THE WEEKLY DINNERS OF MR. PUNCH.

Evening Post, Issue 110, 16 June 1865, Page 3

THE WEEKLY DINNERS OF MR. PUNCH.

When the history of the rise and progress of Punch comes to be written, it will be found that the weekly dinner has been one of the chief things which contributed to its success. Almost from the foundation of that journal it has been the habit of the contributors every Wednesday to dine together. In the winter months the dinner is usually in the front room of the first floor of No. 11, Bouverie- street, Whitefriars—the business offices of the proprietors, Messrs. Bradbury and Evan?. Sometimes these dinners are held at the Bedford Hotel, Covent Garden. During the summer months it is customary to have ten or twelve dinners at places in the neighborhood of London, Greenwich, Richmond, Blackwall, &c. And once a year they attend the annnal dinner of the firm, at which compositors, readers, printers, machinemen, clerks, &c, dine. This dinner is called the " Way Goose," and is often referred to in Punch. At the weekly dinner the contents of the forthcoming number of Punch are discussed. When the cloth is removed and dessert laid on the table, the first question put by the editor is, '• What shall the cartoon be ? " During the lifetime of Jerrold and Thackeray the discussions after dinner ran very high, owing to the constitutional antipathy existing between these two. Jerrold being the oldest, as well as the noisiest, generally came off victorious. In these rows it required all the suavity of Mark Lemon (and he has a great deal of that quality) to calm the storm ; his aftard always being final. On the Thursday morning following, the editor calls at the houses of the artists to see what is being done. On Friday night all copy is delivered and put into type, and at two o'clock on Saturday proofs are revised, and forms are made up ; and with the last movement of the engine the whole of the type is placed under the press, which cannot be moved until Monday morning when the steam is again up. This precaution is taken to prevent waggish tricks on the part of practical joking compositors. At those dinners none but those connected with the staff proper are permitted to attend ; the only occasional exceptions, we believe, have been Sir Joseph Paxton, Mr. Layard, the present foreign Under Secretary, Charles Dickens and Charles Dickens, jun. As an illustration of the benefit arising from these meetings, we may mention that Jerrold always used to say, " It's no use of us quarrelling, because next Wednesday must come round with its dinner, when we will all have to shake hands again." By means of these meetings, the discussions arising on all questions helped both caricaturist and wit to take a broad view of things, as well as enabled the editor to get his team to draw well together, and give a uniformity of tone to all the contributions. — Worth British Review.