l moments giving
glimpses of a past which caused all virtuous folks to shiver.

We have now the "novel of every-day life," wherein we are called to
"assist" at commonplace incidents; to listen to inane talk, where
adverbs, liberally bestowed, help our comprehension, as we are told that
certain things were "coarsely," "suggestively," "tentatively," said. It
is, indeed, "reading made easy."

Stuart Mill, lamenting the changes in the tendency of modern fiction,
wrote: "For the first time perhaps in history, the youth of both sexes
of the educated classes are universally growing up unromantic. What will
come in mature age from such a youth the world has not yet had time to
see."

These words were written half a century ago, the generation referred to
has reached "mature age," and the world has read its novels.

_Pamela McArthur Cole._

EAST BRIDGEWATER, Mass.

SNEAK REPORTING.

I do not beg the reader's pardon for the apparent egotism of this
article, for, though I use the first person throughout, I feel that I do
so as the spokesman of a large (if not an important) class.

To begin at the beginning, I have always believed that in time I could
succeed as a journalist, if I could but secure a position on a live
newspaper, where I could gain practical knowledge. In pursuance of this
idea, I haunted the doors of an afternoon paper, and finally, by dint of
perseverance, fairly worried the city editor into giving me an
assignment.

Naturally, a beginner was not given an important task, but it proved to
be a very embarrassing one. I was required, in the line of my duty, to
stick my impertinent nose into another man's business, and elicit from
him facts that he did not want published. I did not feel the least
curiosity about the matter, and, I am sure, looked as guilty as if I had
been a dog engaged in the sheep-stealing industry, and had been caught
with the wool in my teeth. I approached him with inward fear and
trembling, and requested information on a subject in connection with
which he had been held up before the public in an unenviable light. He
refused to talk, and when I persisted, as per orders, told me to go to
the residence of a personage whom I do not like to hear mentioned,
except by authority and by gentlemen who have the legal right to wear a
handle to their names.

I did not resent this as ordinarily I should have done. I was so humbled
and ashamed by my consciousness of the impudence of my