194 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



posed to centre visiting a club or two, going 

 to the theatre and to the opera several times 

 I do not believe that in this busy week I hear 

 enough interesting talk to compensate me for 

 the loss of one hour in my orchard or on the 

 bay. You cannot get out of people what is 

 not in them. You cannot expect the success- 

 ful dealer in butter, sugar, or candle-grease 

 to tell you any thing you do not know, unless 

 it is about things he buys and sells, and I am 

 not interested in these things. Of all the dreary 

 stuff with which our dreary newspapers are 

 filled, by all odds the most dreary to me con- 

 sists of the reproductions of the talk of these 

 good people. The personal-gossip column, 

 which of late years has grown to great lengths 

 millionaire A's explanation of the recent rise 

 in the price of leather, Senator B's reason's for 

 believing that Coroner Jones will again be 

 elected this year, are matters that do not inter- 

 est me in the least. An ocean of gabble 

 which to-day appears to hide the paucity of 

 ideas among us has broken into the newspapers. 

 The exaggeration of trifles is one of the dis- 

 eases of the age. The instructions given to 

 our reporters seem to be to question the boot- 



