496 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



had not been the truth, those "75 newspaper subscribers" 

 to the contrary notwithstanding. How many of them 

 are residents in the said village? If I have done the 

 citizens of that village "injustice," it was not intentional, 

 and until called upon in a more friendly style, and by one 

 who dares to take the responsibility of writing over his 

 own proper name, I shall make no apology, and am sorry 

 that you have taken the trouble to make one in my behalf. 

 And to save you the trouble of printing any thing in my 

 communications "against your intentions," and to pre- 

 vent doing "injustice" in future, and save you from 

 "omitting," I will "qualify" myself to omit altogether. 

 But I feel bound to "rub some of the Lake county sand 

 out of my eyes and look" at your reviewer. Though for 

 the life of me I don't see how I could have got so much 

 sand into the same place that you had previously filled 

 with dust. 



Now, as I conceive, the object of reviewing any work is 

 to draw attention to any valuable parts it may contain, 

 and point out errors committed by the writer, to prevent 

 his conveying false information to his readers; taking 

 especial care himself to word his language so that "every 

 one who runs may read" the truth in all his statements. 

 Now, Mr. Reviewer, having "rubbed" out a quantity of 

 that "sand" which you convey an idea to your readers 

 composes the soil of Lake county, and is so unproductive 

 that one farm on the American Bottom will produce more 

 than half the county, I will proceed. 



First, then, Mr. Reviewer, do you make this statement 

 for fact? for reviewers are not allowed the "poetical li- 

 cense" that is conceded to descriptive travelers : because 

 if it is a fact, I shall advise the citizens of Lake county 

 to rub the sand out of their eyes and discover that the 

 land which they have for years supposed to be a some- 

 what too wet clayey soil, though very productive, and 

 affording some of the best wheat taken to the Chicago 

 market, has been changed by the "presto" of the Prairie 

 Farmer reviewer, into a barren sand; and to save them- 



