LONDON TOWN TALK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2627, 25 August 1876, Page 3

LONDON TOWN TALK.

(Comtpendent efihe MWbounw Argw.)

Our clubs toaoh men how mnch amiss is the oooking of their landladies. At the same time, it is not to bo supposed tbat even in olubs there are not very simple personß. An old joke Tin connection, if I remember right, with an Eton boy) was revived the other day at no less an establishment thah "The Rag and Famish" (the Army and Navy Olub). Among the many frivolous and vexation* oomplaiftts made by members of the olub to tho Committee, appeared the other day, thia one from a young lieutenant of the line :— "I beg to say that the plover's eggs I ordered for my lunch to-day wore brought up to table not only oold, but hard-boiled." The reason why Agnew, the pioturo-dealer, gave 10,000 guineas for Gainsborough's " Duohess of Dovonshire " has now leaked out. Baron Rothsobild wanted it, and out of selfwill ran it up to £10,000; whon Agnew hid his next hundred, he let him have it — not without a grim smile, it is said, The great doalor has often found his advantage in opposing suoh mon's wishes and then gratifying thorn —for a consideration ; and bethought he would do it on this oooasion. As soon as the sale was over, he went to the baron, and informed him that he oould buy his bargain for £300. "My good air/ was tbe reply, "I wouldn't give you sixpence for it j nor for the pioture — now that lam in my right mmd — would I give you half the money you paid for it." If this be true, lam sinoeroly pleased at it : besides, it is a oomfort to have got all tho canards exploded that were givon as reasons for suoh a prioe boing paid— how Agnew had lots of Gainsboroughs on hand, and wanted to inorease the prioo of them, &o. In the meantime, tbe Eioture is being exhibited for a shilling aj oad, at whioh prioo tho proud proprietor will not see muoh of his money baok 1 though, on the other hand, it is said he has obtained j 6000 subscribers for the new engraving that ia about to be made of thia famous work. j

The lateßt canard in the Frenoh press in reference to tho death of the late Sultan is, that his sudden death was due to the extreme solioitude manifested for him by Her Majesty Queen Viotoria, and to the error of a telegraph clerk. Upon being informod of his deposition, it is stated that Hor Majesty telegraphed to Constantinople, Soignex le Ifien, whioh the unfortunate olork rendered by Saignez le lien. Tho result was, that instead of boing well takon oare of, he was only too woll bled, the lotter a substituted for 0 making all the difference between life and death. Se non c vero, c len trovato. In the Aoadomy there is a pioture of Holl's —the undertaker's painter— called "The Firstborn," where an agonised mother ia following the funeral of her ohild. An old gentleman from the oountry with hia wife wore flxod before it $ the latter, however, being muoh moved. "It's all very fine," says the man, " but I oan't make out what the pioture has to do with the title. Where is the first-born P" The old lady uttered an expression of contempt, and with her parasol (whioh Mr Holi would not have liked) struok a smart blow on the coffin. " Oh, I see," said tho old gentleman. Did you ever road Mr Anthony Trollope'a The Way we Live Now? If so, you need soarooly trouble yourself to go through the Lisbon Tramway oase, in whioh Mr Albert Grant is Melnotte, and the Committee of direotors, inoluding a noble lord— exaotly as in tho fiction — are his hirelings. If the story indeed had been written after the event instead of bofore it, one would have oalled its ohief oommeroial inoident a lampoon, so oxnotly would it have been a transoript of what had ooourred ih roal life. The poor publio appears to have subscribed in. all about £300,000 for a tramway that in the first instance oould not be laid at all boeauso of the steepness of the road, and Was afterwards laid in a a different plaoo from that suggested by the prospeotus, and where thoro was next to no traffio. It is fair to the baron to state that when the first obstacle was found to exist he did propose to rottfrn some of their property to the shareholders, reserving for himself only £17,000, instead of twioe that amount, whioh he had oharged for tho uso of his name ; but finding his direotors inclined to go through with the affair, he went in for it olso. lam ourious to see how long Lord Honry Lennox— bis paid lord (Lonnox £200, Lennox £500, are interesting little itoms among the gigantio figures of the aooount)— will think it his duty to remain a mombor of the present Govornmont.

What is worse than all, however, is thej revelation of tbe corruption of tbe " city! editors "of our newspapers. Sampson of The { Times is an old offendor,who has already bee^ oondernnod by tho publio voioo, and we do not) wonder to see his namo down opposite several hundred pounds paid to him for an eulogistic paragraph upon Lisbon tramways. The muse^ of Marmion, who was stigmatised as being greedy for taking half-a-orown a lino, lived in very dull days, ond poots know better now where to send their pigs to market than even Soott did. But the highest rato that has over beon paid for literature rinks into insignifloanoe compared with a oity editor's honorarium for his work of imagination. To "mako tbo thing that is not as the thing that is," in prose, and among tho oommeroial intolligonoo, is a feat that fetches about £25 a line. Of oourso everybody is not a Sampson, nor is every nowspaper a Times. The oity editor of tho Standard only got £50, while tho do. do. of the Daily News thought so little of himsolf and tho rospeotablo organ with whioh ho was oonnootod as to oondesoend to tako £20. All thoso papers praised the Tramway Company j and the Daily Telegtfaph is the noblo oxooption whioh is able io congratulate itsolf,nofc exactly upon not having been bribed — for ono of its subordinates did tako a littlo monoy— bufc upon not performing the sorvioo forwhioh tho money wus paid. Baron Albert Grant and Co., in its cano, got hold very literally of the wrong man, and greased the fingors of a nowspaper olerk who wos of no uso to them. But whata pioture upon the whole do these revelations* 'afford of ""'How' we live now " iv tho world of commerce ?,, I am told that under present oircumstances proprietors of newspapers ddspair of getting men who are acquainted witl^ the ways of the oity, and at the same time well principled enough to •resist the temptations -that are oontinually thrust upon them, and which no amount of salary gamipako it "w6rth their while "to resist.