it necessary to do anything more than
restore it in permanent colour, and that has accordingly been done.
But as the notice board was no longer the actual work of Mr.
Whistler, it would manifestly have been improper to have left the
butterfly (his well-known signature) attached to it, even if it had
not appeared in so crushed a state. The soiled butterfly was therefore
effaced.

Yours, &c.,
WYKE BAYLISS,
CLAPHAM.
April 1, 1889.

"_Aussi que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere?_"

[Sidenote: _The Morning Post._]

Sir--I have read Mr. Bayliss's letter, and am disarmed. I feel the
folly of kicking against the parish pricks. These things are right in
Clapham, by the common.

"_V'la ce que c'est, c'est bien fait--
Fallait pas qu'il y aille! fallait pas qu'il y aille!_"

And when, one of these days, all traces of history shall, by dint of
much turpentine, and more Bayliss, have been effaced from the board
that "belongs to us," I shall be justified, and it will be boldly
denied by some dainty student that the delicate butterfly was _ever_
"soiled" in Suffolk Street.

Yours, &c.,

[Illustration]

_The Royal Society of British Artists and their Signboard_

[Sidenote: _The Athenaeum_, April 27, 1889.]

Sir--The moment has now arrived when, it seems to me proper that, in
your journal, one of the recognized Art organs of the country, should
be recorded the details of an incident in which the element of grave
offence is, not unnaturally, quite missed by the people in their
indignation at the insignificance of the object to which public
attention has so unwarrantably been drawn--a "notice board"!--the
common sign of commerce!

Now, however slight might be the value of the work in question
destroyed, it is surely of startling interest to know that _work may
be destroyed_, or worse still, defaced and tampered with, at the
present moment in full London, with the joyous approval of the major
part of the popular press.

I leave to your comment the fact that in this instance the act is
committed with the tacit consent of a body of gentlemen officially
styled "artists," at the instigation of their president, as he
unblushingly acknowledges, and will here distinctly state that the
"notice board of the Royal Society of British Artists" _did not_ "bear
on a red