12 A MONTHLY MEDIUM OF LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND COMMERCIAL INTERCOMMUNICATION No. 1.-VOL. I.] JANUARY, 1864. OUR INAUGURAL ADDRESS. N announcing a new candidate for the suffrages of our great literary constituency, it has long been customary to solicit their patronage and support. Consequently, and in compliance with this time-honoured practice, we beg most respectfully to introduce our young protegée "THE GLEANER"-to the especial notice of our friends and the public. Established as a garner for the reception of the leasings of our LITERARY GLEANERS, this periodical is also offered to the educated and intellectual classes of the community, as a select but desirable medium of intercommunication on every subject of artistic interest. The pages of the GLEANER will be devoted to original articles in prose and verse-essays and sketches-lectures on scientific and popular subjects-history-traditionbiography-notes and queries, &c. Bearing in mind the popular proverb, that "what is worth doing at all is worth doing well," the labours of the GLEANER will be zealously directed to the attainment of that quality which may not fear the test of comparison. Select, yet not exclusive in its gatherings, it is hoped that the samples offered for acceptance will be found fully equal to the fair average of the literary market. Although naturally anxious to "win the golden opinions of all sorts of people," yet the GLEANER will be found no sycophant: but claiming that independence of thought and action which is our peculiar national characteristic, it will occasionally discuss, and comment upon, the momentous questions of the day-socially as well as morally. The peculiar mission of the GLEANER will ever be the important and beneficent one, of collecting the ripe but scattered grain which would otherwise be inevitably lost to the commonwealth-binding it into goodly sheaves, and safely storing it, as the prime seed of the past destined to produce the rich harvest of the future, in the time-honoured granary of our household libraries. The elysian fields of literature present a magnificent prospect to the humble but hopeful GLEANER. It is true that the labourers are many; but, nevertheless, to the glance of the earnest-the ardent-the indefatigable, there is still an abundance remaining: more than sufficient to reward the toil of those noble-hearted GLEANERS, who are ever anxious to realise the eternal truth of the sacred precept "Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom: and, with all thy getting, get understanding.” Unlike our aristocratic serials, the humble GLEANER will not contemptuously reject, unread, the "waifs and strays" of our ardent young authors, who, in obedience to the divine impulse of their nature, have, perchance, shadowed forth "a bud of beauty:" nor attempt to crush the hopes of the zealous aspirant for literary honours, simply because he is unfriended and unknown. Por. 2705 [ONE PENNY. Abiding the issue of our venture in the well-grounded hope of achieving a merited success, we frankly solicit the contributions of our talented compeers-our friends and patrons; assuring them, in all sincerity, that although they must necessarily submit to the rigid ordeal of an unsparing editorial supervision, yet each and all shall receive a strictly impartial consideration, and an unbiassed award; accepted, with pleasure, if it be possible: rejected, if it must be so, with regret-but never without due acknowledgment of the good that is in them-for although that stern monitor, the voice of duty, may not "aught extenuate," 'nought shall be set down in malice" to unfair disparagement. Our Commercial and Professional Advertising Friends are also solicited to contribute their valuable offerings and their interesting announcements to "THE GLEANER," which we assure them shall be duly introduced to influential households. By so doing, they will doubtless realise, with very peculiar satisfaction, the truthfulness of that encouraging precept:-"He that soweth plenteously shall in due season reap abundantly, if he weary not in the well-doing which surely bringeth its own reward.” Eriginal Pen and Ink Sketches. OUR STREET! BY PETER PALLET. "I'll set down nought in malice."-Shakspeare. OUR STREET!-there is an amount of importance in this phrase that words, mere words, fail to convey: it is, in fact, a lofty embodiment of the "grand ideas" of our aristocracya sort of little stock-in-trade for the admirers of Our Street to fall back upon. Some good people may ask the question -"Well! and pray what is there in your street so particularly imposing, that you need drag it into print ?" Gentle reader, listen! We will not say "Once upon a time!" or "Very many years ago!" It is not of the slightest consequence how many years ago: but, in one of the charming suburban localities of this great world of London, there stood, in our remembrance, a large tract of land, let, and sub-let, to various delvers of the soil, for the propagation of vegetable produce. This state of things lasted for many a year, when suddenly business took us from London, and compelled us to pass something like twelve or eighteen months in one of our large seaport towns. We returned: and lo! to our unutterable surprise, there-on that very tract of land once devoted to vegetables-had sprung up with mushroom-like rapidity, in all its simple grandeur-Our Street! (ALL COPYRIGHTS RESERVED.) d. 102. "Genteel Apartments to Let: situated in a quiet, highly | respectable neighbourhood, within fifteen minutes' walk of the City. Every convenience. Omnibuses pass the end of the street every five minutes. Apply between the hours of ten and four, &c." There, courteous reader, you have a very fair specimen of the advertisements that emanate from Our Street! You seldom, or, I may say, never see a vulgar bill-"Lodgings to Let!" gracing, or rather disgracing, the windows of Our Street! No: we implicitly trust to the advertisement-it don't cost much, aad it looks genteel! besides, it gives the appearance of your occupying the whole house. Now anyone replying to such advertisement in person, will find, on reaching the locality, a tolerably wide and recently built street: very straight—very prim—almost painfully so to a casual observer; each house set up square and straight, and suggestive to a lively imagination, of the straightened circumstances of its inhabitants: but such is fortunately not the case. Our Street has been built with an eye to gentility more than durability, which is a positive advantage, inasmuch as it necessitates the constant visits, and consequent engagement, of Woody the carpenter, Hods the bricklayer, and Daub the painter, thereby dispelling at once any idea of dullness that might be engendered in any new comer to Our Street! As I have before observed, Our Street has a decidedly stiff and formal appearance; and is built chiefly of a peculiar warm yellowish brick, resembling in colour the slack-baked bricks exhibited in the windows of the bakery in Our Street! And mark the noble flight of stone steps—the peculiar boast of our houses-and quite a little aristocratic institution in itself! also, the rich compo dressings around the doors and windows, which look very like stone, until it cracks-for these high-art embellishments give a decided superiority to Our Street, over others of far greater pretensions in the locality. Besides whlch, all our windows have large squares of glass, that look to the uninitiated very like plate, providing the sun is not out; but should such unfortunately be the case, the graceful undulations of the glass will most excellently resemble the wavy swell of the ocean just before a storm. Woe to the rash youth, who, in the pride of his magnificence, has the temerity to show himself at these panes under such painful circumstances-the shadowy undulations aforesaid giving to his "human face divine" very much the appearance of the "best mottled soap!" The houses in Our Street are also most exceedingly well ventilated; not from any elaborate, patented, and consequently expensive process, but by an artful manœuvre on the part of the builder, who was by no means so green as might be imagined in constructing the doors and windowsashes of such green materials, which, in due season, by the kind assistance of the usual cracking and shrinking, created a healthy draught and current of air through the whole building-most highly invigorating to those householders who are not martyrs to rheumatism, or susceptible of cold. Our houses, you must know, consist of seven rooms and a washouse-a small enclosure in the rear, dignified by the name of a garden-and (see our advertisement) every convenience. Very masterpieces of the builder's art are the houses in Our Street! Certainly, the parlours are, as the saying goes, hardly large enough to swing a cat in; but this being a pastime we do not indulge in, we don't feel the want of more ample space so very keenly. Nevertheless, we look around and marvel, gentle reader-not at the rich "Brussels," or the superb "Turkey," which decorates the floor-not at the "cottage," or the "grand," of our "fair cousins"-not at the sumptuous mirrors, which show the "very age and body of "ourselves-not at the "crimson damask," or the "snowy muslin," or the "pet-canaries," or the "blooming evergreens," of our elegant windows-no, but we do marvel, and we have a right to marvel, at the dazzling splendour of our glorious "gaseliers!" Our ceilings, too, are decidedly handsome and lofty-cornice and centres perfectly luxurious-in fact, possessing that elevated air which is so peculiarly distinctive of " our own nobility." Perhaps, on the whole, six-roomed houses would be the most correct description of our houses, as it is rather questionable whether the small den with the sloping roof, facetiously termed the servant's room, can really and truly be classed as a room at all-as it entails quite a little acrobatic performance to walk all round it, in the proper position of man, without braining oneself. The portrait is complete by the addition of a little model back-kitchen-which, in the eyes of our fair laundresses, is just the thing. But mark! gentle reader, mark you well that crowning glory of our houses— the Breakfast Parlour! Now, if there is any one idea more than another that gives, at one fell swoop, an appearance of thorough gentility to a house, it is a Breakfast Parlour! -and all the houses have them in Our Street! Dear reader, if, in your unfashionable dwelling, you do not possess such a thing as a Breakfast Parlour, come and look at Our Street! and then, go and do thou likewise; it is easily accomplished, by the very simple process of twisting out the kitchen-range and popping-in a register-stoveand that is the entire secret of manufacturing a Breakfast Parlour. I know that some of my fair readers may object, and make a stand for the range on the ground of its utility; but say, is it not more than balanced by the pleasant fiction of the Breakfast Parlour? So much for the houses in Our Street: now for the inhabitants- —our very particular friends and special acquaintances! Perhaps, next to myself (and No. 1 is always the first object of interest in it), the greatest and most important person in Our Street is my worthy host of "The Jolly Dogs Tavern!" Where, but in Our Street, can such a house be found? Look at its noble Coffee Room, with luxuriously cushioned sofa-like seats-its elegant marble-top tables, and its kamptuliconed floor! not to mention its well-stocked, superb-looking, and much-prized bookcase, or the little black sign-board, dotted over with its notice papers, close by the green baize door, which, upon entering, in your innocence you take to be the rules and regulations of a certain burial club, held there by that great philanthropist, Mizzle, the celebrated undertaker; but which, on a closer inspection, turns out to be the programme, or business for the month, of a certain society, also located there, and well known to all our influentials as the "Wranglers Society." The aforesaid sign-board is their property-so is the bookcase-and they are naturally very proud of it; and their worthy President gets radiant with joy, as he tells the committee of the said Club, "Well really, gentlemen, we are now an influential body-we are gaining weight and importance-we have a great deal of property of our own, which should be well considered of," &c. And then they get into argument; and somebody proposes, and somebody else seconds, that the property of the said Wranglers be insured; and every one, upon the question being put to the vote in the usual manner, : holds up his hand-(but some, in their zeal for the safety of our property, exhibit both: and then the President declares its carried unanimously, and consequently its never done. But, to resume our inspection of the establishment: look at its handsomely papered walls-its choice engravings-or its still more choice portrait of the Landlord, hanging over the aforesaid green baize door, and which is the clever production of a native artist. Look how the painter has conveyed the expression of the man to the canvas: see how he seems to be peering down anxiously from the elevated position at his customers below, watching evidently to see that none of his friends pay twice-of which, our worthy host is very particular. Or stroll from thence into the wellappointed skittle-ground, and see the living man himself playing a manly game with Spuds, the greengrocer next door. Note that stalwart frame, and listen to him as he offers to bet a fabulous sum that he gets the long-double! Don't be alarmed, however; he don't allude to the two tall gentlemen near the frame, but to the other wood in the form of skittles. Mark the determination with which he grasps the huge ball, and rushes up the ground, delivering the formidable projectile with all the force and velocity of a steam-engine, as he nearly throws himself through the opposite wall into the adjoining bakery! Wait till the game is over, and then repair with him to the elegant and commodious Concert Room upstairs, and join him over a glass of grog, whilst Mr. Octavius Blair smilingly obliges with "My Guiding Star!" which has evidently misguided him, if he imagines he is ever destined to become a starsinger or listen to Mr. Chatterway Chatter, the inimitable patter-singer, as he is designated in the bills—with his short verses and long chorus; or to Mr. Gregory Gruffen, the favourite basso, who gives us what he pleases to call the Hinglishman," and in which patriotic song the company join without the slightest division: or listen to any of the other artists, who help to swell up the host of talent which the bills describe and announce to appear nightly. With your soul overflowing with sweetest melody, dear reader, you will probably quit the saloon and retrace your steps to the Coffee Room, where you are met by a very nicely written card, hung on the door, and the property of the aforesaid Wranglers (deuced clever fellows, those Wranglers-lots of valuable property!)—announcing the room to be private. This puzzles you; but down comes to your rescue mine host, who is also a Wrangler, not only in a brotherly, but in a business way, with the Club. He can pass you; and, in a moment you stand for the first time, in the presence of that august and imposing body, the gentlemen forming Our Club. Know you, that I also am a member, you recognise me, and I introduce you also. You see that good-tempered, freshcoloured, and rather stout gentleman? He is a man of note -a jolly good fellow-and, in fact, a very considerable house But soft, the business is really about to commence. owner in Our Street: see what a genial smile plays over his Hon. Secretary is called upon to read the minutes of the countenance as he stealthily addresses the grey-haired gent. previous meeting, which he does in a very few minutes, and next to him. He is making a pun, at which he is almost from which it appears that one-half the Club have been incorrigible: but nevertheless, his puns are puns-and times occupied in returning votes of thanks to the other half and oft has he "set the table on a roar!" That swarthy- that they have all been put and carried unanimously: in visaged gent. close by his elbow, who exclaims "Right!" in short, that everybody has been unanimous in everything a sharp, quick voice-he, with the dark piercing eye and but in paying their subscriptions! Well, the preliminaries black hair-that's Mr. Merryfield, his aider and abettor. being disposed of, we glance at the aforesaid little black Well this gentleman, who, by the way, is really a very clever sign-board, and amongst the many good things thereon fellow, a staunch clubman, and a great admirer of the afore-recorded-Essays-Poems-Lectures-Conversations, &c., said bookcase, to which he devotes much of his leisure time, we find the word "Debate," conspicuously paraded "for is of rather a sarcastic turn, and will write a squib about you, if you quiz him. See with what contempt he regards our friend Say, the ruddy-faced gentleman, who always addresses the President as "Mr. Cheerman, as I were about to state," &c. and is constantly alluding to his acquaintance with the present and all other past Lord Mayors of London. He is quite a fire-eater; but, after all, one of the best fellows alive-although there is no foundation for the report that he intends putting up as a member for the Tower Hamlets. The gentleman who has just entered-he with the light drab coat and trousers to match-with dark complexion and whiskers-that is Crackling the baker, and the Rarey of Our Street, who is constantly alarming everyone but himself by his struggles for the mastery with high-bred and unbroken horses, aud who exhibits in his window a choice collection of loaves and literature! What! A fact, gentle reader, I assure you. Well, and who is that little gent. who sits scowling at the tall slim gentleman on the opposite side of the room? I cannot exactly say; but the object of his evident scrutiny is the worthy Mr. Tappingham-one of our most active and useful members. He is a tax-collector, combining with it the light and lucrative occupation of an auctioneer. Well, why don't the little man pay his rates, and be reconciled? Tax-gatherers are but men; and, as “England expects every man to do his duty," why of course they must do theirs; and I think it but fair to tell you, that I have always heard this gentleman invariably fulfils a very thankless office in a spirit of kindliness that has made him universally respected. See, he looks the very embodiment of good-nature, as he rises from his seat to shake hands with the gent. who lives just round the corner, and steps in with his pork-pie hat and his carpet slippers, and gives a general recognition of "How d'ye do!" That's GreenBilly Green, as he is familiarly called; and Billy Green is really something of a wonder. Green can put you in a square of glass-or do you a little plumbing and paintingcapitally; and use a saw and a plane with any carpenter living. If you break your umbrella, Green will tell you the best way to mend it: if your watch is out of order, or the copper chimney smoking, run in to Green; if you wish to dress well-as of course all gentlemen do-go to Green's tailor, and consult Green's taste, which in such matters is very unexceptionable. In fact, Green is a sort of walking edition of “Enquire Within upon Everything." But even Billy Green cannot escape the tongue of scandal-and some say he's rather inquisitive! Now that's a mistake: it is true that on a Sunday he will tell you what half the people in Our Street have for dinner-but what of that! surely, he may be allowed a chat with neighbour Crackling-and if people will bring their dinners to the bakery, how can he help it-must he shut his eyes? Certainly not. The |