Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/93

 failed to hit his mark and to fix on his hearer's mind the exact impression he intended to leave there.

"His special department was the editorial; and although there was at that time, as always since, a chief or managing editor, it was clearly understood that any member of the staff might be sent for by Mr. Petter himself, who thus retained his grasp of all the details of the work. From the first he took a special interest in me, which I then did not so heartily appreciate as afterwards. He made up his mind that I should be thoroughly trained in all the auxiliary matters affecting the production of a magazine, and to that end placed me first in the composing-room and the reader's closet, then in the electro-typing department, and lastly in the machine-room. This 'prentice work was relieved by the devotion of a few hours each day to the minor duties of an editorial office, such as the keeping of a register of manuscripts received and retained or returned, making précis of readers' reports or of the plot of a serial story."

Petter's constant energy of character was manifested not merely in business, but in his political, religious and social activities as well. He was an ardent Protestant, a fervent Evangelical, an indefatigable speaker on all occasions. He became the figurehead and chief spokesman at any ceremonial affair in which the firm was concerned, though he resisted all invitations to stand for Parliament. He seems to have been generally defective in the sense of humour. One precious story is told of him. It was the custom of the partners and heads of departments to take lunch together in a room on the premises, apparently so that the discussion of the affairs of La Belle Sauvage should not stop during any moment from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. At one lunch after the publication of Cassell's "History of the Franco-German War," Petter had been denouncing war as un-Christian and declaiming with such vigour that nobody ventured to put in a word for Mars; but as the party broke up, Henry Jeffery, the chief of the counting-house,