The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-25

postman doesn't know where he lives,
why, he ought to-" He laughed hearth
ly and handed the envelope to us to
look at.
One day he received letter-three
sheets long-from an American girl,
asking his advice as to whether she
ought to marry her cousin or not. He
was much entertained at being asked
such a question and told us about it
at lunch, when there were two or
three of his friends present. He went
on to say he was certain it was not /,
bona fide letter. and then, turning to
Nj, continued:
oh. it was only another dodge
as you would say--for getting an auto
graph"
He told us that it was he who had
first recommended George Eliot to take
to writing fiction, and that she and
her brother were the originals of Mag
gle and Tom Tulliver in "The Mill on
the Floss" He seemed to have been
responsible for more than one import
ant event in that authoreSS' career,
for it was he who let out the secret
of her identity.
81 am not good company" he once
said. Now for that you wanted John
Stuart Mill or Huxley. They were
good company If you like, especially
Huxley. he was SO humorous" That
provoked him to tell of dinner he
attended where many celebrated writ
erS met--most of them long since dead.
OGer their cigarettes they fell to dis
cussing their various methods of COM
mencing to write. He said he wrote
and wrote, tore up, then wrote again,
and SO on. George Lewes looked sur
prised, and cried out:
"Oh. I'm not like that; commence
to write at once, directly the pen is
in my hand! In fact. boil at a low
temperature"
Indeed" cut in Mr.. Huxley, that
to boil at low temperature implies
vacuum in the upper region"
1t was no surprise to us to hear how
jolly Mr.. Spencer was in his younger
days, and what fun he made in the
whom he played most ridiculous
practical joke. Every day Mr.. Spencer
placed in the inside band of his friends
iiseI u oliiP VI PdpCis So tudI luS lldI
grew very gradually smaller, until
youth became quite concerned, and
drew the attention of the whole Office
to the fact that his head was getting
slowly larger!
1t is easy to imagine the merry twin
llle that must have lurked in the youth
full Spencers eye while the symptoms
nf tho hroip no;
graphically described to the unfortu-
nate young man, who at last showed
such anxiety that it eventually became
necessary to tell him of the hoax.
II remember once as young man."
he said, going out to a dinner party,
and discovering just as l was leaving
the house that the streets were very
wet. l had no means of getting cab.
and the question arose how to keep
my evening pumps clean. So l took
a bundle of old newspapers with me,
and whenever came to dirty cross
ing l threw down one after another,
making sort of bridge over which
l could cross without soiling my
Shoes"
On coming into the dining room one
evening he discovered one of us asleep
over a book of his which he had lent
us some months before. Highly amused
at the soporific effect of his writings
and the length of time taken over it's
perusal, he exclaimed:
why you take as long to read my
books as take to write them!"
"Oh, was the answer, Il don't al
ways finish them! / was reading one
of your books the other day, and 1
saw something you said about love,
which surprised me so much that 1
closed the book sharply and said. He
knows nothing whatever about it."
He was much tickled with this
speech. but his laughter died away as
the recollections of the past came over
him, and then and there he told us,
gravely and unimpassionedly, what he
knew about love from personal ex-
perience. 1t occurred during his en-
cheering days, when he was about 81.
He told us that even after so years
he we'll remembered the unpleasant
feeling he experienced on seeing her"
hanging on his rivals arm and looking
round at him to see what he thought
of it,
She was horrid hirt!" exclaimed
one of us.
"She was nothing of the sort" he
quickly retorted, loyal to the memory
of this half-acknowledged love of so
years before. And so stanch and true
was he, SO simple and straightforward,
that he would have no word said
against her conduct.