Prev | Current Page 112 | Next

Saki, 1870-1916

"Beasts and Super-Beasts"


"Literature," explained the Minister.
And thus, after a fashion, Colonel Harrowcluff's expectation of seeing
his son's name in the list of Honours was gratified.


THE YARKAND MANNER

Sir Lulworth Quayne was making a leisurely progress through the
Zoological Society's Gardens in company with his nephew, recently
returned from Mexico. The latter was interested in comparing and
contrasting allied types of animals occurring in the North American and
Old World fauna.
"One of the most remarkable things in the wanderings of species," he
observed, "is the sudden impulse to trek and migrate that breaks out now
and again, for no apparent reason, in communities of hitherto stay-at-
home animals."
"In human affairs the same phenomenon is occasionally noticeable," said
Sir Lulworth; "perhaps the most striking instance of it occurred in this
country while you were away in the wilds of Mexico. I mean the wander
fever which suddenly displayed itself in the managing and editorial
staffs of certain London newspapers. It began with the stampede of the
entire staff of one of our most brilliant and enterprising weeklies to
the banks of the Seine and the heights of Montmartre. The migration was
a brief one, but it heralded an era of restlessness in the Press world
which lent quite a new meaning to the phrase 'newspaper circulation.'
Other editorial staffs were not slow to imitate the example that had been
set them. Paris soon dropped out of fashion as being too near home;
Nurnberg, Seville, and Salonica became more favoured as planting-out
grounds for the personnel of not only weekly but daily papers as well.


Pages:
100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124