MORE OF MR. BITRGIN'S MEMORIES.t
Ma. Brracns, the author of innumerable novels, will soon be known as the author of innumerable memoirs. He has now written a third volume dealing mainly with his early life in London. Like many journalists, Mr. Burgin made his debut in the legal profession. He entered his father's office in order to " pick up " law, but certain deficiencies in his short- hand caused complications. On one occasion, " My client's veracity is unimpeachable " became " My client's voracity is unimpaired." The correspondent seized the opportunity, and replied, " Although we sympathize with your client's appetite we do not find ourselves in a position to gratify it." However, such misadventures did not affect Mr. Burgin's success in his first and only case. He actually brought about a reconcili- ation between a young couple who had already made up their quarrel an hour before their appointment with him. After touring Canada and the Levant—his experiences abroad are recorded in More Memoirs (and Some Travels)—Mr. Burgin settled down in Featherstone Buildings as a free-lance journal- ist. At first his travel articles more than justified their designation by covering innumerable miles from editor to editor. Then, after many disappointments, Mr. Burgin obtained a sub-editorship on Mr. Jerome K. Jerome's paper, The Idler, which was just starting. If Mr. Burgin grows
• Nietzsche and Modern Consciousness. By Tank° Laurin. London : Cotlina- [6s. net.) t Many Memories. By G. B. Burgin, London: Hutchinson. [las. net.]
despondent over early struggles, he puts on rosier glasses when describing " The Idler's Club," where all sat with their feet on the mantelpiece smoking other people's cigars, "inter- rupting one another a propos des bottes, and capping an appre- ciation of Wagner with an anecdote about a mad turtle." Mr. Zangwill, Mr. Barry Pain, and the late Mr. George R. Sims were also of that delectable company.
We are tempted to make many extracts from Mr. Burgin's good-humoured book. No doubt the correspondent who wrote in the Spectator some time ago on the mislabelling of books will be glad to know that Mr. Burgin has made a similar discovery. In a second-hand bookshop he discovered a dilapidated bundle of Zola's works labelled with unconscious truth " Dirt cheap." There is a pleasant chapter on after- dinner speakers. Mr. Burgin has listened, in his time, to many distinguished speakers, and he often succeeds to a nicety in hitting off their peculiar characteristics. Mr. Chesterton, for instance, always says at least one thing worth remembering in the course of a speech, " but he says it in his own way. Something suddenly occurs to him as he goes along—something really brilliant, with all the charm of novelty to him as well as to his hearers—and he stops in the middle of his speech to chuckle over it, not from mere vanity, but because he suddenly realizes what a good thing it is and how much the speaking Chesterton has amused the other Chesterton, whose inner self is listening to him."
When Mr. Burgin is at a loss for some personal recollection he draws upon an apparently inexhaustible fund of anecdotes. However, we do not regret this anecdotage into which Mr. Burgin has fallen. Although many worn and harassed stories find sanctuary in his pages, Mr. Burgin prevails by sheer force of numbers.
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