call for an explanation and denial from a distinguished Englishman. He
lived in Denver only a few weeks when he was writing verse in miners'
dialect which has been rightly placed at the head of that style of
composition. No matter where he wandered, he speedily became imbued with
the spirit of his surroundings, and his quickly and accurately gathered
impressions found vent in his pen, whether he was in "St. Martin's Lane"
in London, with "Mynheer Von Der Bloom" in Amsterdam, or on the
"Schnellest Zug" from Hanover to Leipzig.

At the time of my brother's arrival in Chicago, in 1883--he was then in
his thirty-fourth year--he had performed an immense amount of newspaper
work, but had done little or nothing of permanent value or with any real
literary significance. But despite the fact that he had lived up to that
time in the smaller cities he had a large number of acquaintances and a
certain following in the journalistic and artistic world, of which from
the very moment of his entrance into journalism he never had been
deprived. His immense fund of good humor, his powers as a story-teller,
his admirable equipment as an entertainer, and the wholehearted way with
which he threw himself into life and the pleasures of living attracted
men to him and kept him the centre of the multitude that prized his
fascinating companionship. His fellows in journalism furthermore had
been quick to recognize his talents, and no man was more widely
"copied," as the technical expression goes. His early years in Chicago
did not differ materially from those of the previous decade, but the
enlarged scope gave greater play to his fancy and more opportunity for
his talents as a master of satire. The publication of "The Denver
Primer" and "Culture's Garland," while adding to his reputation as a
humorist, happily did not satisfy him. He was now past the age of
thirty-five, and a great psychical revolution was coming on. Though
still on the sunny side of middle life, he was wearying of the cup of