extraordinary fatality, the unfortunate
fugitive has been invariably allowed to reach the very verge of
achievement before he was surprised by the long arm of Messrs. Lewis
and Lewis. Each defeat has been consequently attended with infinite
loss of labour, material and money. Our readers have been told how the
London venture came to nought, and how it was frustrated in America.
The venue was then changed, and Belgium, as a neutral ground, was
supposed possible; but here again, on the very day of its delivery,
the edition of 2000 vols. was seized by M. le Procureur du Roi, and
under the nose of the astounded and discomfited speculator, the packed
and corded bales, of which he was about to take possession, were
carried off in the Government van! The upshot of the untiring efforts
of this persistent adventurer at length results in furnishing Mr.
Whistler with the first and only copy of this curious work, which was
certainly anything but the intention of its compiler, who clearly,
judging from its contents, had reserved for him an unpleasing if not
crushing surprise!_

_A GREAT LITERARY CURIOSITY_

[Sidenote: _"Pall Mall Gazette." March 1890._]

_I have to-day seen the printed book itself of the Collected Writings
of Mr. Whistler, whose publication has proved so comically impossible.
The style of the preface and accessory comments is in the worst style
of Western editorship; while the disastrous effect of Mr. Whistler's
literature upon the one who has burned his fingers with it, is
amusingly shown._

_In the index occur such well-known names as Mr. J. C. Horsley, R.A.,
Mr. Labouchere, Mr. Ruskin, Mr. Linley Sambourne, Mr. Swinburne, Tom
Taylor, Mr. Frith, and Rossetti. The famous catalogue of the "Second
Exhibition of Venice Etchings, February 19, 1883," in which Mr.
Whistler quotes the critics, is also given._

_A LAST EFFORT_

[Sidenote: _"Pall Mall Gazette," April 9, 1890._]

_We hear that a third attempt has been made to produce the pirated
copy of Mr. Whistler's collected writings. Messrs. Lewis and Lewis
have at once taken legal steps to stop the edition (printed in Paris)
at the Customs. A cablegram has been received by Mr. Whistler's
solicitors stating that Messrs. Stokes's name has been affixed to the
title-page of the pirated book without the sanction of those
publishers._

_THE GENTLE ART
OF