He once said to me: "I 'm
waiting for somebody to invent a mucilage-brush that you can't by any
accident put into your inkstand. It would save me frequent moments of
humiliation."
THE deceptive Mr. False and the volatile Mrs. Giddy, who figure in the
pages of seventeenth and eighteenth century fiction, are not tolerated
in modern novels and plays. Steal the burglar and Palette the artist
have ceased to be. A name indicating the quality or occupation of the
bearer strikes us as a too transparent device. Yet there are such names
in contemporary real life. That of our worthy Adjutant-General Drum
may be instanced. Neal and Pray are a pair of deacons who linger in the
memory of my boyhood. Sweet the confectioner and Lamb the butcher are
individuals with whom I have had dealings. The old-time sign of Ketchum
& Cheetam, Brokers, in Wall Street, New York, seems almost too good to
be true. But it was once, if it is not now, an actuality.
I HAVE observed that whenever a Boston author dies, New York immediately
becomes a great literary centre.
Pages:
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32