The Express.
London, England, 1859-11-02 00:00:00

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LITERATUBE.

Twists ltalasal the Clock or, the Boors of tht Day
and IV' At in London. By GEOSGE AUGUSTUS
Sur. Holliston and Wright, Paternoster-row.
In the preface to this book Mr. Sala speaks of
Mr. Charles Dickens as being a few years ego his
" muter in literature." Whether he conceives that
eminent novelist still to stand in the same relation to
him or not, we cannot say, bat the infleenoe of Mr.
Dickens in the direction of Mr. Sales powers and
the formation of his style is so apparent in the writ-
loge of the latter gentleman, that his literary posi-
tion cannot be properly estimated without advert-
ing to it. Ilia habit of looking at life from
what we may call the " street" point of
view, his turn for minute observatiou and faculty
of graphic presentment, he, in common with many
of the younger writers of the day, owes in large
measure to the author of" l'ickwick " and " Sketches
by Boz." Oa the other hand, we at once admit that
he has merits of his own and general force and free-
dom of writing sufficient to entitle him to an lode-
pendent attitude among hie contemporaries. The
qualities which we have spoken of as belonging in
common to Mr. Dickens and Mr. Sala exist in the
latter with a difference. Wonderful as Mr.
Dickens's observation is, it is not his most
remarkable power, nor is it observation pure. To
say nothing of its being generally employed in the
service of a creative imagination, it is pervaded, and
sot infrequently distorted, by is humour. There
are flashes of observation and touches of character
in his works, which, for deep and pregnant truthful-
nese, are unapproached by Mr. Sala or anyone else;
but there is also an element of grotesqueness and
exaggeration from which the latter is free. In steady
and general fidelity of observation Mr. Sala excels his
" master," and if we wanted anybody to draw up a
descriptive inventory of the creation we would
employ him in preference. Cool, acute, and compre-
hensive observation, with the retentive memory that
accompanies it, is the distinguishing characttristie
of his mind, and the ens word which appropriately
describes his style, is "graphic." It very rarely, if
ever, rises above this; it never kindles into any of
those luminous felicities of phrase which seem like
an inspiration ; but then it never falls below this.
His observation never flags, and his style is never
dull. Homer may nod, but Mr. Sala is always*
wide-awake, and as he goes on pouring forth
page after page of sharp, accurate, and
striking word-photographs, you begin to admire,
even more than his cleverness, his power of " keep-
ing it up." There seems to be no reason why he
should ever stop u long as there is anything descri-
bable left. He has done the contents of the Russian
capital in a series of most lively and readable
papers, and here we have an admirable summary of
all that is to be seen in London. We have not the
slightest doubt that he could describe the Burmese
Empire, the interior of Africa,or the Moon, if he could
only get there, as exhaustively and as well. Mr. Sala
himself appears to know where his strength lies, for
he tells us that the name he has been always striving
to gain is that of " a faithful chronicler." He most
certainly deserves the appellation. We do not sup-
pose that any other writer living could have put
into the same compass such an amount of close,
shrewd, and lively observation of what takes place
in London during the twenty-four hours. Take us
where he will—to Billingsgate-market, where the
fish are pouring in; to the Opera; to the justice-
room at the Mansios-house ; to Evans's—be seems
equally at home, sees and knows all that is
going on, and hits it off without the slightest
hesitation or exaggeration, in short, sharp, and
decisive sentences. In the language of phreno-
logists, he must possess an enormous bump
of individuality ; for the number of actual, distinct,
visible objects which he brings before his reader is
immense ; every page bristles with noun-snbstantives,
generally accompanied with one or more closely-
fitting epithets. Take the following description of
London going to business in the City :"
If the morning be fine, the pavement of the Strand and
Plest-strest looks quite radiant with the spruce clerk. walkiog
down to their ollima, governmental, financial, and commer-
cial. Marvellous young buck. some of them are. Thee are
the customers, you ere at a glance, whom the resplendent
wares in the bemuses shope attract, and in whom those wary
industrials find avid customers. These are the dashing
young parties who purchase the pea-green, the orange, and
the rose-pink gloves; the crimson braces, the kaleidoecopic
shirt-studs, the shirts embroidered with dahliae, death,'
heads, race-home sun-flowers, and ballet-girls; the horse-
shoe, fox, head, pewter-pot-and-croseed pipe:, willow-pattern-
plate, and knife-and-fork pine. These are the glaseesiof city
fashion, and the mould of city form' for wbnm the legions
of fourteen, of fifteen, of sixteen, and of eminent' shilling
Mures, all unrivalled, patented, sad warranted, are made;
for these iogezious youths coats with strange names are de-
, wised, scarves and shawls of wondrous pattern and texture
despatched from distant Manchester and Paisley. For them
the shiniest of hats, the hoot:Neat of shake, gleam through
shop-windows; for them the geniuses of "all-round collars"
invent every week fresh yokes of starched linen, pleasant in-
struments of torture, reminding u equally of the English
pillory, the Chinese eangue, the Spanish garotte, the French
hirarne to the guillotine (that window from which the cri-
minal looks out into eternity), and the homely and cosmo-
politan dog collar. There are tome of these gay clerks who
go down to their of with roses at their button-holes, and
with cigars in their mouths ; there are some who wear peg-
top-trouser., chin-tufte, eye-glasses, and varnished boots.
These mostly turn off in the Strand, and are in the Admiralty
or Somerset-honee. As fir the government clerks of the
extreme West-end—the patelciena of the Home and Foreign
offices—the bureaucrat* of the Curcurelocution-offioe, no •
word—they ride down to Whitehall or Downing-street in
broughams or on park hacks. Catch them in omnibuses,
et walking on the vulgar pavement, forsooth! The flap of
Regent-street they might indeed tread gingerly, at three
o'clock in the afternoon ; but the Strand, and at nine o'clock
in the morning. Forbid it, gentility. I ob-erre--to return
to the clerks who are bending citywards—that the meet
'tuneful whiskers belong to the Bank of England. I be-
lieve that there are even whisker clubs in that great national
institutioo, when prizes are given for the beet pair of
reverie grown without Ensnarer. You may, as • general
rule, distinguish government from commercial clerks by the
stern repudiation of the razor, as applied to the beard and
moustaches, by the fonuer • sod spin I may temark that
the prize foe the thinnest and meet dandy-looking umbrellas
must he awarded, as of right, to the elflike in the East India
Rouse—mostly themselves slim, natty gentlemen, of jaunty
appearance, who are ell supposed to have had tender affair..
with the erideee of East It die colonels. You may know the
cenbiere in the private banking hopes by their white hats
and buff waistcoats • you may know the stockbrokers by their
careering up Ludgate-hill In dog-arts, and occasionally
Madams, and by the pervading sporting appasnuice of their
costume; you may knew the Jewish commission agente by
their flashy broughams' with Ispdogs and ladies in crinoline
beside them ; you may know the mole bakers and the soap-
boilers by the comfortable double-bodied carriages with tat
horses in which they roll along ; you may know the Man-
chester warehousemen by their wearing gaiters, always
carrying their hands in their pockets, and frequently slip-
ping into recondite city taverns up darkaome alleys, on their
way to Cheapekle, to make a quoit bet or so on the Chester
Cap or the Liverpool Steeplechase; you may know, finally,
the men with a million of money, or thereabout., by their
being ordisarily very shabby, and by their wearing shocking
bad hate, which have seemingly never been brushed, on the
backs of their heads. _

____
Or this, of the dog-fanciers in Regent-street, in the
afternoon

Thick-necked and beetle-Mowed individuals, by courtesy
called dog-fancier., but who io teeny C 48438 might with as
inneh propriety answer ti the name of dog-ideates—foe-
bidding.lookinc gentry, is coats of velveteen, with large
mother-o'-pearl botton., and waistcoat* of the neat and on.
pretending moleskin—lark about the kerbs of the purlieus of
Negmt-street and Waterloo-oleos (the polio. drive them
sway from the main thoroughtiree), with the little "dawge"
they bare Moen tucked beneath their arms, made doubly
attractive by much washing with scented snap, sad the fur-
ther decentness of their neck. with pink or blue ribbon..
Here is the little mob-nosed King Charles—l hope the
retrousse appearance of his send ors= is nor due to the un-
kind agency of a noose of whipcord—his feathery feet and
tail, and his long silky core, sweeping the clean summer
pavement. Here I. lb. Newfoundland pup, with his bullet
baud and clubbed ostidal.apcondints, winking his rtupid little
mot, and needing, seemingly, an enormous amount of licking
tato step.. Here is the bulldog, in hie full growth, with
We legs bowed, his tail inclining to the mind, his broad
Owed, thin flank., defined vibe, motet nozzle, bare lip, blood-
shot eyes, protruding fang, and symnintric.l patch over one
eye; or ear, in a state of puppytio d, peeping trace his pro-
pieta?s ride pocket, all pink and white like a moron suck-
ing-pig become a hermit. Here is the delightful little toy
Esglteh terrier, with his jet black oast, snot seek, and Is.
pews; end here the genuine Skye, gray or brown, like an
unravelled ball of worsted. See, too, grimacing at all who
come to view, Ilk. a mulatto at a *lave auction, who fancies
himself good looking, the accomplimbei Frisch pool* with