!" "_Tracts, by Jove!!_" Then, to select the chief
and longest series, came "The History of the Next French Revolution," in
nine parts (Volume VI.), contributions which were leavened by pleasant
attacks levelled at Lytton, and at "Jenkins" of the "Morning Post." Then
followed, in Volumes VII. and VIII., "Travelling Notes, by our Fat
Contributor" (for Thackeray loved to call himself so, or "Our Stout
Commissioner," or "Titmarsh," "Policeman X," "Jeames," "Paul Pindar,"
or other whimsical pseudonym), and "Punch in the East"--the record of a
journey undertaken by Thackeray at the invitation of the P. and O.
Company, who offered him a free passage to Egypt.

At this time the railway mania was at its height, and Thackeray took his
share in _Punch_ in stemming the fatal tide, so far as ridicule could be
used to do so. One of his first papers on the subject was the "Letter
from Jeames, of Buckly Square," signed by "Fitz-Jeames de la
Pluche"--the famous Jeames who, first created by Thackeray in the pages
of "The Britannia" in 1841, under the title of "Mr. Yellowplush, my
lord's body-servant," began in the same Vol. IX. (1845) his immortal
"Diary." One of the successes of this epistle was what, to Thackeray's
delight, was seriously complained of as the "deplorable" inaccurate
orthography of the illiterate flunkey. Thackeray was certainly not the
first to use the device, but he was the first to achieve great success
with it, and Arthur Sketchley, Artemus Ward, Mr. Deputy Bedford
("Robert"), and all the American humorists who have adopted the same
idea, are but followers where the great Titmarsh led. Jeames's weakness
became a strength in Thackeray's hands, and at one time was turned with
effect upon Sir Isaac Pitman's "Spelling Reform," which was then a novel
butt for the satirist. The incident has been thus gravely recorded in
the pages of the "Phonetic Journal":--

"Ten years ago Mr. Punch had meni a meri kakinashon at the ekspens
ov Mr. Pitman and the 'Phonetic News,' which he leiked tu kall the
'Fanatic Nuz.' Here is wun of his sneerz:--'Voltaire sed ov the
Inglish that they save two ourz a day bei kontrakting all their
wurdz. The "Fonetic Nuz" woz not then in eksistens. If we save two
ourz,' kontiniuz the kaustik pupet, 'in the dayz ov Voltaire, we
must save siks ourz at least nou that we hav our improved plan ov
speling, az originali invented bei Winifred Jenkins, and karid to
i