KILLING NO MURDER.
(To the Editor of "Punch.")
MY DEAR SIR,—I have just been reading with a great deal of surprise "The Life and Letters of Charles Samuel Keene, by GEORGE SOMES LAYARD." Seeing the name of one of your colleagues as the first line of the "Index," I turned to page 74 and looked him out. I found him mentioned in an account given by Mr. M.H. SPIELMANN of the Punch Dinner, which Mr. GEORGE SOMES LAYARD had extracted from Black and White, no doubt to assist in making up his book. The following is the quotation:—"The Editor, as I have said, presides; should he be unavoidably absent, another writer—usually, nowadays, Mr. ARTHUR A'BECKETT—takes his place, the duty never falling to an artist." Then, to show how thoroughly Mr. GEORGE SOMES LAYARD is up to date, he adds to the name of Mr. ARTHUR A'BECKETT (after the fashion of Mr. Punch in the drama disposing of the clown or the beadle), "since dead." Now Mr. ARTHUR A'BECKETT is not dead, but very much alive. Do you not think, Sir, it would be better were gentlemen who write about yourself and your colleagues, to verify their facts before they attempt to give obituary notices, even if they be as brief as the one in question?
Yours, truly,
MORE GAY THAN GRAVE.
NEW AND APPROPRIATE NAME FOR MODERN PUGILISM.—The "Nobble" Art.
