The publication of the thousandth number of a magazine which can refer to such statistics as these is certainly an event worth taking note of. Making, as it does, a red-letter day in the history of the paper, it was resolved, on the kind and thoughtful suggestion of Mrs. Emma Brewer—whom all our readers know—to signalise it by presenting the Editor with the autograph cloth shown in the illustration. This wonderful tea-cloth was presented to him at Christmas, together with a letter containing the following cheering words:
“We hoped to have made this little gift quite complete; there are however still some names wanting, not for lack of inclination to write them, but of time to collect them.
“Imperfect as it is, it is eloquent in its expression of affection and good-will. As such will you accept it and be cheered by it? It is not only a tribute to you as a born editor, but as a good sterling friend. We do not think any other Editor in England will have a like gift to-day.”
It is a recognition on the part of a hundred contributors—literary, musical, and artistic—who have served under his flag, of the ability, friendliness, and discretion which have been all along displayed in his dealings with his staff. No one can go back, as I do, to the very beginning of The Girl’s Own Paper without seeing how much it owes of its best features to his presiding care. Under his capable management and under that of a long line of successors, to whom he will be able to transmit the best maxims of editorial success, there seems no reason why The Girl’s Own Paper should not go on flourishing till the printers have to add a fifth figure to the number on the front page—and that will be a hundred and seventy-three years and four weeks from the present date!
[VARIETIES.]
The Piano has been Sold.
A Dutch paper, the other day, published the following significant advertisement from a disconsolate wife—
“Adolphus. Return to your Matilda. The piano has been sold.”
Beauty in Ugliness.—“Ugliness of the right sort,” says the late Jean Ingelow, “is a kind of beauty. It has some of the best qualities of beauty—it attracts observation and fixes the memory.”