the patient labour and careful
thought which has gone to the making of the latter.

[Illustration]

To mix as an observer in all ranks of society--especially the lower
and more interesting ones--has always been to Frank Reynolds a
matter of reflective amusement. The comedy of life affords him
never-failing entertainment, for the world can never be dull to
the man with the saving grace of humour and a quizzical interest
in his fellow men. All is fish that comes to his net, for whether
he touches off the foibles of Belgravia or records the broader
humours of Bethnal Green he is equally happy. In the well-remembered
series of "Dinners with Shakespeare," for instance, he illustrated
with genial humour in half a dozen cartoons as many mannerisms
of the dinner-table. The drawing which is reproduced opposite to
page 56 portrays types that are familiar to all who know the small
restaurants of Soho. The historian of the future, I sometimes think,
who may wish to describe society in the early part of the twentieth
century, will be fortunate if he contrives to illustrate his volume
with a collection of contemporary drawings by Frank Reynolds. They
will speak more eloquently than any narrative which he may compile
from the most diligent searching of written records.

[Illustration: A TRAGEDY IN MINIATURE.
_From "Paris and Some Parisians"]

[Illustration: OUR CLUB.
IMPATIENT MEMBER.--Aren't there any waiters in the Club?
WAITER (_politely_). Yessir. How many would you like?]

_FRANK REYNOLDS._ IV.

Of Reynolds' exquisite refinement in the art of character drawing,
his pictures of life in Paris afford excellent examples. Impressions
of Paris through English eyes are familiar enough; but too often
they are distortions. The artist is too concerned with the obtaining
of an "effect" to be troubled by a strict adherence to truth. No
such charge can be levelled against "Pictures of Paris and Some
Parisians," as the series of drawings which Frank Reynolds contributed
to the _Sketch_ in 1904 was entitled. He viewed Paris through eyes
which magnified, perhaps, but never distorted; and his impressions,
as set down on paper, carry that instant conviction, even to those
who have never crossed the Channel, which is the hallmark of truth.

[Illustration]

In some cases these Paris drawings, many of which are reproduced
in the present volume, are literal portraits from life. But for
the most part they are the result of that close