nt in depicting commons and fields and vast spaces in his
unequalled drawings of landscapes.

"Umph! Furniss, I see, chaffs me about leaving so much white in my
work--not filled up with little figures like his."

And I do not think he ever understood I intended to compliment him.

Towards the end I received a memorandum in pencil on a soiled piece of
paper:

[Illustration]

And he walked in--dear old Toole in an old coat.

I have given many another sociable dinner, but none with greater success
than this at which I turned Burnand's accidentally unhappy speech into a
Happy Thought.

When I was offered the chairmanship of the dinner of the London Thirteen
Club, it was with a light heart that I accepted. I was under the
impression that the dinner was to be a private kind of affair--a small
knot of men endowed with common sense meeting to express their contempt
for ignorant and harmful superstition. I had already had the honour of
being elected an honorary member of the Club, but somehow or other I had
never attended any of its gatherings, nor had I met with one of its
members.

[Illustration: THIRTEEN CLUB BANQUET. THE TABLE DECORATIONS.]

When the time came, it was with a heavy heart that I fulfilled my
promise. This Thirteen Club idea, which hails from America, had in the
meantime been "boomed," as our cousins across the Herring Pond would put
it, into an affair of great magnitude. It was taken up by the Press, and
paragraphs, leaderettes and leaders appeared in nearly every journal all
over the country. This is the style of paragraph I received through a
Press cutting agency from numberless papers:--

"Mr. W. H. Blanch, who has been elected President of the London Thirteen
Club for the year 1894, is the promoter of an organised protest against
the popular superstition which led to the formation of the Thirteen Club
four years ago. In his new position as President, Mr. Blanch has
evidently resolved upon a more vigorous and aggressive campaign than
that which has hitherto characterised the operations of the Club, for
the New Year's dinner which is announced to take place on Saturday, the
13th of January, promises to be something altogether unique as a social
gathering. Mr. Harry Furniss, one of the hon. members of the Club, will
preside at this dinner, which is announced to take place at the Holborn
Restaurant, and in room No. 13. The members and their friends will
occupy 13 tables, with of course 13 at each t