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Observer, Volume 2, Issue 35, 14 May 1881, Page 373

Little men have often great minds, and unpromising lineaments frequently mask tender and impressionable natures. It is therefore no surprise to us to find that beneath the brisk business-like and eminently unromantic cxi erior of Mr. J. M. Lennox there lurks a sensitive and susceptible heart. This lamb's heart -we beg pardon— this lamb-like heart has been ? eriously abraised by an etching and anecdote ■yhich appeared in recent issues of the Obkksrver. Mr. Lennox says : "I am an old newspaper man myself (N. B. —He was a winter) ; and until the advent of the Observer have always been treated by the Press of this city with the greatest consideration and respect. ±1 you \yill look at that abortion in your last week's issue, and at a paragraph in your issue ...f to-day, I think you will agree with my

friends that both portrait and paragraph are most insulting." With the first portion of this letter we have no fault to find. It is gratifying to know that the Star and the Herald are properly respectful to Mr J. M. Lennox, though if the readers of this journal will take the trouble to glance over the advertising columns of those edifying sheets they will, doubtless, find "the why and wherefore " in a substantial halfcolumn of land notices, etc. It is astonishing how "considerate" and "respectful" daily papers are to auctioneers, house agents, and other big advertisers. Unfortunately these gentry do not, as a rule, patronise the weeklies, and we are therefore apt to look upon them as much the same as anybody else. Mr Lennox's observations about the etching are unintelligible. It was taken from a photo, lent by a friend of his, and, though the body lias (as per usual) been drawn on a smaller scale than the head, the likeness strikes us as very good. We shouldn't say this if we didn't think so and hadn't heard so ; indeed the fact is, that the portrait in question has been pronounced one of " Quiz's" most notable successes. What, then, can Mr. Lennox mean ? He may possibly be dissatisfied with his personal appearance, and wish (as we often do) that he was as handsome as Apollo and as strong as Hercules. It is, however, ' ' coming it " rather strong to call himself "an abortion." Believe us, dear sir, things are not so bad as all that. You arc quite too humble when you thus estimate your looks. Small in stature you may be, and only moderately handsome, but certainly — no, certertainly not — " an abortion."