CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL


CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.


No. 422. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2 _d._




THE HAPPY JACKS.


'On Saturday, then, at two--humble hours, humble fare; but plenty, and
good of its kind; with a talk over old fellows and old times.'

Such was the pith of an invitation to dinner, to accept which I
started on a pleasant summer Saturday on the top of a Kentish-town
omnibus. My host was Happy Jack. Everybody called him 'Happy Jack:' he
called himself 'Happy Jack.' He believed he was an intensely 'Happy'
Jack. Yet his friends shook their heads, and the grandest shook theirs
the longest, as they added the ominous addendum of 'Poor Devil' to
'Happy Jack.'

'Seen that unhappy wretch, Happy Jack, lately?'

'Seen him! of course, yesterday: he came to borrow a half-sovereign,
as two of his children had the measles. He was in the highest spirits,