine!"

"Yes—we're 'mates'—we've always been 'mates' and out in Australia your 'mate' always has half of everything."

"Oh, that's absurbabsurd [sic], Hen. Half a loaf when you haven't anything else—or half—half—" She couldn't think of anything else just then.

"We were 'mates,' dear, when I went away and if we aren't to remain 'mates,' I wish I had never gone. It has been awful—alone in the bush—never seeing you. I have been away a whole year and you have had to fight it out alone when I might have been here to help you."

"But you have helped me—more than you could have done by staying by me."

"Then I am content, at least—"

"At least?"

"Almost."

"What more can you want?"

"Can't you guess, Chicken?" His voice was very tender, very low and carried her thoughts back for years to the night when first she played "Juliet" to his "Romeo," and he murmured to her in the Balcony Scene in a voice that woke an echo in her own heart which had sounded there ever since. But to her he had always ben "Hen-mother." She was like a child; she had told him all her troubles, all her joys; to him her word, her wish was a law, and yet they were 'mates' who had grown necessary to each other, although they had never spoken of love.

"I know—" she said it very tenderly, as she took his hand and nestled a little closer. "I know—you want me to give you a horse-hair pillow in place of your old flock one."

He looked round. Her eyes were infinitely gentle,

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/77


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/78

Rh her head had sunk down on his shoulder and her face was turned up to his in the moonlight.

"Yes—beloved—" He spoke very slowly and drew her closer to him. He could just hear her whisper:

"You shall have mine!"

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/78


text: Short Stories (Bellew)/Hen and Chicken

title: Short Stories (Bellew)/Hen and Chicken


text:
The South

The South. Yes, give me the land Where the ruins are spread, And the living tread light On the heart of the dead; Yes, give me the land That is blest by the dust, And bright with the deeds Of the down trodden just. Yes, give me the land Where the battle's red blast Has flashed on the future The form of the past; Yes, give me the land That has legends and lays That tell of the memories Of long-vanished days. Yes, give me the land That hath story and song To tell of the strife Of the right with the wrong; Yes, give me the land With a grave in each spot And the names in the graves That shall not be forgot. Yes, give me the land Of the wreck and the tomb; There's grandeur in graves— There's glory in gloom. For out of the gloom Future brightness is born As after the night Looms the sunrise of morn. And the graves of the dead, With the grass over grown, May yet form the footstool Of Liberty's throne; And each simple wreck, In the waypath of might, Shall yet be a rock In the temple of Right.

title: The South


text: Talk:The South

title: Talk:The South


text: Author talk:Alphonso Wood

title: Author talk:Alphonso Wood


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pratinas

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pratinas


text:
Page:Railways Act 1921 (ukpga 19210055 en).pdf/26

[Ch. 55.] before reporting or advising shall, if they see fit, give public notice and permit any persons affected or- likely to be affected and any authority or body of persons authorised to make applications under this Act to place their views before them, either in writing or orally.

(4) Any order of the Minister under this section shall be complied with by any railway company to which the order relates, and in the event of noncompliance shall (subject as herein before provided) be enforceable by order of the Railway and Canal Commission on the application of the Minister in any of the ways referred to in section three of the, or section six of the.

Power to make orders as to acquiston of land, &c.

17. For enabling railway companies to effect alterations, extensions, and improvements of existing works in pursuance of an order of the Railway and Canal Commission or the Minister under this Part of this Act, the Minister may make any such order authorising the acquisition of land or easements and the construction of works as could have been made under paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section three of the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919, for the purposes specified in that paragraph, and that paragraph and section twenty-nine of the same Act, other than the proviso to subsection (3) of that section and the rules made under that section, and the regulations contained in the Second Schedule to the same Act shall, so far as they relate to railways, apply accordingly.

Power to confirm agreements for the purchase, lease or working of railways.

18. Where an agreement has been or may hereafter be entered into for the purchase, lease, or working by agreements one railway company of any part of the system of for the purchase, lease, another railway company, the Minister may, by order, or working confirm the agreement, and where any such agreement of railways. has been so confirmed it shall be lawful for the companies to carry the agreement into effect:

Provided that, before confirming any such agreement, the Minister shall comply with the provisions of section twenty-nine of, and the Second Schedule to, the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919, including any rules made under the said section; and the said section, schedule, and rules shall apply to the confirmation of any such agreement in like manner as they apply to the making of an order under 22


text:
Page:Railways Act 1921 (ukpga 19210055 en).pdf/27

[Ch. 55.] paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section three of the said Act.

Restrictions on combintion.

19.—(1) Save as in this Act expressly provided,nothing in this Act shall prejudice or affect the rights liabilities of any constituent or subsidiary company under any Act or agreement or arrangement (whether made under statutory powers or otherwise) in existence at the passing of this Act, but from and after the passing of 'this Act it shall not be lawful for any constituent or subsidiary company or for any amalgamated company without the consent of the Minister to enter into agreements with any constituent or subsidiary company in another group or with any other amalgamated company, as the case may be, for the allocation of traffic or the pooling of receipts or otherwise for effecting a combination which would contravene the purposes of this Act :

Provided that it shall be lawful for any two or more amalgamated companies to make and carry into effect, with the consent of the Minister, agreements for the joint working of the undertakings of subsidiary companies acquired by one of such amalgamated companies under the provisions of this Act.

(2) Before giving his consent under this section the Minister shall, unless it appears to him that the matter is one of such small importance that it is unnecessary to do so, refer the matter for consideration and report to a committee selected from the panel set up under section twenty-three of the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919, as extended by this Act.

(3) Schedules of all agreements and arrangements in existence at the passing of this Act (whether made under statutory powers or otherwise) in which provision is made for the allocation of traffic or the pooling of receipts therefrom on any railways which will become railways of different amalgamated companies, giving particulars of the dates of such agreements or arrangements, and the parties thereto, shall, on request by the Minister, be furnished to him and such further particulars as the Minister may require in regard to such agreements or arrangements shall be furnished to him by the companies affected thereby if and when demanded. 23


text: Index:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu


text:
Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/1

 THE CUTTERS'

PRACTICAL GUIDE

TO THE CUTTING OF

LADIES' GARMENTS

BY W. D. F. Vincent.

Published at the "Tailor and Cutter" Office.

93 & 94 Dury Lane, London. W.C.


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/2


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/3


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/4


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/5


text:
Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/6

 PRINTED BY THE JOHN WILLIAMSON COMPANY, LIMITED,

98 & 94 DRURY LANE, LONDON, W.C.


text:
Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/7

The material changes in gentlemen's garments are so gradual and comparatively slight, that a good work on their production may continue to be of practical value for well nigh a generation. The case stands very differently with Ladies' Garments, which change—very materially so in some cases—every season; necessitating a new work for their production every two, or at most, three years. Apart from this necessity in point of new styles and fashions, many inquiries have been made lately as to whether we had a work on Ladies' Garments by the Cutters' Practical Guide System, and if not, whether we intended preparing such. The work we now introduce being based on the "Guide" System, it is thus prepared to meet a two-fold want or demand—an instructor and guide to the production of all the new and popular styles in tailor-made garments; and also the demand for such a work by the Practical Guide System.

The work itself will bear testimony to its scope, and the way in which every current, as well as new style of Ladies' Tailor-made Garment is treated and illustrated. Here we have the systems for producing the garments, each illustrated by beautifully engraved diagrams; and there is further, the finished garments, illustrated upon artistically engraved figures. The work thus presents a completeness, which renders it an invaluable acquisition to the Ladies' cutter. Should the inexperienced or timid cutter hesitate to use his own productions by these systems, our arrangements for supplying Special Cut Patterns of any style of ladies' garment—if the style can be conveyed to us—at a very nominal price, will meet the difficulty, at the same time allow him to compare our pattern with his own production.

We doubt not but this new and latest Work will fully sustain the character we have already attained by the Works now being published at the Office.


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/8


text:
Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/9

 THE

TO CUTTING

Made by Taliors.

The object we set before us in this work, is the preparation of a Complete Instructor and guide in the production of all Ladies' Garments which may be classed as "tailor-made," not only as regards the cut, the fit and the making, but embracing also all the new, the current and the popular styles, in all their different classes and departments—an Instructor to the inexperienced, and a guide to the experienced cutter. While tailoring has been largely augmented during recent years by Ladies' Garments, this comparatively new branch is capable of very considerable further development, which can only be accomplished by cutters generally setting themselves to study and acquire the Art of Cutting and getting up Ladies' Garments—an art in most respects widely different from the production of gentlemen's garments, and which must receive special and attentive study before success can be possible. This work will supply the necessary materials in every detail for such study. Starting at the beginning, with the anatomy of the female figure, we proceed step by step till we embrace every point connected with the production of Ladies' tailor-made garments, in all their styles and varieties, so that by application and perseverance, any cutter of ordinary tact and intelligence, can, through the medium of the following pages, master this noble art, and so enable him, as cutter, to take any position in a high-class trade: or, as master, to develop his trade by the making of ladies garments, turned out with such fit, taste and style, as will be well nigh certain to ensure success.

Such, briefly, is the aim and object of this work. This must be a continuous study on the part of the cutter, for fashions change so rapidly, one style succeeds another so speedily, that unless he is on the alert, he will soon drop back into the second rate: for it is well known that ladies' make a study of dress; they not only know what is the latest style, but they also understand every application of art, and very often some of the laws of science. They will often tell you where the seams of their garments must be placed, and they know the effect certain styles of ornamentation will have on the body; and woe to the reputation of the man who leads them in the wrong direction; and although we do not wish to impute that, with all ladies, dress is the one end and object of their life, yet they study it, they read about it, they write about it, they talk about it, they think about it, they attend public institutions to look at it, they work for it, aye, and often deny themselves the common necessaries of life to procure it. We do not condemn all this: our object is rather to show the cutter who hopes to become first-class at this branch of tailoring, the necessity there is for application and study, to become acquainted with science in all its teachings, so as to apply it to his calling; to thoroughly understand the application of art in all its fine studies, so as to utilize its lessons to the adorning of the female form; to understand the phases of practical tailoring, which enables form to be introduced into what was before flat and lifeless. We might proceed almost indefinitely to show how knowledge was power in this direction, but we will take the various phases in their order, and leave the student to follow up the study of many of the subjects which we may only be able to touch lightly in dealing with them. To understand our subject thoroughly, the first subject we must deal with is

A subject deserving of far more attention from tailors than it receives. It is a study which recalls to us the laws of our Divine Creator when he fashioned our bodies. It is not necessary that our readers spend months or years acquiring the names of all the bones of the human figure: what we want them to understand is, that a bone of such a shape is in such a position, and that its movements are in certain directions; that it is surrounded by certain muscles which develop in


text:
Page:Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902).djvu/48

 CHAPTER III.

in the last chapter estimated the gross revenue which may be anticipated from the agricultural part of the estate at £9,750, we will now turn to the town estate (where, obviously, the conversion of an agricultural area into a town will be attended with a very large rise in land values), and endeavour roughly to estimate—again taking care to keep well within the mark—the amount of "rate-rent" which will be freely offered by the tenants of the town estate.

The site of the town proper consists, it will be remembered, of 1,000 acres, and is assumed to have cost £40,000, the interest of which, at 4 per cent., is £1,600 per annum. This sum of £1,600 is, therefore, all the landlord's rent which the people of the town site will be called upon to pay, any additional "rate-rent" they may contribute being devoted either to the payment of the


text:
Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/10

2 directions: and, having acquired this knowledge, the cutter will be able to distinguish between the possible and the impossible in nature, and so lay the foundation for formulating sound systems. It will enable him to understand the outline of the form he has to clothe, independent of such artificial appliances as bustles, crinolines, &c., &c.

It teaches the symmetry of the body, and shows how the left side is an almost exact reproduction of the right only in reverse.

It teaches where growth is possible and where impossible; how certain bones always remain near the surface of the skin, and how when the body develops either fat or muscle, where the increment is placed, and how it affects the surrounding parts.

It teaches the movements of limbs, where the three different joints are to be found, viz., the gliding, the universal or ball socket and the hinge joint.

But the study that applies more particularly to this work, is what we may turn comparative anatomy, by which we may realize the difference between the male and female form, and as we have treated of anatomy in Part I of the "Cutter's Practical Guide," we will suppose the readers of this work have made themselves, to a certain extent, acquainted with the general anatomy the male form. On

The female skeleton is illustrated, and on figure 2 the male. By comparison we at once notice the smallness of the ribs and the largeness of the hips, whilst the space between the chest and pelvis (hips) is much wider in woman than in man. The collar bones are weaker in woman than in man, and are differently shaped, which remarka pplies to all the bones of the superior extremities. The ribs of the female are not so arch-like nor so strong as in the male.

When the bones are quite characteristic, the male are more arched than the female ribs, especially between the fifth and ninth on either side. It is there that the female ribs are flattened, and it is in this situation that the female waist exists. In man, when strongly formed, the ribs continue fully arched, much lower down, placing his waist between the last rib and the top of the haunches.

In man, the back is strong; in woman, the loins.

But probably the point wherein the tailor will learn the best lesson is the hips, as it will soon force itself to his notice in practice how very much extra the hips are developed in the female form than the male. Another reference to Figures 1 and 2 will readily illustrate this: of the male pelvis we shall not particularise, but of the female we wish to call attention to the fine oval form it presents as compared with the male, the great breadth of the haunch bones, &c. It is this great breadth of the hips in woman, that the ladies' tailor has to observe and make provision for, and which, together with the other peculiarities of the female skeleton, will open his eyes to the reason for many of the effects he has to deal with. Important as is the study of anatomy as a foundation upon which to build up a scientific and practical knowledge, we do not wish to overlook the undisputed fact, that the skeleton bears but an indistinct resemblance to the outside, the muscles and flesh formation having much to do with that. But a little study will soon inform us where and how these muscles develop, and as we know the bones never really alter their actual forms (though they may seem to do so by the condition of the surrounding muscles) and consequently a knowledge of the skeleton formation is the very best foundation we can possibly have. In

We have illustrations showing the proportions of man and woman, taken from a manual of artistic anatomy by Robert Knox, M.D., F.R.S.E., which still further emphasizes the lessons we learnt from the skeleton. The shoulders are small, the circumference of the chest is increased by the development of the breasts, the extra size of the hips and thighs, and lastly the softness of outline which seems to hide every trace of the skeleton, and even tones down and in many cases altogether hides the muscle development which is so clearly marked in man.

We cannot close this section on anatomy, without referring to one of the best works published in modern times by J. Bononi, F.R.A.S., M.S.B.A., entitled, Proportions of the Human Figure and from which the following diagrams and quotations of relative proportions of the human figure are taken.

Amongst the various difficult questions which are always cropping up in connection with our art is: What is proportion? and on this topic we give the definition of proportion as laid down by Virtrivius. "Proportion is the commensuration of the various constituent parts with the whole, on the existence of which symmetry is found to consist." As, for instance, the human frame is divided into four equal parts by very distinctly marked divisions in its structure and outward form. See


text: Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/75


text: Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/63


text:
Page:Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902).djvu/49

Rh money as "sinking-fund," or applied as "rates" to the construction and maintenance of roads, schools, waterworks, and to other municipal purposes. It will be interesting, therefore, to see what sort of a burden "landlord's rent" will represent per head, and what the community would secure by such contribution. Now, if the sum of £1,600, being the annual interest or "landlord's rent," be divided by 30,000 (the supposed population of the town), it will be found to equal an annual contribution by each man, woman, and child of ''rather less than 1s. 1d. per head.'' This is all the "landlord's rent" which will ever be levied, any additional sum collected as "rate-rent" being applied to sinking-fund or to local purposes.

And now let us notice what this fortunately-placed community obtains for this insignificant sum. It obtains for 1s. 1d. per head per annum, first, ample sites for homes, these averaging, as we have seen, 20 feet by 130 feet, and accommodating, on an average, 5½ persons to each lot. It obtains ample space for roads, some of which are of truly magnificent proportions, so wide and spacious that sunlight and air may freely circulate, and in which trees, shrubs, and grass give to the town a semi-rural appearance. It also obtains ample sites for town-hall, public library, museum and picture-gallery, theatre, concert-hall, hospital, schools, churches, swimming baths, public markets, etc. It also secures a central park of 145 acres, and a magnificent avenue 420 feet wide, extending in a circle of over three miles, unbroken save by spacious boulevards and by schools and churches, which, one may be sure, will not be the less beautiful because so little money has been expended on their sites.


text: Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/83


text: Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/103


text:
Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/11

Rh Firstly. From the crown of the head to a line drawn across the nipples, as at 3. Secondly. From the nipples to the pubis as from 3 to 4. Thirdly. From the pubis to the bottom of the patella, as from 4 to 5. Lastly. From the bottom of the patella to the sole of the foot as from 5 to 6. Again, four measures equal in themselves, and likewise equal to those just described, and as well marked in the structure of the human body, are seen when the arms are extended horizontally, as in

From the tip of the middle or longest finger to the bend of the arm is one-fourth of the height of the person, and from the bend of the arm to the pit of the neck is another fourth. Again, with regard to the face and hands. From the tip of the forehead to the chin is a tenth, and from the tip of the middle finger to the wrist is also a tenth. The face is also divided into three parts as shown, but this is not of so much importance to us as the relation the head bears to the body. It has so often been asserted that the head bears the relation of one-eighth of the total height of the body, that it will be as well if we examine this assertion thoroughly. For, although it undoubtedly is somewhat near the mark, yet at the same time, its reliability is open to question in many cases, so we will take the relation this part bears to the body in some of the most noted statues, and in doing so, we divide the figure in the same manner as is done by artists, &c., and which is illustrated on

Viz., heads, parts and minutes: the head is the distance from the crown of the head to the chin, as at I, diagram 8. The parts are obtained by dividing the head into four equal divisions, and the minutes are obtained by dividing one of those divisions into twelve equal parts, and in this manner the true relation that each portion bears to the other is obtained. For example, let us suppose the head measures 9 inches, each part would be 2¼, and each minute three-sixteenths of an inch. It will be as well for the student to note this as we shall have occasion to refer to this later on, but for the present will dealt with

The Apollo Sauroktonos, it is said, would be seven heads and nine minutes if he stood upright; thus it will be seen in this case the height of the figure is three parts three minutes short of this standard; or taking our division of inches as just worked out, would be over 7 inches short of eight heads. The Apollino of Florence, is said to be seven heads, three parts and five minutes high, thus, he only wants six minutes to complete the eight heads, or as we have been calculating 1⅛ inches short. The Achilles of the Louvre is said to be seven heads, one part and eleven minutes; thus, he wants nearly 4¾ inches to reach this standard. The Venus de Medicis is said to be seven heads, three parts and ten minutes; thus, she only requires 2 minutes or ⅜ of an inch to complete eight heads. The Venus of the Capitol is said to measure seven heads, one part and four minutes; thus she wants two parts and eight minutes, or six inches according to our calculation, to complete the eight heads, so by this test the eight heads theory fails, for these are the statues which have charmed the world for ages, and have been looked upon as masterpieces of art, or in other words

That sculptors have ever produced, and as every one of these fall short of the standard thus fixed, and in some cases by as much as G or 7 inches, it will be seen that from 7½ to 8 heads would be nearer the mark, certainly well insides the 8, as in no case do they reach eight heads. Again, the " length of arms equal the height " is equally erroneous, for out of 84 persons measured by Bononi, 54 were found to be long armed, 24 short armed, and 6 only whose arms were exactly equal to the height when extended. The greatest excess was in the case of a carpenter, whose arms exceeded height by 5 inches. The greatest excess of height was in the case of an architect whose height exceeded the distance of his extended arms by 4 inches. Diagram 6 shows the proportions of the male figure according to Bononi, whilst diagrams 7 and 8 shows

The male figure is represented by the thick lines, and the measurements referring to it are placed on your right hand, whilst the female is represented by the fine lines, and the measurements on the left. The measurements are all calculated by heads, parts and minutes, and as marked represent the width in profile. The measurements of length, according to Virtrivius and Leonardo da Vinci, are relatively the same in both sexes, and are expressed in long horizontal lines running through both the front and profile figures; the letters by the side of the figures refer to the proportions of the relative parts, and which will be of value to the tailor in helping him to obtain measures, which for some reason or the other he is unable to take direct on the figure.


text: Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/89


text: Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/97


text:
Page:Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902).djvu/50

40 It secures also all the land required for a railway 4¼ miles long, encompassing the town; 82 acres for warehouses, factories, markets, and a splendid site for a crystal palace devoted to shopping, and serving also as a winter garden.

The leases under which all building sites are let do not, therefore, contain the usual covenant by the tenant to pay all rates, taxes, and assessments levied in respect of such property, but, on the contrary, contain a covenant by the landlord to apply the whole sum received, first, in payment of debenture interest; secondly, towards the redemption of the debentures; and thirdly, as to the whole of the balance, into a public fund, to be applied to public purposes, among these being the rates levied by public authorities, other than the municipal authority, of the city.

Let us now attempt to estimate the rate-rents which may be anticipated in respect of our town-estate.

First, we will deal with the home-building lots. All are excellently situated, but those fronting Grand Avenue (420 feet) and the magnificent boulevards (120 feet) would probably call forth the highest tenders. We can here deal only with averages, but we think anyone would admit that an average rate-rent of 6s. a foot frontage for home lots would be extremely moderate. This would make the rate-rent of a building lot 20 feet wide in an average position £6 a year, and on this basis the 5,500 building lots would yield a gross revenue of £33,000.

The rate-rents from the sites of factories, warehouses,


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/142


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/141


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/140


text:
Page:Garden Cities of To-morrow (1902).djvu/51

Rh markets, etc., cannot perhaps be so well estimated by the foot frontage, but we may perhaps safely assume that an average employer would willingly pay £2 in respect of each employee. It is, of course, not suggested that the rate-rent levied should be a poll-tax; it would, as has been said, be raised by competition among the tenants; but this way of estimating rate-rent to be paid will perhaps give a ready means by which manufacturers or other employers, co-operative societies, or individuals working on their own account, would be able to judge whether they would be lightly rated and rented as compared with their present position. It must be, however, distinctly borne in mind that we are dealing with averages; and if the figure should seem high to a large employer, it will seem ridiculously low to a small shopkeeper.

Now, in a town with a population of 30,000, there would be about twenty thousand persons between the ages of 16 and 65; and if it is assumed that 10,625 of these would be employed in factories, shops, warehouses, markets, etc., or in any way which involved the use of a site, other than a home-building site, to be leased from the municipality, there would be a revenue from this source of £21,250.

The gross revenue of the entire estate would therefore be:— Or £2 per head of population for rates and rent.


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/139


text:
Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/12

4 To get the circumference of any part, add the width in profile (as given on figure 7 for the male, and figure 9 for the female) and width in front (as illustrated on figure 8, the figures on the left side representing the female, and those on the right the male), together multiply them by $1 1⁄2$, and result will give approximate circumference. Example: male thigh profile, 3 parts 6 minutes, 3 parts = $3⁄4$, 3 minutes = $9⁄16$ =$7 5⁄16$ front, 3 parts 2 minutes, 3 parts = $6 3⁄4$, 2 minutes = $3⁄8$ = $7 1⁄8$,$7 5⁄16$+$7 1⁄8$=$14 7⁄16$, one and a half times $14 7⁄16$=$21 11⁄16$ thigh. Other parts may he treated in the same way. The following list of

As compared with the Venus de Medicis will prove most interesting, and to the tailor who has a difficulty in getting certain measurements, they will prove most useful. Some papers have been printing facts about the " perfect woman " physically considered. An artist supplies the comparative measurements of Mrs. Langtry and the Venus de Medecis, two types of the ancient and modern worlds. The height of these two beautiful women, the one in flesh and blood and the other in marble, happens to be the same, viz., five feet and seven inches. Hence the two may be taken as illustrating the difference of ideal physical proportions between the ancient and the modern. Where and how the measurements of Mrs. Langtry were obtained we do not know, but we have no reason to doubt their correctness:—

Doubtless there are millions of beautiful women who do not come very close to either, but taking Mrs. Langtry as a type, it appears that the modern runs less to shoulders and more to hips than the woman of antiquity. The ancient has also a decided advantage in the length of legs and arms and the size of neck and ankles On the whole, the modern woman appears to be less muscularly and more voluptuously formed than the ancient. It would be very easy to note a series of coincidences in these measures, such as the neck, arm, and calf being the same size, but they would be of little value as one part develops independently of another, so we pass on to deal with

The Principles which Govern the Fitting of Garments, And which must form the foundation on which all systems are built. Putting these briefly, they consist of two, viz., size and form; but inasmuch as that is rather indefinite, we prefer to classify them under seven heads, viz., (1) Length. (2) Width. (3) Height and size of neck. (4) Location and size of scye. (5) Provision for prominence and depressions such as blades, chest, &c. (6) Provision for muscular development. (7) Attitude. We will briefly touch on the principal features to be noted in dealing with these. That length should govern length, and width govern width, seems such a common sense rule, that we can hardly realize any other plan being adopted, and yet many cutters of the present day cling to the relic of a byegone age, fixing every point of the garment by division of width. Of the fixed points in the body two stand out prominently as starting points of great value to the cutter. These are the centre of back and the centre of front, and it will be well for every cutter to realise that at these parts the body is hollow, that is, there are decided depressions; and to fix these points in their proper relation to each other is of great importance in the garment. The only measure necessary to do this is the size or, if you will, the width round body plus an allowance for seams, ease, &c., and which for an ordinary garment made from medium material would run about 2 inches. Of the length, the nape is the starting point, it is the first prominence that shows itself at the back of the neck (the seventh vertebrae), and from which the hollow of waist and full length is obtained. In these two we have all that is contained in size; but in form we have to provide for all the local prominences and depressions. Let us take The Height and Size of Neck. Here we have one of the most puzzling parts of the garment, or at least it is so to a large number. Why? Simply because they try to provide for it either by divisions of the breast or divisions of the length, both being erroneous—we were going to say equally, but this is hardly so, for certainly a division of the length is preferable to the width although it is far from reliable, for we find tall people square shouldered, and vice versa; whilst there is still another feature to be


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/110


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/109


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/108


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/107


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/106


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/105


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/104


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/103


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/102


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/101


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/100


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/99


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/98


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/97


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/96


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/95


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/94


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/93


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/92


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/91


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/90


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/89


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/88


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/87


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/86


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/85


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/84


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/83


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/82


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/81


text:
Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/80

Hughes had beautiful sentiments and a faraway look in his eyes. Sometimes he washed and shaved at such times, he was quite good looking. Then again, sometimes he didn't, this generally after a drunk. His drunks occurred on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with one occasion every four years the 29th of February, his birthday—on which he did himself proud. Hughes had a standard joke that he was only eight, because he had lived the round of only eight leap-years. He was really thirty-three and regretted that he hadn't had thirty-three real birthdays to celebrate.

When he told you all his beautiful thoughts about honest dealing with his fellowmen and such like, you felt a certain qualm over the fifty acre lease you pegged out the day before he intended to take it up himself, but then, "you were the only man he cared to see hold ground near his, and anyway it wasn't of any value as the reef didn't dip that way, so it didn't matter."

When Hughes clapped you on the shoulder, "old man," and told you this your conscience left off bothering, but you knew you had better keep your weather eye on Hughes. He never wore socks, but he was very kind to Isaac Brown's kids, and he had a pet possum which nestled inside his shirt and seemed fond of him. Possums are very hardy.

I believe Hughes was married, but he never had any wife on the diggings. His clothes were worse than most of us wore, and he generally went round without a hat. The sun-never seemed to affect him, though "next morning" he always said it had.

His strong point, he thought, was geology, so the boys brought his wonderful bits of rock which he duly

title: Page:Short Stories (1912).djvu/80


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/80


text: Page:The cutters' practical guide to the cutting of ladies' garments.djvu/79


text: The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Sheridan, Lieut.-Col. Richard Bingham