The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-02-11
ADVICE IN THE FORM OF A
 STORY.
BY JAMEs PAIN.

been bringing hls heavy guns To Cear this time from the deck of the NfRe- teeah CeRtaTg-against the light bark of Fiction. This literary Nero seems never so we'll pleased ss when break ing butterflies upon the wheel. It is, of course. impossible for poor novel; ist to return his fire: but l can tell him story illustrative oI the danger of cultured persons dictating to the unlearned. A man of letters, not un- known to him, came up to London at seventeen years of age, with the usual half-crown in his pocket, and all the proper intentions-"hono but re- mote"-ot regenerating his species. On the second day of his arrival, he passed, in an obscure part of the town, shop with "Jones, Tobaconist," writ ten over it. His literary sense was shocked; his ardor to set fellow creature rightLalways ready laid, like housemaid's fire-burnt high within him. "It is surely my duty" he murmured to himself, ito tell this person that his trade is spelled with two c's.'" Tobacco always maie him ill (though scarcely more so than to see it printed in this fashion), SO that he had no excuse for entering the shop as a purchaser. He entered in the character of an elevator of the human race, and the instant he had done so, and caught sight of the person to be elevated, he felt that he had made a mistake. The tobacconist, huge and hairy man, was sitting behind the counter in his shirt sleeves, reading a Democratic newspaper and smoking a short black pipe. The modest though intellectual appearance of the literary youth did not impress him favorably ; the sale of penny Pickwick was probably the best business he looked to do with him (nnd even that, as VIC know, was far too sanguine expecta- tion.) He looked carelessly over his newspaper without quitting 1t with either hand: "Well, and that do yo,, want, young shaver?" Here was the beginning to a pathological discussion The knees of the literary reformer, already "loosened with dismay," fairly knocked together. "I want nothing my dear sir" he stammered
 "What?" The proprietor dropped his paper and glanced at him with fury.
 "At least, not for myself" mur- mured the intruder.
 "You'll get something for yourself before you are two minutes older what do you mean?"
 Nothing in Mir. Collius' lode to the Passions" my friend tells me, ap- preached the emotions that were here depicted in the tobacconist's face.
 "lf you'll only step outside" ob- served the literary youth, with the courage of despair, "and give your at tention to the very peculiar way in which the paintcr-for l am sure it was not your mistake-has spelt the word 'tobacconist over your
 The sentence was never finished
 The man of letters assures me though he cnBnot tell what exactly happened, that even at this distance oi time (more than forty years ago) he has confused recollection of over whelming disaster and catastrophe. An earthquake and volcano q think he must have been pelted among other things with boxes of esuvians) seemed to have taken place simulta- neously. That awful lesson, not to interfere with other peoples business he has never forgotten. Let Mir. Fred eric Harrison lay it to heart. Wis dom, though it may die with him, did not begin with him. Others have written upon the same subject, and differed from him upon the propriety of stuffing the human mind like chickens. "We do not want readers, , says Sydney Smith, flor the number of readers seems very much on the in- crease, and mere readers are often the idlest of human beings. The ambition of man of intelligence should not be to know books, bui things" "The wisest clerks" say, Chaucer, "are not the wisest men, "One had better never see book, , says Emerson, "than be warped by ii. attraction out of ones own orbit, and made satellite instead of system. , Mir. Harrison says 1t is better to dance with dairy maid all night than to pass it in reading MT. Nudes novels
 see no objection to either one or the other amusement; and, for my own part, would rather dance with half a dozen dairy maids than wade through six volumes of NJ. Auguste Comte.- London ILustrdted NeWS.
 l
 Excursions to New Orleans and Mobile.
 Now is the time for trip to New