The news that a manuscript by Mark Twain has come into the hands of a well-known firm of publishers with instructions that it shall not be published until 200 years after his death is extraordinarily intriguing. The report has it that what was delivered to the publishers was sealed packet containing a story, but there was no mention whether in the meantime the publishers
ithe story is actually there. are at liberty to ascertain genuine Mark Twain relic no doubt the story will be there all fright, for a man of his genius would never dream of such a hollow practical joke as foisting off blank paper on _an expectant publishing house. Rather do we picture the author reclining on "he slopes of Parnassus (or wherever it is that true humorists go) and awaiting with inter-rst the verdict publishers 200 years post mortem as to whether the work is worth the trouble of publishing. It will not do to be too optimistic, for notwithstanding the many hours of sheer delight we have had with him, a future generation may heed him not and to the people living 200 years after his death his language may seem no more than a jumble of archaic nonsense. The fate of Dr. Johnson constitutes an awful warning to the presumptuous. His opinion of his own work was-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.