The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-01-06

told. No one was by TO hear. 7 meant
cannon. he wrote a day or two afterward.
Ralph Connor isn't b~ad-rather Irish for
mo. but / guess l can stand II. III try to
live UP TO IT. And so it was Ralph Common
was found"
Doctor Conan Doyle IL taking a short
holiday In Scotland, after delivering two
thoughtful and interesting speeches in Lon
don at the Authors Club and the New
Nagabonds. The London Times gives an
almost verbatim report Of the first speech,
but seems to have been scarcely fair 10
Doctor Doyle with reference TO the Burdett-
coutts and hospital scandal part OF Il.
Doctor Doyle was scrupulously careful to
do justice to Mr.. Burdett-C outts. and to ad-
nit that the latter must. II necessary. have
seen many hard things with reference. to
the treatment OF the sick and wounded
But then" said Doctor Doyle, there must
always be hard things In war" Mr.. Bur-
dttt-Coutts says Doctor Doyle ought to
have gone to the overworked commanding
medical officer. Doctor Wilson, and have
tried to get things remedled. The medical
ofhcer had so much to do that it was i'm
possible for him to know all that was going
on. When any abuse was brought 70 his
notice. he at once did his best to put 1t
right All Doctor Doyle said was that Mr..
Burdett-Coutts did himself very comfor-
tably." As a speaker. Doctor Conan Doyle
is said to have greatly improved. This may
be accounted for by his e~lectioneering prac-
tice at Mid-Edinburgh. where he made
hfty-Seven speeches in One week.
One OF the London publishers has devised
q means whereby books can have both cut
and uncut edges At one and the same time,
writes W. l.. Alden TO the New York Times.
At least that IL virtually what is claimed
FOR his new device. There prevails a curl
Gus delusion that people like books with I'M
cut edges merely that they may have the
pleasure OF cutting them. The true reason
IL that In England the book that Is bound
I'm boards Is not considered TO be bound at
all. and every rich man who IS fond of
books carefully binds board-covered books
over again. This he can do. provided the
edges are uncut, and that Is the reason why
so many boOk-lovers insist upon having
their books with uncut edges. / do not
exactly comprehend the publishers inven-
ton just mentioned. but unless IL leaves
books In a condition to be rebound It will
not meet the exigencies OF the casa
In declining to write an article for a New
York publisher. Herbert Spencer wrote:
My state OF health Is such that / am
able to do an extremely small amount OF
work. The task OF bringing up to date
such of my books as most need revision
will probably never be achieved, and even
the partial achievement will be made posi-
blF OhAy ~ tAIAALAIb al - ~
Daily a large part OF the little energy re-
naming TO me Is FILTERED away in CORE
spOndence, and l now find I must make the
rule absolute against all letters save those
OF immediate personal concern"
This Is very interesting. U~nfortunately,it
IS not new. Substitute the words, Mr..
Herbert Spencers' for the word my" and
there is a copy Of one OF the circulars which
Mr.. Spencer has been sending out from his
home in Brighton for the last half dozen
years. Doubtless there are many OF Mr..
Spencer's would-be correspondents in this
country who nave copies of the same docu-
ment. There Il. however. in some OF them
a personal touch. for the latest edition OF
the circulars has this paragraph added:
Mr.. Spencer hopes that this explanation
will excuse him from giving a more direct
answer to the communication Of -" Evil
IDENTIFY the want Of a shorthand secretary
and typewriter has been most adequately
overcome by the great English philosopher
Somebody, IL seems. has been accusing
Mrs. Craigie Of plagiarism But, according
10 the London Chronicle. the accuser has
curiously failed to grasp the plagiarism's
point. One young lady sar 10 another in
Robert Orange: The g vice Of the
present day is bravura. tteHpt to do
something beyond the "A puzzled
J reader looked up brayr aurray's New