Life — December 5, 1895 — page 9: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

RIVALS. “YOU SHOULD GET HIM TO SIGN THE PLEDGE BEFORE YOU MARRY HIM.” “WHY, HE DOESN'T DRINK." ““No, BUT HE MAY BE TEMPTED TO LATER.” “The most attractive, manly, and lovable hero."—Detroit Free Press, “The heroine wasn't worth marrying, or writing about.”— Milwaukee Sentinel, “(The writer] has even drawn an attractive young girl—a_most difficult performance." — The Critic. Sighing to myself, I said,“ At least ‘all the world loves a lover.’ Do they like the love part?” “(The hero] with a horror of silliness and detail, proceeds to fall in love."—Chicago Herald, “* A very charming love story."— he Dial. “The hero is influenced to the greatest idiocy by a silly girl."— Catholic World. ‘A fine, tender love story."—Literary World. That dear old bull-dog of letters, Maginn, wrote that a critic should never read a book he was to review, as it was liable to influence his opinion. I have always thought there was something in the contention, but certainly whatever method is adopted, it ought to be uniform, or else each review should indicate whether the book has been read. For otherwise authors like myself are always asking themselves : “ Which half of the critics read my book, and which half didn’t.” PLL. F. A PRECOCIOUS IMAGINATION. E Sunday morning not long ago a certain young boy was playing with a small step-ladder. His mother saw what he was doing and asked him what he was playing. “ Oh,” he said, “ I'm playing this step-ladder is my bicycle.” “But,” replied his mother, “don't you know that it's wrong to ride a bicycle on Sunday? “I know, mamma, but I'm playing I'm a Jew.” comicbooks.com