Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hoaxes.
almost everybody was imposed upon , " said- the author . The ancient romances contain nothing more incredible than a sword which required a hundred men to lift it ; or a helmet that by its own weight forces a passage 'through a courtyard into an arched vault , big enough for a man to go through ; yet the locality is real , and is a massive fortress at Otranto , (•Situated at tho southern extremity of the kingdom of Naples .
" "'" BANKISTER ' IMITATION OF HIMSELF . —It is related by Henry Barton Baker , in his book , " Our Old Actors , " that during the lesseeship of Ellistop , at Manchester , he played a trick that justly reproved provincial self-conceit . '" Jack" Bannister being in the city , he conceived the joke of putting him in the bills for a small part in a comedy , under an assumed name , and announcing that between the play and the farce , the gentleman would
attempt a scene from " The Children in the Wood , " after the manner of the celebrated Mr . John Bannister . On this evening the actor played in his best style , but had not uttered many words when the audience began to hiss , and very soon there arose cries of " Off , off , " and the hissing and clamour rose to such ' a height that he was obliged to retire . On the Saturday one of the newspapers declared it was'the vilest attempt at imitation that had ever been offered to the public .
HOAXING THE WINE MERCHANT . —It would appear almost impossible to reconcile such actions as vulgar hoaxing and merciless duping with an intellect like that of Sheridan ' s . Yet so it was , and some of the incidents of his life reflected anything but lustre upon his genius and learning . On one occasion , his supplies of wine haying been stopped , he invited his wine
merchant to dinner when entertaining the leaders of the opposition . Upon the tradesman ' s arrival Sheridan had the audacity to despatch a messenger for a plentiful supply of Bacchanalian liquor , which was unquestioningly sent , and the wine merchant , whilst having the pleasure of hearing his own wines criticised " , was utterly unconscious of the fact that he had been decoyed there and made the victim of a shameful joke .
HOAXING THE HOUSE OF COMMONS . —One of his many most impudent -hoaxes was that'inflicted upon the Honourable House of Commons itself , and thus described by a modern writer : — " Lord Belgrave had made a very telling speech , which he wound up with a Greek quotation , loudly applauded . Sheridan had no arguments to meet him with so , rising , he ' admitted the force of his lordship's quotation , of which he probably did not understand a word , but added that had he gone a little farther , and completed the passage , he would have seen that the context completely altered the sense .
He would prove it to the House , he said , and immediately roiled forth a grand string of majestic gibberish so well imitated that the whole assembly cried ' Here , here 1 ' Lord Belgrave rose again , and frankly admitted that the passage referred to had the meaning ascribed to it by the honourable gentleman , and that he had overlooked it at the moment . At the end of the evening Fox , who prided himself on his classical lore , came up to him and said , 'Sheridan , how came you to be so ready with that passage ? It is eertainly as . you . say , but I was not aware of it before you quoted it . '
Sheridan was wise oriough to keep his own counsel for the time , but must have felt delightfully tickled at the ignorance of the would-be savants with whom he was politically associated . " Elegant Ciceronian attempts are not now ( as they were in Sheridan's time ) so frequently indulged in by members of the House of Commons . Perhaps the undoubted classical erudition of the "Grand Old Man" of Hawarden Castle and of Mr . John Morley may have exercised a restraining influence upon theatrical displays of this kind , and we may believe this to be
so by the explanatory admission of Mr . Labouchere ( editor of " Truth " ) , who once perpetrated a similar joke to the one just described . The hon . member for Northampton stated that "he dare not have done it had Mr . Gladstone been in the House at the time . " It appears that in one of his speeches he remarked : — "As the Greek poet very finely writes , " and then descended into perfect gibberish . His fellow politicians , who gravely listened to him , afterwards congratulated the hon . member upon the erudition which he had displayed ? those , however , who have followed the career of Mr . Labouchere can imagine in what manner he would receive such fulsome flattery .
THE MOON HOAX . —" -Soon after the visit of the great astronomer , Sir John Herschel , to the Cape of Good Hope , a New York paper gave detailed accounts of the men , brutes , plants , & c , which had been discovered on the surface of , tbe . ; mo ' qn . . The description was supposed to have been taken from the 'Edinburgh Journal of ' Science '; but when a reprint was made in England th ' is reference was omitted .
It appears that more ; than one newspaper was taken in by the article . A devout believer in the wonderful discovery announced in his columns : — 1 Sir John Herschel has added a stock of knowledge to the present age which will immortalise his name , and place it high in the page of science . ' Another says : — - ' Happily , however , those who impudently or ighorantly deny the great discoveries of Herschel are chiefly to be found among those whose faith , or whose scepticism would never he received as a guide for the opinions of other men ' "
, •/ . THE , WALT WHITMAN HOAX . —There is a good story told in Maclise ' s " Portrait Gallery" about Mr . W . M . Bossetti , author of "Lives of Famous Poets , " who once "laid a cunning plot to test the gullibility of the public in matters of taste . and . criticism by digging up an American ' poet' who had never written a word of poetry in his life ; and who , in all he had written , was bombastic ,, coarse ,, conceited , and irreverent , or generally meaningless . He reprinted him in England , wrote , an eulogistic preface , and engaged some
really clever fellows—Professor Dbwden , A . C . Swinburne , Bobert Buchanan , & c . —to aid the scheme by unstinted and indiscriminate laudation . The bait took . Men who had never read Washington Irving or Whittier echoed the cuckoo-cry , and ' Walt Whitman ' was the noblest Transatlantic ' tone ' yet heard 1 Professor Bayne , in an able article in the " Contemporary Review " ( December 1875 ) , ; pretty well shook the' bran out of the puppet' poet ' ; but the ' -impetus he got at starting still carries him on , and like a spent ball ho may yet roll on languidly for a time . " •: , ; .- •- . > . - •, -, " Book of Earities , " by EDWARD ROBERTS P . M .
THE present run of " My Friend the Prince " will terminate after Friday evening , ^ 6 th August , in order- to give the members of the Company a much needed rest prior to the provincial tour , after which the play will be resumed at the Garrick . In the interim , Mr . Brick-well has arranged with Mr . George Edwardes for a fortnight ' s run of the celebrated musical success " In Town , " withr ; aj colossal company , prior to their departure for America . After the run of " In Town " Offenbach ' s comic opera " La Periohole " will be staged , with Miss Florence St . John in the title role , supported by powerful company , including Messrs . John Le Hay , Fred ICaye , & c .
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TheFreemason'sChronicle. A Weekly Record of Maaon ' ic Intelligence . Published every Saturday , Price 3 d . — : o : —¦ THE PBEEMASON'S CHBONICLE will be forwarded direct from the Office , Pleet Works , Bulwer Road , New Barnet , on receipt of remittance for the amount . The Terms of Subscription ( payable in advance ) are—Twelve Months , post free ... ... £ 0 13 6 Postal Orders to be made payable to W . W . MORGAN , at the New - BarnetOffice . Cheques crossed "London and South Western Bank . " Scale of Charges for Advertisements . Page ... ... ... ... ... £ 10 10 0 Births , Marriages , and Deaths , Is per line . General Advertisements , Trade Announcements , & c , narrow column , 5 s per inch . News column Advertisements Is per line . Special terms for a series of insertions or special pooitions on application .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hoaxes.
almost everybody was imposed upon , " said- the author . The ancient romances contain nothing more incredible than a sword which required a hundred men to lift it ; or a helmet that by its own weight forces a passage 'through a courtyard into an arched vault , big enough for a man to go through ; yet the locality is real , and is a massive fortress at Otranto , (•Situated at tho southern extremity of the kingdom of Naples .
" "'" BANKISTER ' IMITATION OF HIMSELF . —It is related by Henry Barton Baker , in his book , " Our Old Actors , " that during the lesseeship of Ellistop , at Manchester , he played a trick that justly reproved provincial self-conceit . '" Jack" Bannister being in the city , he conceived the joke of putting him in the bills for a small part in a comedy , under an assumed name , and announcing that between the play and the farce , the gentleman would
attempt a scene from " The Children in the Wood , " after the manner of the celebrated Mr . John Bannister . On this evening the actor played in his best style , but had not uttered many words when the audience began to hiss , and very soon there arose cries of " Off , off , " and the hissing and clamour rose to such ' a height that he was obliged to retire . On the Saturday one of the newspapers declared it was'the vilest attempt at imitation that had ever been offered to the public .
HOAXING THE WINE MERCHANT . —It would appear almost impossible to reconcile such actions as vulgar hoaxing and merciless duping with an intellect like that of Sheridan ' s . Yet so it was , and some of the incidents of his life reflected anything but lustre upon his genius and learning . On one occasion , his supplies of wine haying been stopped , he invited his wine
merchant to dinner when entertaining the leaders of the opposition . Upon the tradesman ' s arrival Sheridan had the audacity to despatch a messenger for a plentiful supply of Bacchanalian liquor , which was unquestioningly sent , and the wine merchant , whilst having the pleasure of hearing his own wines criticised " , was utterly unconscious of the fact that he had been decoyed there and made the victim of a shameful joke .
HOAXING THE HOUSE OF COMMONS . —One of his many most impudent -hoaxes was that'inflicted upon the Honourable House of Commons itself , and thus described by a modern writer : — " Lord Belgrave had made a very telling speech , which he wound up with a Greek quotation , loudly applauded . Sheridan had no arguments to meet him with so , rising , he ' admitted the force of his lordship's quotation , of which he probably did not understand a word , but added that had he gone a little farther , and completed the passage , he would have seen that the context completely altered the sense .
He would prove it to the House , he said , and immediately roiled forth a grand string of majestic gibberish so well imitated that the whole assembly cried ' Here , here 1 ' Lord Belgrave rose again , and frankly admitted that the passage referred to had the meaning ascribed to it by the honourable gentleman , and that he had overlooked it at the moment . At the end of the evening Fox , who prided himself on his classical lore , came up to him and said , 'Sheridan , how came you to be so ready with that passage ? It is eertainly as . you . say , but I was not aware of it before you quoted it . '
Sheridan was wise oriough to keep his own counsel for the time , but must have felt delightfully tickled at the ignorance of the would-be savants with whom he was politically associated . " Elegant Ciceronian attempts are not now ( as they were in Sheridan's time ) so frequently indulged in by members of the House of Commons . Perhaps the undoubted classical erudition of the "Grand Old Man" of Hawarden Castle and of Mr . John Morley may have exercised a restraining influence upon theatrical displays of this kind , and we may believe this to be
so by the explanatory admission of Mr . Labouchere ( editor of " Truth " ) , who once perpetrated a similar joke to the one just described . The hon . member for Northampton stated that "he dare not have done it had Mr . Gladstone been in the House at the time . " It appears that in one of his speeches he remarked : — "As the Greek poet very finely writes , " and then descended into perfect gibberish . His fellow politicians , who gravely listened to him , afterwards congratulated the hon . member upon the erudition which he had displayed ? those , however , who have followed the career of Mr . Labouchere can imagine in what manner he would receive such fulsome flattery .
THE MOON HOAX . —" -Soon after the visit of the great astronomer , Sir John Herschel , to the Cape of Good Hope , a New York paper gave detailed accounts of the men , brutes , plants , & c , which had been discovered on the surface of , tbe . ; mo ' qn . . The description was supposed to have been taken from the 'Edinburgh Journal of ' Science '; but when a reprint was made in England th ' is reference was omitted .
It appears that more ; than one newspaper was taken in by the article . A devout believer in the wonderful discovery announced in his columns : — 1 Sir John Herschel has added a stock of knowledge to the present age which will immortalise his name , and place it high in the page of science . ' Another says : — - ' Happily , however , those who impudently or ighorantly deny the great discoveries of Herschel are chiefly to be found among those whose faith , or whose scepticism would never he received as a guide for the opinions of other men ' "
, •/ . THE , WALT WHITMAN HOAX . —There is a good story told in Maclise ' s " Portrait Gallery" about Mr . W . M . Bossetti , author of "Lives of Famous Poets , " who once "laid a cunning plot to test the gullibility of the public in matters of taste . and . criticism by digging up an American ' poet' who had never written a word of poetry in his life ; and who , in all he had written , was bombastic ,, coarse ,, conceited , and irreverent , or generally meaningless . He reprinted him in England , wrote , an eulogistic preface , and engaged some
really clever fellows—Professor Dbwden , A . C . Swinburne , Bobert Buchanan , & c . —to aid the scheme by unstinted and indiscriminate laudation . The bait took . Men who had never read Washington Irving or Whittier echoed the cuckoo-cry , and ' Walt Whitman ' was the noblest Transatlantic ' tone ' yet heard 1 Professor Bayne , in an able article in the " Contemporary Review " ( December 1875 ) , ; pretty well shook the' bran out of the puppet' poet ' ; but the ' -impetus he got at starting still carries him on , and like a spent ball ho may yet roll on languidly for a time . " •: , ; .- •- . > . - •, -, " Book of Earities , " by EDWARD ROBERTS P . M .
THE present run of " My Friend the Prince " will terminate after Friday evening , ^ 6 th August , in order- to give the members of the Company a much needed rest prior to the provincial tour , after which the play will be resumed at the Garrick . In the interim , Mr . Brick-well has arranged with Mr . George Edwardes for a fortnight ' s run of the celebrated musical success " In Town , " withr ; aj colossal company , prior to their departure for America . After the run of " In Town " Offenbach ' s comic opera " La Periohole " will be staged , with Miss Florence St . John in the title role , supported by powerful company , including Messrs . John Le Hay , Fred ICaye , & c .
Ad01101
EADE'S GOUT AND RHEUMATIC PILLS . The SAFEST and most EFFECTUAL CURE for GOUT , RHEUMATISM , and all PAINS in the HEAD , FACE , and LIMBS . The first two Pills took the pain away . EADE'S PILLS . 2 College Park Villas , Kensal Green , London , W . May 1891 . E ADE'S PILLS . Dear Sir , —I feel it my duty to tell you I had Rheumatic Gout twice , and had to stop at home for three E ADE'S PILLS , weeks . I cannot describe the pain I suffered . I read your advertisement , and looked upon it as all others , A brother gentleman said , " Try them . " I did so . THE FIRST TWO PILLS TOOK THE PAIN AWAY GOUT In a few hours , and £ was able to resume my work . No one need be frightened to take them . I have "T > HEUMATISM . recommended them to all whom I have heard com-JLV plaining of Rheumatism , Gout , Lumbago , Neuralgia , GOUT . & c . I hope no one will doubt my statement . Yours sincerely , RHEUMATISM . JAS . PETTELGALL . MR . G . EADE . EADE'S GOUT AND RHEUMATIC PILLS ARE PREPARED ONLY BY GEORGE EADE , 72 GOSWELL ROAD , LONDON , And sold by all Chemists and Medicine Vendors , IN BOTTLES , at Is L } d and 2 s 9 d each .
Ad01102
( Reduced Facsimile 2 / 3 rds . EXCEPTIONAL OFFER ! A 10 / 6 BEST GOLD FOUNTAIN PEN for 6 / = IN BOX . POST FREE . It is the Best Fountain Pen fitted with 14 carat Gold Nib , guaranteed made of the Very Best Material , will last for years , gives complete satisfaction , writes the moment it touches the paper , any Ink can be used , and carried in any position . We guarantee each Pen , and exchange Point till suited . A Boon to all Busy People . Saving of Time and Money . Our New 5 s Fountain Pen for 3 s 6 d in Box , post free , fitted with Nickel Silver Nib , which does not corrode , and will last as an ordinary Gold Point . EVERY PEN TESTED BEFORE POSTED . DIAMOND POINT PEN CO ., 19 Waterloo Street , Glasgow , Manufacturers .
Ad01103
Weaver'sDepository. PERSONAL ^ B || GECIRGE V ^ EAVERJ ° 1 / S IS^tewSiOT^^ffiS^HOUR " 8CarltonTerrace,HarrowEd.,W.
Ad01104
TheFreemason'sChronicle. A Weekly Record of Maaon ' ic Intelligence . Published every Saturday , Price 3 d . — : o : —¦ THE PBEEMASON'S CHBONICLE will be forwarded direct from the Office , Pleet Works , Bulwer Road , New Barnet , on receipt of remittance for the amount . The Terms of Subscription ( payable in advance ) are—Twelve Months , post free ... ... £ 0 13 6 Postal Orders to be made payable to W . W . MORGAN , at the New - BarnetOffice . Cheques crossed "London and South Western Bank . " Scale of Charges for Advertisements . Page ... ... ... ... ... £ 10 10 0 Births , Marriages , and Deaths , Is per line . General Advertisements , Trade Announcements , & c , narrow column , 5 s per inch . News column Advertisements Is per line . Special terms for a series of insertions or special pooitions on application .