CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
UNFASHIONABLE CLUBS.
ARAGO ON THE SUN.
BARBARA'S SEA-SIDE EXCURSION.
MR JERDAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
CRIMINAL TRIALS.
A NIGHT IN A GERMAN WOOD.
AN A.D.L.L. ADVENTURE IN LIVERPOOL.
'TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF A SAILOR'S LIFE AT SEA.'
EXCESSIVE MODESTY.
THE KHUNJUNEE.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 441. New Series. | SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
UNFASHIONABLE CLUBS.
It is with a feeling doubtless somewhat analogous to that of theangler, that the London shopkeeper from time to time regards themoneyless crowds who throng in gaping admiration around the temptingdisplay he makes in his window. His admirers and the fish, however,are in different circumstances: the one won't bite if they have nomind; the others can't bite if they should have all the mind in theworld. Yet the shopkeeper manages better than the angler; for whilethe fish are deaf to the charming of the latter, charm he never sowisely, the former is able, at a certain season of the year, toconvert the moneyless gazers into ready-money customers. This he doesby the force of logic. 'You are thinking of Christmas,' says he—'yes,you are; and you long to have a plum-pudding for that day—don't denyit. Well, but you can't have it, think as much as you will; it isimpossible as you manage at present. But I'll tell you how to get thebetter of the impossibility. In twenty weeks, we shall have Christmashere: now if, instead of spending every week all you earn, you willhand me over sixpence or a shilling out of your wages, I'll take careof it for you, since you can't take care of it for yourself; and youshall have the full value out of my shop any time in Christmas-week,and be as merry as you like, and none the poorer.'
This logic is irresistible. Tomkins banks his 6d. for a plum-puddingand the etceteras with Mr Allspice the grocer; and this identicalpudding he enjoys the pleasure of eating half-a-dozen times over inimagination before the next instalment is due. He at length becomes sofond of the flavour, that he actually—we know, for we have seen himdo it—he actually, to use his own expression, 'goes in for a goose'b