n
of the Staff is now turned to the "Cartoon junior"--the second
cartoon--to which for some years Mr. Linley Sambourne has been giving
some of the finest and most ingenious work of his life. This is
discussed somewhat like the first, and often enough raises the
draughtsman's interest in the work he has to do to a point of genuine
artistic enthusiasm. But there appears to be no finality about the
second cartoon so far as the Dinner is concerned, and it is no unusual
thing in lively times for the subjects to be given at the last moment by
telegram to Mr. Sambourne; so that his condition of mind during the
Thursday following the Dinner may not inaptly be compared to that of an
anxious fireman waiting for a "call." The contributions of the rest of
the artistic Staff--Mr. du Maurier, Mr. Bernard Partridge, and Mr. E. T.
Reed--do not form the subject of Wednesday's cogitation; nor is it true,
as has publicly been stated, that when jokes fail it is customary to
draw them from a pot into which, written on slips of paper, they have
been deposited on the many occasions when Mr. Punch's cistern of wit has
overflowed into the jar in question.

Such is the simple function of "the _Punch_ Dinner." The Editor
presides--or, in his absence to-day, Mr. Arthur a Beckett, just as it
was Douglas Jerrold and Shirley Brooks in Lemon's time, and Tom Taylor
in Brooks's (the duty of vice- or assistant-editor never falling to an
artist)--inviting suggestions, "drawing" his artists, and spurring his
writers, with rare tact and art; and he challenges comparison with any
of his predecessors, just as Sir Frederic Leighton excels all previous
Presidents of the Royal Academy. Some of those who sit around the Table,
as I have already set forth, have attended for many years; and it is
they who secure to _Punch_ that quality of tradition and healthy sense
of prestige which strengthen him against every assault, whether of man
or of Time himself. To this traditional sense of ancient glory and
present vigour Sir John Tenniel has of course contributed more than any
other living man; not Leech, nor Thackeray, nor Jerrold, nor Doyle,
served _Punch_ more loyally or effectively, and he has secured that the
dignified spirit of the paper has suffered no deterioration. To him it
falls, also, to see that the subjects of cartoons are not repeated. The
tenderness of the Staff for the honour, good name, and pre-eminence of
_Punch_ is delightful and touching to behold; t