papers on "Our Public Men."

That these sketches were not entirely flattering to the subjects of
them will be readily understood. Mr. Jennings always was a smart, spicy,
and sometimes even brilliant writer, but he could not help being more or
less cynical. He rather liked to stick the toasting fork into his
subjects, and then hold them pretty close to the bars of a decidedly hot
fire. The result was that many of them burned and smarted under the
ordeal. One of the victims went so far as to propose that this
self-appointed censor of public characters should be fought with his own
weapons, and have a taste of his own nasty physic. In a word it was
suggested that someone should draw Mr. H.J. Jennings' portrait on his
own lines after his own manner.

Mr. Jennings promptly took up the gauntlet that was thrown down and
immediately proceeded to write a sketch of himself, which appeared in
the _Birmingham Daily Times_ of May 29th, 1889, and was, perhaps, one of
the most daring and audacious feats of contemporary journalism on
record. If he had entrusted his task to his most bitter enemy it could
hardly have been more scathing than it was.

Mr. Jennings certainly did not blunt his steel when he proceeded to
operate upon himself. He did not spare himself, but dug the knife in and
turned it round. It was, indeed, a singularly curious piece of
biography, written with all the pungency and point its writer could
command, and it need hardly be said that such a sketch silenced the guns
of some of his foes and made something of a sensation in the town.

This clever and amazing article was a sort of dying swan's song so far
as Mr. Jennings and Birmingham were concerned. If I remember rightly,