too, to the professors, and a proof of their generally prosperous and
flourishing condition. They are generally so rich and thrifty, that
scarcely any money is wanted to help them.

If every word of this is true, how, I should like to know am I to write
about Literary Snobs?



CHAPTER XVII--A LITTLE ABOUT IRISH SNOBS

You do not, to be sure, imagine that there are no other Snobs in Ireland
than those of the amiable party who wish to make pikes of iron railroads
(it's a fine Irish economy), and to cut the throats of the Saxon
invaders. These are of the venomous sort; and had they been invented in
his time, St. Patrick would have banished them out of the kingdom along
with the other dangerous reptiles.

I think it is the Four Masters, or else it's Olaus Magnus, or else
it's certainly O'Neill Daunt, in the 'Catechism of Irish History,' who
relates that when Richard the Second came to Ireland, and the Irish
chiefs did homage to him, going down on their knees--the poor simple
creatures!--and worshipping and wondering before the English king and
the dandies of his court, my lords the English noblemen mocked and
jeered at their uncouth Irish admirers, mimicked their talk and
gestures, pulled their poor old beards, and laughed at the strange
fashion of their garments.

The English Snob rampant always does this to the present day. There is
no Snob in existence, perhaps, that has such an indomitable belief in