= ax 4 
HENRY V. PELTON. Bi th 
It is not probably that any other like organization, 
has ever existed, equally distinguished and influential. 
Speaking of its eariier days, Macaulay says ‘‘ Its verdicts 
on new books, speedily known, were sufficient to sell off 
a whole edition in a day or to condemn the sheets to the 
service of the trunk-maker and pastry cook. 
In 1824, some young men met regularly at a tavern in 
the neighborhood of Covent Garden Theatre. It wasa 
regulation of this organization, that some paper or poem 
or conceit bearing upon Shakespeare should be contrib- 
uted by each member. Later Douglas Jerrold and 
Laman Blanchard became members, and of course the en- 
trance of two such as these, added no inconsiderable in- 
terest to the club. Upon Jerrold’s suggestion, the club 
was called ‘‘The Mulberries,’’ and their contributions 
were called ‘* Mulberry Leaves.’? The club lived many 
years and included both actors and artists as well as 
writers, among its members. 
The crop of leaves contributed by the members are still 
existing, and were to have been published, but no one 
would undertake to see’ them through the press. After- 
wards the club was much changed in character and was 
called the ‘‘ Shakespeare Club,’ having Charles Dickens, 
Talfourd, Maclise, and Macready as members. Jerrold 
afterwards belonged to several clubs ; ‘‘ The Hooks and 
Eyes,’ ‘‘Our Club,’ and others, and in each of these 
he was the member. 
It was in these gatherings that many of those bright 
sallies of wit, in which he so excelled all others, were 
uttered, thus: 
At a dinner of artists, a barrister present, having his 
health drank in connection with the law, began his res- 
ponse by saying he did not see how the law could be con- 
sidered one of the arts, when Jerrold helped him out by 
ejaculating the word, black. 
_ A supper of sheeps-heads was served, and one of the 
