3-074-486 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

An Old School-Fellow, 1883. 'The situation and the feelings of this poor gentleman are discerned at a glance. He has ventured, in spite of conscious poverty, to call at the stately residence of his former companion, perhaps a successful lawyer, and even Chief Justice or Chancellor, in the faint hope of a little friendly aid; not a gift or loan of money...but the exercise of some official or social influence in his favour, that he may obtain some modest appointment, which will not cost the patron a shilling...there is no more critical test of the moral worth of a man who has risen in the world, than his manner of dealing with applications of this kind...If the two men can so behave to each other, meeting again, under these altered conditions, after the lapse of thirty or forty years, both are true gentlemen, such as the English public school system is calculated to rear, and such as form the best English society, whether one be rich or poor, famous or obscure, powerful or insignificant, in its community of refined and disciplined manhood. The footman takes in the poor gentleman's card or note, which My Lord...will presently read. Will he see him now? and if so, what will he say to him? Can he, will he,... "do anything for him?".' From "Illustrated London News", 1883.