Part 15 (1/2)

Nowadays, there is co a literary monthly on sound lines either here or in Ae Sot the seed, but at the beginning of the 'sixties the _Cornhill_ had the quality of originality It exactly hit the popular taste; and in a very short ti by the hundred thousand, a treh the _Cornhill_ did so well and though Mr George Sreat as ever up till his death, the azine had to own the fate of many publications of its kind before and since Itthat it also suffered fros, especially in his nificent and public-spirited venture--for such it was, rather than a business venture--the National Dictionary of Biography Mr George Smith himself always looked upon the National Dictionary as a piece of public service, and he put a great deal of his own tih always reatly altered its character after Mr Leslie Stephen's editorshi+p came to an end Its price was altered to sixpence, and for a tiazine of fiction, in which the firm of Sht the book rights There were, besides the two serial novels, only a few short stories and light essays, but these were only a kind of stuffing for the fiction

In the year '96, however, it occurred to Mr S to revive the _Cornhill_ and show that there was still life and force in the azine which had published soazine in which had appeared novels like Rohton's illustrations, and in which Louis Stevenson had given to the world those first and inibus Puerisque_ Once ood literature as a whole, and not merely of readable fiction

For his new series--the price reverted to sixpence--Mr Smith wanted a new editor He was not one of those people aste ti” people, a process that seehtedness, caution, arid discrimination in the sounder, but which, as a matter of fact, is ale Shtforward letter, tellingwithout any fluive what he wanted, and askingmy first visit to Cairo, in November, 1895 I at once replied that if my chiefs at _The Spectator_ saw no objection, I should be delighted to try my hand My chiefs saw no objection, and I set to work

When I say ”delighted,” I a been filled with plans for the editing of a literarytheed for so in which I should have a show ofwhich you can only do when you are either starting a new paper, or , as was to be the case with the new series of the _Cornhill_, an entirely new departure

If I ree Smith for a free hand, but the stipulation was quite unnecessary I saw during my first talk with hiive h he was, I suppose, very nearly forty yearsas I was, quite as full of enterprise, quite as anxious toto run risks and to throw his cap over the hedge

Noinald Smith, one of the partners in the fire Smith (It was a inald Sood scholar, had done very well at Eton, at Caot his father-in-law's fire or his _flair_ for literature, nor, again, his father-in-law's boldness I was on the best of terms with him and he was the most kind and friendly of publishers

It often happened, however, in going over ht this or that proposal on ht prove too expensive, too risky, too radical, or too unconventional In such cases he always said that we had better take the decision to Mr George Smith On the first occasion I was a little alarht naturally support his son- in-law in the direction of caution, and that the appeal to Caesar h to convince me that my anxieties had no foundation I re that he entirely agreed with ht to have my way, but enthusiastically declared that it was the best way After that I had no ested an appeal to the head, for I knew that the result would always be a decision on the side of enterprise Mr

George Shtened by such phrases as ”dangerous innovation which erous innovations were just what he liked, the things out of which he had made his fame and his money, and he backed them to the end like the true sports, perhaps,and putting together of the first nuazine I had a blank sheet of paper upon which to draw up my Table of Contents, except for an instalment of a novel What I was determined to make the _Cornhill_ under my editorshi+p was a place of _belles-lettres_ And besides good prose, if I could get it, I wanted good poetry

In the prose I naturally ai as these were really worth having) and inspiring literary and historical criticisood copy to be found in anniversary studies, that is, studies of great men whose births or deaths happened to fall within the ht reasonably be supposed to be in the public ood copy, if I could get the right reat cries

Every journalist knows that a trial sells his paper better than any other event The daily newspaper could always forestall the azine in the matter of trials of the day, but there remained open to me the whole field of State trials

Besides these features, I realised how lishman likes natural history, if it is dealt with in the proper way, and likes also to hear of what is newest andin the worlds of science and philosophy and in the things of the spirit generally These, perhaps, were fairly obvious features, but there was one other in which I inality In the 'nineties ere all talking and writing about ”huraphies, and, above all, diaries which, ritten, were not ht, and in which the naked human heart was laid bare for inspection It occurred to et, except by soht be rather fun to et a Marie Bashkirtseff to intrigue ued Mr

Gladstone and the rest of us, but I thought I could get hold of soh it ood deal more witty I therefore turned over in my mind the people I could ask to write a ”journal inti the ,” ie, thinking about my work in a half- hypnotic condition, I remember that the idea occurred to me The man to do what I wanted was, I suddenly felt, the wisest and wittiest ofBut he was not then a Dean, or even a Canon or a Reader at Lincoln's Inn, but si hi him to write for me, under the seal of secrecy, a es fros he could think of in the way of good stories, criticism of matters old and new, comments upon life, literature, and conduct, accounts of historical figures and historical events, all informed with _verve_ and interest and all presented in that inimitable style, half-serious, half- quizzical, of which Beeching was awrote back to tell me how much he liked the idea, and how sure he was that he could not do anything of the kind worthIt was quite beyond him I replied that this was nonsense, that I was quite sure from his answer that he understood exactly what I wanted, that he could do it, and that I should want the first instaled hi like an essay but that heit in this way genuine reality and not an essay with dates in it In the end he consented to try his best He realised at once that it would be quite necessary to keep the diary as a true diary--that is, write it spasain enjoined the ut that it was not only a case of ”_onifico_,” but also that secrecy was the best possible advertisement I knew that his copy would be extraordinarily attractive, and I wanted people at London dinner-parties and in club suessed yet who the _Cornhill_ diarist is?” I may say that my prophecy was exactly fulfilled, for not only did the Private Diary get a great deal of praise on its merits, which were trulycorounds--a vice or a virtue of human nature which I was quite determined to exploit for all it orth I still recall 's copy arrived It ritten in a beautifully neat hand (we did not type much in those days) and accoard to the author and his supposed failure I had only to read two pages to see that, with his wonderful instinct for hulish and classical literature, he had givenhiht of the Diary and that there was to be no talk of his abandoning it I should expect it regularly once a month, for at least nine es from a Private Diary” were, of course, afterwards republished and did exceedingly well as a book They ood literature and a good laugh All I need add about the Diary is that I told Beeching to envisage hiive away the secret, but as a retired Anglo-Indian who had coland

This kind of ers as he was in history and literature, and would be able to look upon theested, put the reader off the track and help ested the idea of a Berkshi+re Xenophon, a ht battles in his own day, but was now studying economics or philosophy a respond I think in the first instalhtful story of a Berkshi+re labourer looking over a sty at a good litter of Berkshi+re grunters and re, ”What I do say is this We wants fewer of they black parsons and s” Be that as it s, or fewer pages from his Private Diary

Another innovation which I was very keen to follow up, and in which I was backed by Mr George S an editorial note toas to what the writer was at and conveyed a suggestion (a very proper thing for an editor to do) that the article was of unusualinto, and so on For exaes froood private and ”inti kept at this moment as any that were kept in the last century Unfortunately, however, the public will not see them, in the course of nature, till forty or fifty years have elapsed; till, that is, half their charh, however, to secure one of the best of these, but only on conditions The chief of these is absolute anonyuessing All that can be said of the _Cornhill_ Diarist is that he lives in the country, and that, like the author of _The Anatonotus_

As a proof of the delightful things which Beeching wrote in his Diary, out of his own head, as children say, I ardener has at last condescended to retire He has been on the place, I believe, for sixty yearsless and less; his dinner-hour has grown by insensible degrees into two, his intercalary luncheons and nuncheons arden past winking at Thishe was rather depressed, and broke it to me that I must try to find soested the narand clie, he pointed out that no young eneration could be depended upon; and, further, that he wished to end his days in his own cottage (_ie_ e), where he had lived all his life, so that there would be a difficulty in introducing anyone fro felloon't s Isoldiers for servants, feeling in duty bound to do so; besides, I like to have well set-up men about the place When they are teetotallers they do very well William, my coachoes, not a bigot He was a gunner, and the other night--I suppose he had been drinking delight of battle with his peers-- he brought , in his best artillery style, as though the carriage was a field-piece

He was equally delightful when raking in with both hands fros Take, for exa story of a young Presbyterian:

Jack has a Scotch cousin, Donald, who is of a more metaphysical turn oflittle dialogue will show that he inherits the faith of his fathers:

_Donald:_ Mother, was Jesus Christ a Jew? _Mother:_ Yes, Donald _Donald:_ But how could He be, when God the Father is a Presbyterian?

The ”Pages froreat success, in spite of their author being ultimately discovered by Mr Bain, the well-known bookseller Partly by accident and partly frouessed that Beeching was the author

But proud as I was of the Diary, I areatest find was not a wonderful short series entitled ”Memoirs of a Soudanese Soldier”

It happened that while I was up the Nile I came across an old Soudanese soldier--a lieutenant who had just risen froiuous pension The officer in question, Ali Effendi Gifoon, was a typical Soudanese in face and figure He looked like a large, grave, elderly monkey, but he was as brave as a lion and as courteous, as chivalrous, and as loyal as an Arthurian knight-errant All the tis to some noble anirateful I have seen e and picturesque people in est To begin with, he was a slave-soldier, which seereat Babylonian or Persian rulers and their arh up the Nile by one of the great Arab slave- dealers and raiders of Egypt The dealer sold him to Mehemet AH the Pasha He, like most tyrants of Turkish extraction, believed in slave- soldiers if you could get the right breed, and, therefore, he was always ready to buy the right type of man for his Soudanese battalions In order to keep his ranks full, the dealers caught young Soudanese for hi anie was surrounded, and the children and young men pounced upon, and the rest ere not wanted were either killed or allowed to die of starvation

His origin was strange enough, but still stranger was a fact which I soon learnt after I made the acquaintance of Gifoon, and travelled up the Nile with hiht, on the top deck of the stern-wheeleras interpreter Gifoon knew only two cities besides Cairo They were Paris and the City of Mexico, It makes one's head whirl, but it is the truth It reminds me of a New Zealand patient in our War Hospital

He made froe warned hiers and temptations of the ht, for he knew Wollaranga (his native town) and Cairo intireat cities