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Show Mark T a in on Llteratare. Mark Twain, in ''Memoranda," in the November Galasij, gives a sample of hi? comruoH sense, as well as humor in this extract, which is part of his answer to a letter from a literary aspirant aspi-rant : 1. Literature, like the ministry, medicine, the law. and all othn- oceu pations. is cramped and hindered tor want of men to do the work, not want of work to do. When people tell you lie reverse, they speak that which is .iot true. If yuu desire to tet this, you need only hunt up a firt-clas editor, ed-itor, reporter, business manager, foreman fore-man of a shop, mechanic, or artist ii, my branch of industry, and tnj tv hire Uim. You will hud that he is already aired. He is sober, industrious, capa-ole capa-ole and reliable, and is always in demand. de-mand. He cannot get a day's holiday except by courtesy of his employer, or his treat general public. But if you need idlers, shirkers. hall'-intructed, unambitious and ronifort seekinf; editors, edit-ors, reporters, lawyers and doctors, apply ap-ply anywhere. There are millions of them to be had on the dropping of a handkerchief. 2. No ; I must not and will not venture any opinion whatever as to the literary merit of your productions. The public is the only critic whose .judgment .judg-ment is worth anything at all. Do not take my poor word for this, but reflect a moment and take your own. For instance, in-stance, if Sylvanus Cobb or T. S. Arthur Ar-thur had submitted their maiden MSS. to you, you would have said, with tears in your eyes, "Now please don't write any more !" But you sec yourself how popular they are. And if it had been left to you, you would have said the "Marhle Faun" was tiresome, and that even "Paradise Lost" lacked cheerfulness cheerful-ness ; but you know they sell. Many wiser and better men than you pooh-poohed pooh-poohed Shakspeare even as late as two centuries ago; but still that old party has outlived those people. No, I will not sit in judgment upon your literature. litera-ture. If I honestly and conscientiously praised it, I might thus help to inflict a lingering and pitiless bore upon the public; if I honestly and conscientiously condemned it. I might thus rob the world of an undeveloped and unsuspected unsus-pected Dickens or Shakspeare. |