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CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
THE SCOTTISH BEADLE.
IN ALL SHADES.
POPULAR LEGAL FALLACIES.
THE SIGNALMAN’S LOVE-STORY.
MY DETECTIVE EXPERIENCES.
A BONE TO PICK WITH ARTISTS.
THE SICKROOM FIRE.
THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY’S WESTERN TERMINUS.
‘LET THERE BE LIGHT.’
No. 118.—Vol. III.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1886.
THE SCOTTISH BEADLE.
HALF A CENTURY AGO.
Just as the old familiar landmarks of a placeundergo in the course of time that change anddecay which are the common lot of all thingsearthly ere they are finally removed from sight,nevermore to exist save as a name or memory,so many of the features or characteristics of oursocial life are continually being submitted tothat process of transformation, and, in manyrespects, of obliteration, which prevails alike inthe moral and the physical world. Thatprocess is to be witnessed every day. Itis a result of the inevitable law to whicheverything human, every institution of man’smaking or developing, is finally subservient.Assuredly, there is no feature or characteristicof life, whether viewed in a national or in anindividual sense, but has to submit sooner orlater to this universal order of things; and so,naturally, we may look, and look in vain to-dayfor that which but yesterday was an interestingand distinguishing trait in a certain aspect ofthe social life of those who then filled, as wedo now, the measure of the time.
This reflection is irresistible in considering sucha subject as that of ‘Beadles,’ a class of individualswho once filled a unique and peculiar placein the humbler walks of the social life of theirtime; for, as a class, they certainly cannot be saidto form a feature in the social life of the presentday. Of course, even yet the number of personsfulfilling the orthodox functions appertaining tothe beadle is as large as ever—in all probability,larger. No minister surely, in Scotland at least,but enjoys his appurtenance in the person ofhis ‘man’ or officer. But the beadle of fiftyyears ago, the beadle with whom Dean Ramsaydelighted to ‘forgather,’ where now is he? Sadlydo we fear that he is at length sleeping hislast long sleep within the quiet precincts of his‘ain kirkyard,’ while another performs, after afashion, those functions of