might fasten
upon the hurried ones at home and gird at them with wisdom,
hysterically acquired, and administered, unblushingly, with a
suddenness of purpose that prevented their ever being listened to
here,--must I follow in their wake, to be met with suspicion
by my compatriots, and resented as the invading instructor?

Heavens!--who knows!--also in the papers, where naturally I read only
of myself, I gather a general impression of offensive aggressiveness,
that, coupled with Chase's monstrous lampoon, has prepared me for the
tomahawk on landing.

How dared he, Chase, to do this wicked thing?--and I who was charming,
and made him beautiful on canvas--the Masher of the Avenues.

However, I may not put off until the age of the amateur has gone by,
but am to take with me some of those works which have won for me the
execration of Europe, that they may be shown to a country in which I
cannot be a prophet, and where I, who have no intention of being other
than joyous--improving no one--not even myself--will say again my "Ten
o'Clock," which I refused to repeat in London--_J'ai dit!_

This is no time for hesitation--one cannot continually disappoint a
Continent!

[Illustration]

_An Insinuation_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _The Daily News_, Nov. 22, 1886.]

My attention has been directed to a paragraph that has gone the round
of the papers, to the effect that Mr. John Burr and Mr. Reid have
"withdrawn from the Society of British Artists." This tardy statement
acquires undue significance at this moment, with a tendency to
mislead, implying, as it might, that these resignations were in
consequence of, and intended as a marked disapproval of, the
determined stand made by the Society in excluding from their coming
exhibition the masses of commonplace work hitherto offered to the
public in their galleries. No such importance attaches, however, to
their resignations, as these two gentlemen left Suffolk Street six
months ago.

[Illustration]

_An Imputation_

_TO THE EDITOR:_

[Sidenote: _The Daily News_, Nov. 24, 1886.]

Sir--Mr. Whistler denies that the recent policy of the Society of
British Artists was the cause of the secession of Messrs. Burr and
Reid from the ranks of that Society, and mentions in proof of his
correction that their resignation took place six months ago. He might
ha