Widnes Examiner. — 1883-05-26 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

ANGT.o-Scoirs.] A prominent politician who was charged the other Jay with having a desire to "put his finger into his opponents' pies," was made to appear in print as being of so sanguinary a disposition as to wish to "put his finger into his opponents' pus." Now there is a story on record to the effect that Aldus Manntius, a printer in Venice to the Holy Church and the Doge, at one time employed a negro boy to help him in his office. And it got abroad that this little black boy was an imp of Satan, and the people christened him by the name of the Printer's Devil. Now Manutius must have been a bit of a wag, for in order to protect the young Caxtonian from persecution, and to confute a foolish superstition, the master made a public exhibition of the apprentice, and announced that "any one who doubted him to he flesh and blood might come forward and pinch him." Perhaps the comp. who gave the politician credit for cruelty had read this story, and imagined the pinches in time developed into suppurating wounds, and hence his confusion of metaphor. If he should read this, I hope he will take the allusion to the circumstance good-naturedly and acquit me of any intention to unnecessarily irritate " proud flesh." In a recently published article on the debate on the Explosives Act, for "both the Houses were unanimous," duly came out " both Houses were harmonious." Probably the compositor and reader thought that if as was asserted just previous to the commencement of the Franco-German war Frenchmen were "dancing on the edge of a volcano," the threatened blow-up of London would make British legislators express themselves thereon in musical numbers—possibly in the spirit that When griping grief the heart dot Is wound, And doleful dumps the minc., oppress, Then Afusir with his silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress."  To take another recent instance, here is the heading given by a well known weekly paper to the St. Denis tragedy : "Terrible Tragedy at a wedding—Murder of the Bridegroom and Suicide of the Assassin." And this is how the account concludes :—"The unfortunate bridegroom is in a very serious condition." I should think 80. In almost as serious and lamentable a condition as the Times critic, who in the same week criticised a play in the morning that was not performed till the evening. Clever people, these critics! But it would seem to be in connection with Art that the Printer's Devil or his satellites exercise their power in the most exuberant fashion. The following is delightful:—" If you ask," observes a correspondent in the Church Review, " the editor of Truth, he will tell you that four queens of fashionable society are said to have sat as nude models for the four figures in a picture exhibited by an R.A. in the Academy a few years ago." I wonder if that correspondent is a Scotchman, if he has filled the office of church elder, and penned his "observations " on art after having been " oxtered "home by a buxom waiting-woman from a Sunday night's "toddy meeting!" The reply to the rash assertion is a caution in its way. The answer of the editor of Truth is as follows:—" He certainly will not 'tell you' anything of the kind. The only instance that I know of a fashionable lady sitting in the nude' is that of the Princess Pauline Bonaparte, who sat thus to Canova. Some one asked her how she could have consented to do so? Her answer was, There was a fire in the room, so I did not feel cold.' " I should think the "correspondent " did not feel particularly chilly alter reading the above reply. Even for Royalty itself the Printer's Devil has no respect. The Court Circular, under date of 18th May last, stated that "the Princess Beatrice went to London yesterday. She visited the Royal Academy, and afterwards honoured the Royal Italian Opera with her presence. She then went to the Fisheries Exhibition, and at ten o'clock left Buckingham Palace and went to Esher to be present at a concert.' As " Dagonet " in the Referee says, "This is all very wonderful. To leave Windsor in the afternoon, do the Academy and then the Italian Opera, taking the Fisheries Exhibition afterwards, and winding up by going to .Esher, is a slightly jumbled prograinme ; but the conclusion of the day's—[or rather, "Dagonet " should have said the night's; but possibly the P. D. jogged his elbow]—amusement is the most marvellous." According to the Court Circular, the motto of H.R.H. is "Late to bed and early to rise," for in connection with Princess Beatrice's movements next day we are told that "she arrived at Windsor Castle at a quarter before eight this morning, having driven from Claremont." Whereupon " Dagonet " again remarks:—" I knew that the Royal Family were early risers, but I can't for the life of me imagine why the Princess should drive from Claremont to Windsor at such a remarkable hoer as that. I fancy the Court newsman must have got a little mixed somewhere." I quite coincide with this opinion; and I have no doubt so will the readers of The Examiner. Harking back again to Art, the titles or descriptions of pictures, dr.c., in the art exhibitions—or the handwriting of the critics—would seem to more than usually bother the compositors. The Cinderella of Mr. Millais was recently described by an art critic as " a child seated in front of a dying fire, with an old broom in her hand." For" broom" the compositor put " horse." A modern Cinderella "with an old horse in her hand," recalls to mind the story about the mischievous infant daughter of one of the Indian gods, who used to throw elephants and camels up on to:the tops of houses for the purpose of getting fun and enjoyment out of the clumsy attempts of the animals themselves, or in the event of their non-success in the attempt, then of the efforts of the owners and inhabitants to get the huge brutes down again. Another sentence in the same writer's criticism of the picture alluded to, and which should have been read, "The pose is easy, the background quiet," &e.. was rendered " The horse is easy, the blackguard quiet," Ix