se of the figures and the expression upon
their faces exhibit, if one may put it so, the very perfection of
naturalness. For a study of expression, again, it would be difficult,
or indeed impossible, to better the further of the two figures
in the drawing of "Le 'Igh Kick," made one night at the Moulin
Rouge. As to pose, could there be anything more exactly right than
the attitude of the gentleman "with bright-blue goggle eyes, and a
dress-shirt front in accordion pleats," who, on the occasion when
his portrait was made, had been to the races and backed a winner,
and was delivering "a long and extremely incoherent speech."

[Illustration: FELIX OF THE "LAPIN AGILE".
_From "Paris and Some Parisians"]

[Illustration: PICTURES OF PARIS AND SOME PARISIANS]

FRANK REYNOLDS. V.

Looking through these inimitable sketches of Paris and Parisians,
one indulges a fond hope that some day Frank Reynolds will produce
a companion set of drawings illustrative of London life. It is
answered, perhaps, that Paris affords a unique opportunity such as
the artist would hardly find at home; but the supposition is due,
of course, only to the familiarity of our immediate surroundings
and the difficulty which invariably arises, in consequence, of
focussing them to their true proportions. Needless to say, Frank
Reynolds has already worked the rich vein of Cockney life to a
considerable extent, but his essays in this direction only increase
the desire to see an exhaustive pictorial commentary from his pencil
and pen upon the men and manners of our own city. Such quaint humour
as is contained in his study of "Sunday Clothes at Bethnal Green"
(page 17), suggests what possibilities the subject presents.

Incidentally, it may be remarked, _apropos_ of this drawing, that
the London coster (whom he knows and loves) has provided some of
his most admirable studies from life. To that class belongs the
sympathetic study which faces page 1 in the present volume. The broad
humours of Whitechapel could scarcely fail to appeal irresistibly
to an artist of Reynolds' peculiar temperament, and few men have
depicted them with such relish or--thanks to his rare gift of
restraint--with such fidelity and truth.

To a certain extent, Frank Reynolds has already recorded contemporary
manners in England, and especially in London, in his well-known
series of "Social Pests," though it would perhaps be more correct
to say that he has pilloried therein the more