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    dreaded more than any man , lest it should " hurt him in business . " And he did that , knowing that the poor wretch had a wife of his own , living away frora mm because ^ was to ° P to keep her ! Yes , he kept ahout his house the seducer of his child , because the rascal was made cheaper by his damaged character ; and he was an accomplice with the fellow in defrauding the wife . Is that a man worth saving ?" I had no answer that needed to be pressed at the moment , "No , sir ; Johnson has the intellect of a nincompoop , and the heart of a tradesman . For we are all alike in that—even Mark Markham is so . But in Lancashire we are depraved to the very core . We must go throug h with it . However , that is not all . How did Johnson treat those

    whom he loved best in the world—his customers ? You have seen the portrait of Lucrezia Borgia : Johnson is not quite so lovely ; but he is not less criminal . He poisons those he loves . Well , it is poisoning—literally . The Lancet is quite right . We do sell poison . Johnson may have had some fumbling kind of salvo in his own mind , based on " necessity , " on the universal practice , or his own ignorance . The fellow doesn ' t know poison from food . I really believe he would eat his own anchovies ! You need not look at the tray—you will never see Johnsonian anchovies at my table . " " But you say that all do it : then why blame him ?" " Yes , we all do it . Look here . " He took a green clearbottle that I had not noticed on a shelf of his library . " Read that . " " Best girkins—Genuine . "

    " It looks ' genuine , ' does it not ; green as the cucumber in its native bed , when its 3 ^ outh first courts the sun ? You admire that greenness—it makes you wish to buy . It is the smile of the syren ; it is poison—copper . I could supply you with those ' best' at a very low figure , and yet they will fetch the best price over the counter . But they deserve it , sir ; the customers are as bad as the tradesman . Offer them the ' genuine article ' and they do not value it . Real girkin verdure is never so brilliant as that . Ask them the true price of the real article and they will go to the next

    shop , where a fellow is underselling you with a vile fabrication . Look here "—he showed a bottle— " this is chocolate , such as I would give you . We sell of it—pshaw , I forget the figure . No matter , it is not worth remembering . This again "—holding up another bottle— "is ' genuine ' chocolate , which you might have at as many pence a pound as the other costs shill ' ngs , and we ask ' only one shilling and threepence . ' Your customer will always prefer to store up in his inmost pocket the raw materials of his coffin . He tries to cheat the dealer , and the dealer cheats him . "

    " But if you all do so , I say , why press so hard on Johnson ?" " He failed . " There was no answer to that , so I tried to learn more . " ttut you , " I said , " nrp . not under the dominion of these base influences . For all you have said , surely you are no grocer ?" " More so than any man you ever saw—the grocerest of human beings . Let us take a survey . " He unrolled upon the table a map of London , and looked at it for a moment in silence . " You know , I suppose , how the brewers manage to possess their business-domain ? Each great Lord of the Vat supplies a number of vassals , the publicans , with the means or

    opportunity of opening a house ; and really the independent-looking palaces of gin and beer are but fiefs held under the great Lords . This is bringing capital and the wholesale principle to bear vipon retail trade . The millers do the same for the baking trade . A Scotch genius has done the same lor the linendrapers and haberdashers—all now driven out of the held by the great capitals . Many a man who used to be an independent shop keeper , is glad to be servant to a great linemlraper . But one of these gi't'at men will supply a . whole district— -more than one district I suspectluvuig houses under separate names , but really connected , in various qnar-¦ ° -rs . At all events that is what a Lancashire genius , " he said , with a smile that ive

    h u particular application— " contemplates doing for the grocery busilu's * - 1 am not a grocer , to ordinary eyes : there is all my stock , " pointln rM <> u part of his bookcase , containing , I imagine , samples , and to a few 'N't'ount jind cheque books ; " and here , " laying his finger again on the lla " is m y shop . You know llogers , the rival whom Johnson vainly ru" « l to ( hiV (; out of the iidd : well , that Rogers is only my man . ( " lV (! il" <>< her place here , " pointing to the map iigniu , " and here , and here , il Ml I It r k . i .. ¦ b - _ - — _ - > . *¦ I 1 (; and

    — . . re ; 1 am planning to extend in this direction , and in this . ( s » he continued , looking contemplatively on the field , " it is a great ' < me ; I have only begun , as yet ; but everything falls before my ml" - This yon see / ' he continued , rolling up the map with a jerk , and J'niing Co ,,, (]„ . x , nhU \— " tliis is the course before us all—this tin ; choice il , to be ji Johnson , or a—a Markhain , if you like , or a Murk ham ' s ,. ' " ' ' ° ' destroyed or to destroy ; to be the ruins of the past , or the Ration of the fuiure . " ^ ™ ark liuin . "' I cried , " you astonish me , who have almost lived down , or eu uo wn astonishment . If you were really n grocer , or nothing but *•> < -er , I could understand But vou cannot , pretend any such debaseilloilf y . Ic I ' "i are a gentleman , si scholar , a traveller ; a man , with a know-M- <> 1 the world of man ' s life , of the universe in which he is u

    wnnin I ' yii " cannot be the criminal , the dull instrument of a stupid . ' " '! l 1 < y » anny that you pretend to be . " fii | 1 ( > M ' " I retort the chaise of dulness and folly V" he answered . «* My dear ,., ¦ ' n * ' lll > ist take the world as we find it . This is the commercial age ; Uii v ' I < l 11 ' "> om : i" ° * tm ! ( lliy > intellect itself must be content to he no luu tu « handmaid of money . We must paaa through that utugc , and

    not be diverted in our course by that silly , antiquated mistake , philanthropy . What does not pay , cannot , and ought not to exist . Johnson does not pay , and he must be expunged . I have marched him down . It is idle to kick against fate , it only hurts our corns . " He walked up and dowp the room in silence . I broke in upon , him , however , with arguments to show that he ought to temper this supreme

    destroying power with a clemency befitting its absolute character . Although an utilitarian and a predestinarian , he was not closed against appeals to his nobler qualities and more refined attainments ; and he softened as I warmed in my accusations of his not being equal to himself . Suddenly he stopped in his strides along the book-walled room , and cried , " I tell you what I will consent to : I will make Johnson one of my men ; and , by Jove , I will marry his daughter !" I laughed to myself at hearing him thus dispose of Margaret ; but having brought him to the mood I wished , while I had no authority either to promise or decline his matrimonial munificences , I hastily took leave . " But , by Jove , we must see more of each other , " he said , as he shook hands— " I like you . "

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    THE DRAMATIST'S FIRST NIGHT . If any ingenious man would write a " Physiology of the British t ) rama , " he would hare at least fifty pages to give to the First Night , considered under its various aspects , as regards the public , the actors , the manager , and the poet himself . ! Let us for a moment consider only the poet ( and here I use the term in its widest acceptation—that of the maker of a new drama ) , as the image intrudes upon us , apropos of Westland Marston , who this night ( Thursday ) has once more undergone the first night experiences . Here is a happy poet , who has seen many first nights , all more or less successful , —not one a failure ! He is not , perhaps , the best type I could select , for he—at least to-night—know r s nothing of the tortures through which less fortunate poets have to pass . 1 / 1

    uugf oll / UCfcU-LVJLL lux CL XXiau KJX . U . l ^ J . ll > Ct COUOU ^ U V ) UUit / A . i 3 CU"lu » Cj ardent self-confidence , and lofty aspirations ! He has written his play , let us suppose . He has worked at it in silence for several happy months . With the passionate patience of au inventor ' s love , he has wrought into shape the shapeless mass of tumultuous thoughts which crowded upon him ; he has touched and touched , re-touched , then blotted every line out to begin anew . It has grown into shape , slowly , laboriously wrought ; the labour lightened b y visions of success , the plaudits ringing in anticipative ears , and ehffvring Kim when bis banrl grows weary ! It has followed him throughout the waking day ; it has threaded his dreams throughout the night ; it has lived in his life , the passion and the sustenance of his soul . The play is done . He believes it is a master-piece . Now begins the real difficulty , the unalloyed pain . He has first to get a manager to read it ; he has then to get a manager to accept it . All this seemed so easy to his innocence ! He could foresee so little of the obstacles to such a

    result ! He could not suppose that his master-piece would not be recognised as such—would not be " doable "—would "not draw a , penny to the house . He foresees , on the contrary , that it will make the manager ' s fortune and his own . ' After , perhaps , some years of baffled hopes and fruitless application , ho finds a manager willing to " risk it . " ( Poor self-love ! thy master-pieco is " risked ! " ) Let me suppose—it is immensely improbable !—that our poet lias been happy enough not only to find his manager , but that he has found one who does not insist upon his so twisting aiul turning the masterpiece with " alterations , " that , to bring it into conventional shape , all its organic- life has been destroyed . Lei . me further , since I am on the line of improbabilities , suppose the " leading actors" satisfied with their parts , and requiring no alterations . The play is rehearsed . The first night

    . The first night ! What a drama is acted on the unseen theatre of the poet's soul as the play proceeds ! The quick and eager risings of hope —• the fluttering agitations of suspense—the keen sensitiveness to what goes wrong—and the feverish , uneasy , unhappy happiness , as the house-shakingplaudits tell him of a victory ! JNot ho last , little Sir , —not so fast ! The victory is not gained yet ; : a brawling turbulence of friends , ; i generous enthusiasm of a . public , following the lead of friends , may or may not be an ovation ; the first night is not a victory : it is the twentieth night you are a victor ! If you could only 8 top into the lobby , jus I ; after bowing from your box ; , and overhear old playgoers and critics as they interchange their rapid commonte , tho applause- of tho audience will have another meaning : — What Hock of critics hover here to-day As vultures wait on armies for their \ truy , All gaping for the carcase of a pluy ! All ! those critics ! They an * terribly " used up" with regard to p ' weos like your masterpiece , and see " nothing in it . " TJiey know every ono of your situations—they can name the prototypes of all your characters — they are wearied with the " familiar lares" of your images ; what seemed now to you—because indistinctly remembered * —is old to them who have seen it so often . Then these vieu . v ro-ntic-nt know all the secrets of tho mtUie . r you lmvo missed . One of tbrMii has views on " construction , " according to which ho judges your piece ; another wants the drama to bo a picture of modern fife , and your antiquity wearies liim . Ami after all this , you wonder 1 , 11 at we , the critics , are not ho enthusiastic ! about your piny as friends arc ; and you call us " enemies" if wo fliiy so , and perliups write a preface on the " envy of critics ! " That is ono of your tortures . The victory is a glorious victory ; but it in not to bo purchased without hard blowH . The shouts that " bowilder you , tho pmiBea that make you

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    OctfbBEft 30 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1040

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 30, 1852, page 1049, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1958/page/21/