4 March 1914; Wednesday

March 1914, , ,

Got up at 8 o’clock. Mr Aitken away at London. Called round by the dock and got Father’s compensation money. Finished in decent time. Played a bit at night and then went down to Briggs’ and practised with him. Called for Willie and went to the Victoria Hall1 and saw Cherry Kearton’s Pictures of wild animals2. They were very good and interesting. Joe reporting3 at a meeting in the afternoon and got 5/-­ for it. Went to bed late.

  1. Victoria Hall: See note on 10 January. ↩

  2. Cherry Kearton: early wildlife photographer, recently (2013) re-popularised. ↩

  3. “Joe reporting”: Joe Wiseman wrote excellent Pitman’s shorthand; he and ALL did verbatim reporting at political meetings etc for practice, and evidently for income in Joe’s case. ↩

3 March 1914; Tuesday

March 1914, , ,

Got up about 7.45. Drilled a bit. Pretty busy at work. Finished soon. Played a bit. Went to the library. Shaved. Went to the choir practice and played for the anthems. Walked round with Willie. Told him about Joe being out of work. Arranged to go to the pictures tomorrow night at the Victoria Hall1. Went to bed late. Father sat up for a bit.

  1. Victoria Hall: see note on 10 January. ↩

1 March 1914; Sunday

March 1914, , ,

Got up rather late. At chapel and School as usual. Sacrament at night. Had walk in the afternoon. Raining at night so we didn’t go far. Played the piano a bit. Read a bit Everyman1. Father keeping a bit better. Mr Whittaker very unsatisfactory.

  1. Everyman: I cannot trace a periodical published in 1914-18 under this name; ‘Everyman’ may have been a column in a weekly magazine such as ‘John Bull’; ALL had a letter published in ‘Everyman’ in November 1917. See also: Arthur Linfoot’s Library ↩

Everyman

Cover ImageWhile Arthur Linfoot’s enthusiasm for Everyman is clear from his many diary entries which mention it, it is not altogether clear 100 years later exactly what Everyman was.

Cutting from "Everyman"
Arthur Linfoot’s letter in “Everyman” November 1917 – click or tap to enlarge.

One possibility is that Everyman may have been a column in a weekly magazine such as John Bull.

Alternatively, this may have been the magazine Everyman, founded by publisher J. M. Dent in 1912. Publication was temporarily stopped in 1917 and resumed under a new editor in 1929. The original editor from 1912 to 1917 was Charles Sarolea and, under his editorship, Everyman was a literary magazine favourable to the doctrine of distributism.

Arthur Linfoot’s first mention of Everyman was on 1 March 1914 and he had a letter published in it in November 1917 which, given Everyman’s hiatus starting at an unknown date during 1917, is the principal cause of doubt about this possibility.

The cover illustration above is of the magazine after its reincarnation in 1929 – we have not been able to locate a sample of a 1912-1917 copy.

28 February 1914; Saturday

February 1914, , , ,

Got up about 7.30. Finished shortly before 2 o’clock. Had walk to Whitburn in the afternoon with Charlie and Joe. Grand day. Went down to Briggs’ at night and tried some fiddle pieces there. Uncle Ned and his wife in. Went out with Charlie after 10 o’clock. Met Thorp Newby and walked round with him. Went to bed about midnight. Thorp said John Hugill had said I had preached a good sermon and that he would go again when I preach1.

  1. “A good sermon”: ALL was persuaded to start as a local preacher, but soon gave it up. ↩

26 February 1914; Thursday

February 1914,

Got up rather late. Busy all day. Finished about 7 o’clock at the office. Charlie up at Mr Pike’s and across at a man called Horton†<’s> house. Mr Horton is a tradesman at Thompson’s and knew Uncle Willie1 and learned music under him. He didn’t get in until 12 o’clock.

  1. Probably William Gaylard Linfoot, ALL’s youngest paternal uncle, who had gone to New Zealand; but there may have been a maternal Uncle Willie too. ↩