T EVER HAVING LEARNED
THE SECRET OF LIFE.

Minerva Court! Veil thy face, O Goddess of Wisdom, for never, surely,
was thy fair name so ill bestowed as when it was applied to this most
dreary place!

It was a little less than street, a little more than alley, and its only
possible claim to decency came from comparison with the busier
thoroughfare out of which it opened. This was so much fouler, with its
dirt and noise, its stands of refuse fruit and vegetables, its dingy
shops and all the miserable traffic that the place engendered, its
rickety doorways blocked with lounging men, its Blowsabellas leaning on
the window-sills, that the Court seemed by contrast a most desirable and
retired place of residence.

But it was a dismal spot, nevertheless, with not even an air of faded
gentility to recommend it. It seemed to have no better days behind it,
nor to hold within itself the possibility of any future improvement. It
was narrow, and extended only the length of a city block, yet it was by
no means wanting in many of those luxuries which mark this era of modern
civilization. There were groceries, with commodious sample-rooms
attached, at each corner, and a small saloon, called "The Dearest Spot"
(which it undoubtedly was in more senses than one), in the basement of a
house at the farther end. It was necessary, however, for the bibulous
native who dwelt in the middle of the block to waste some valuable
minutes in dragging himself to one of these fountains of bliss at either
end; but at the time my story opens a wide-awake philanthropist was
fitting up a neat and attractive little bar-room, called "The Oasis," at
a point equally distant between the other two springs of human joy.

This benefactor of humanity had a vaulting ambition. He desired to slake
the thirst of every man in Christendom; but this being impossible from
the very nature of things, he determined to settle in some arid spot
like Minerva Court, and irrigate it so sweetly and copiously that all
men's noses would blossom as the roses. To supply his brothers' wants,
and create new ones at the same time, was his purpose in establishing
this Oasis in the Desert of Minerva Court; and it might as well be
stated here that he was prospered in his undertaking, as any man is sure
to be who cherishes lofty ideals and attends to his business
industriously.

The Minerva Courtier thus had good reason to hope that the supply of
liquid refreshment would bear some relatio