FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



One of the indictments against him was that 

 during the whole of his term he had never issued 

 a volume of the Society's Memoirs, although 

 hitherto these had appeared every two years ; 

 these Memoirs being the progenitors of the present 

 Journal. This will account for my inability to 

 discover them for the year in which Mr. Travers' 

 paper on grafting was written. 



The Society has a very artistically-executed 

 pastel portrait of William Matthews, Nehemiah's 

 predecessor, already referred to, in the office of 

 secretary. He is represented brimful of life, just 

 looking up from the act of writing a letter in order 

 to reply to some interrogatory just addressed to 

 him, his expression of confidence indicating that 

 he had a complete answer to it whatever the query 

 might be. His pen is in his hand, and the other 

 implements of his calling, as they were in those 

 days, are depicted. They include a quill-pen, 

 rarely seen now, a pounce-pot with its grains of 

 sand, fulfilling the purpose of the after-invented 

 blotting-paper, a stick of sealing-wax, a taper, 

 and a selection of variously-coloured wafers for 

 securing correspondence before adhesive envelopes 

 superseded them. 



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