ABSTRACT
The veteran jester, attired 'in cosmic guise,' ag.1in makes his appearance before an admiring world, with his best bow, his whitest hand, and his wink. For Mark Twain has put a girdle round the earth, as he lets you to know in 486 pages-no less. But these are not all his; someindeed, many-are borrowed from other historians. \Vhenever the ship draws near the port, and the lead is going on the harbour bar, does our author lug forth the historiographer, asking us to come and sit at his (or her) feet beside Mark Twain, and then we shall know what kind of country we are coming to, and all about it; which, as
intelligent, high-toned persons, we naturally like to do. But we don't like it, all the same. If the publishers particularly requested their author to provide a book containing not less than 486 pages, they were acting unwisely; and if they did not, the author might have guessed that we know where we go for history when we want it; and that if we want Mark Twain, we like to get him. Why should we listen to Mrs. Krout on Honolulu, or Captain Wawn on the Kanaka, or Mrs. Praed on Queensland, or the Blue Book on Thuggee?
