The sun., 1916-12-02

them here. Here Ii Mr.. Leicock's spe-
cial preface for Literary Lapses':
The sketches In Literary Lapses'
were very largely written In my younger
days just after ] left college. The one
called "A. u. and c. was the first Of
them. The editor OF q Toronto paper
gave me .: for It. This opened for
me a new world It proved to me thai
an Industrious man OF my genius, II he
worked hard and KEEP; clear Of stimu-
n and bad company. could earn a.
much as - a. month with his pen. In
fact this has since proved true.
But for man, years ! stopped this
sort OF thing and was busy with books
on history and politics. and with COL
lese work. Later on gathered these
sketches together and sent them TO the
publishers Of my Elements OF Political
Economy They thought ! had gone
mai.
II therefore printed the sketches on
my own account and sold them through
a news company. We sold 5000 copies
In " months. In this modest form thc
book fell into the hands Of my good
las he has since become-Mr.
John Lane. He read the sketches on a
steamer while returning from Montreal
to London. and on his arrival In England
be cab!ed me an offer to publish the
book In regular form. cabled back
Accept your offer with many thanks
Some years after Mr.. Lane at a dinner
In London told this incident and said
mat It proved to him that I must be
the Kind OF man who would spend IS
cents In saying thanks.
STEPHEN LrAcocx."
This ID what Prof. Leacock wrote In
sunshine Sketches Of q Little Town:
People In Orillia. Ontario. where I
spend the summer. are accustomed to
say that II my book. Sunshine Sketches
refers to Oriilia It is niled with The
grossest errors and inaccuracies. The
post Office 10 on the wrong side O. the
street. and the Y. NJ. C. A. building ia out
Of place altogether.
- wrote this book with considerable
dniculty. ! can invent characters quite
easily. but l have nc notion AZ 10 how
70 make things happen to them. Indeed.
! see no reason why anything should.
could write awfuiiy good short stories
II II were permissible merely to introduce
some extremely original and interesting
character and at the end OF two pages
announce that at this point q brick fell
on MS head and killed him. " there
were room for a school OF literature of
tnis KIND l should at once offer to lead
X. ! DO not mean that the hero would
necessarily and always b killed by a
orick. One might sometimes use two.
u feeble plots as there are In this
book were invented by brute force. after
the characters had been introduced.
Hence the atrocious ciums.ness of the
construction all through.
Ono character in this book Ia very
real. My late friend. J. Smith. was no,
only the largest. but, I think, the larges,
hearted man have known. His success
was n the measure Of his good deeds.
From his country hotel he moved to a
palat!al hotel in Toronto-with a ma.
hosany bar about nifty yards long and
a set OF bedrooms. 30 II was declared In
tho license. up above. For all I know
people may have slept there. In the rear
was a restaurant which Mr.. Smith called
a cam The can was always filed to
overlooking with business men at lunch
eating. at twenty cents a plate. spring
lamb which cost Mr.. Smith sixty cents
a pound.
But the essential point Wal that TIKI
sole access 10 the caff was through the
bar. Few men could pass through un-
scathed. There was such a charm o!
blue smoke from Mr.. Smiths havanas
hanging over II and such a CHEEKY bub-
BILE Of conversation. and such e~nticins
fumes that rose on a winter day from
q bowl Of Tom and Jerry hat even the
sternest morslist fingered M was lost
Men who lunched with Mr.. Smith were
generally to be found there. leaning
against the bar, still; enveloped In blu
smoke at dinner time.
Yet even these surroundings became
too cramped for MIR. Smiths ambition
steve he said to me n day as ht
stood watching the animated scene abou,
him. this town amt big enough. TIL,
next move Ia Noe York
"But his next move, good soul. proved
to be further still. (Signed)
STEPHEN LrAcocK."
In q copy OF Nonsense Novels thu
author has written the following
The stories In this book I wrote fol
a newspaper syndicate In 1910. The,
are not E as PAROLES OF the WORT
OF any particular author. They ar,
types dom In burlesQue.
''Of the many forms Of humorou.
writing pure burlesque IL, to my think
Ing, one OF the hardest-I could aimos'
feel like saying. Is the hardest--to dc