KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



223 



PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS, 



The Hungarian Musical Company 



Gave the last of their series of Six Concerts 

 on the 23rd ult. The selection of instru- 

 mental music provided was very choice, and 

 brought all their powerful talent into full 

 play. Never was there a richer musical 

 treat submitted to the public. The unity of 

 action, fine ear, and intensity of feeling 

 prevailing among each one of the band, ren- 

 dered their joint performance unexception- 

 ably beautiful. We would gladly mention 

 the name of the " Director " of the Com- 

 pany, but our pen refuses to write it ; our 

 brain is unequal to spell it ; and we feel 

 quite sure our readers would never be able 

 to pronounce it if written. We therefore 

 let " expressive silence muse its praise." 

 Suffice it to say, there was music in every 

 vein of his face; — in every gesture stood 

 confest 



" A melody of soul." 



In this feeling all his company largely 

 shared ; and their triumph was complete. 

 We shall look with intense anxiety for 

 another series of these unique Concerts, — 

 the melodies of which are with us, waking 

 and sleeping. 



KEEPING UP APPEARANCES. 



In two Chapters.— Chapter I. 



What juggling, what self-denial, what per- 

 plexity is involved in the phrase ! I never 

 hear of a household with small means (and 

 to no others does it apply) who are famous 

 for ' keeping up appearances,' but all the 

 crooked, over-strained, hard-working ma- 

 chinery of the interior presents itself to my 

 imagination ; the parsimonious economy in 

 daily use amongst its members, that others 

 may enjoy the fruits of their frugality, and 

 laugh at them by the light of their own 

 1 bougies ;' the sitting at home in sack-cloth 

 (comparatively speaking), to shine in purple 

 and fine linen elsewhere ; the double duty, 

 low wages, and indifferent comforts of the 

 domestics, in order to compete with the es- 

 tablishments of richer neighbors, and pay 

 for supernumerary assistance on the occa- 

 sion of a fine dinner to thankless acquaint- 

 ances, after some months' endurance of 

 short- commons on the part of the public- 

 spirited family themselves ; the homely, tar- 

 nished, scarcely respectable aspect of the 

 apartments set aside for home service ; the 

 imitative tawdriness and ostentation of those 

 devoted to the reception of company. Alas ! 

 how little worth such domestic sacrifices is 

 the paltry motive that occasions them ! 

 About a week since, on returning to my 

 lodgings from an exhibition, I found on my 



table an envelope, with a milk-white cachet 

 and silver border, looking very pretty and 

 bride-like, and upon opening it, a pair of 

 cards, connected by a cord of similar tex- 

 ture^ fastened emblematically, in a true 

 lover's knot ; also, a little friendly note, sigh- 

 ing of some delicate perfume, and informing 

 me that my young new-married friends were 

 1 at home.' In a few days therefore, I felt 

 it my devoir to call on them, and the servant, 

 who probably took me for some country 

 gentlewoman, having law business with her 

 master (who happens to be of that profes- 

 sion), ushered me into a small back parlour, 

 while she took my card up stairs. I am 

 rather fond of paying bridal visits, when a 

 sufficient time has elapsed to insure your 

 doing so without finding yourself in the way, 

 or being subjected to a surfeit from the in- 

 sipid sweetnesses of recent conjugalism. 

 There is generally such an air of neatness 

 in the new homestead, freshly painted and 

 pointed for the occasion — such newness in 

 the furniture — such nicety in the first 

 touches of trial housewifery ; and then, the 

 interesting strife between the timidity of the 

 bride and the importance thrust upon her 

 in her new position — so evident in the coun- 

 tenance of the girl transformed into the 

 wife ! She has taken a serious part in the 

 role of life, and one likes to see how it sits 

 upon her ; besides, I always fancy that I can 

 augur from a first visit the promise of the 

 future, or, by the second-sight one gains 

 from experience, discover the rock on which 

 the happiness or prosperity of the young 

 couple is likely to founder. In the present 

 instance, my speculations upon the taste and 

 furnishing talent of my young friend were 

 doomed to a mortifying disappointment, so far 

 as the apartment was concerned into which I 

 had been shown. Yet the appearance of recent 

 breakfast, and some lady's work lying on 

 the hard, uncomfortable sofa, as if hastily 

 thrown aside (probably at the sound of my 

 knock), made me fancy it the usual sitting- 

 room of the young couple ; and I instinct- 

 ively ran my eye round the apartment, so 

 peculiarly the heart of home comfort. - Fur- 

 nished lodgings,' thought I, and then I re- 

 membered to have heard that they had taken 

 the house. Well, then, my friend must have 

 received part of her fortune in chattel pro- 

 perty ; for, by no other supposition could I 

 account for the years of housekeeping that 

 had evidently gone over the greater part of 

 the furniture, nor for the heaviness and ill- 

 taste of the rest. The paper was of that 

 quality, specimens of which may be daily 

 seen ticketed at three half-pence per yard, 

 the pattern tasteless (how could it be other- 

 wise ?), the color, varied shades of that ap- 

 propriately denominated drab ; the table, 

 instead of being of that compact shape and 



