By Irving Browne.
CURRENT TOPICS. JAY FOR TALK. — There is a common impression that lawyers are paid more for talk than any other class of men. There is however one class that seems to crowd them hard, if the following, from the " Buf falo Courier," is lo be relied on: — "It is better to be at the head of a commonplace calling thin at the tail of a distinguished one. Л tiptop auctioneer, (or instance, has a good deal better hold on success than a low-grade lawyer or doctor It is said that an East Buffalo auctioneer, who lately broke the record by selling 345 horses in one day from one auction-block, receives $7,500 a year for two days' work in each week at East Buffalo ThisisSi5oa week, or $75 a day. The same man receives ivOooa year for two days' work each week in PhiladeU phia, and because he can't stand any more travel he has rtfustd $8,000 a year to add to his labors one day in the neck at Chicago. Thursdays he has to himself; and on that day he runs a horse auction of his own in Richmond, Va. He seems to be a type of the busy and successful man How many Huffalo doctors and lawyers are doing as well?" We should incline to answer the concluding ques tion with " Not one." But it must be conceded that an auctioneer does more talking in two days than a lawyer in six. even allowing the latter to be a hur ricane talker," as another Buffalo newspaper recentlyvery incorrectly described Roscoe Conkling. That distinguished orator was very deliberate in his utter ance, — ninety words a minute, we believe. Almost any man can get a reputation for wisdom if he will only talk slowly or infrequently. Poe said that the popular notion that the owl is wiser than the parrot is an error. CURIOUS LEGISLATION. — Bulletin number three of the New York State Library, concerning the Leg islation of 1892. will be found timely and useful. There are many curious and suggestive things in it. For example, it would be interesting to know the reason ot" the New York act exempting bicycles and tricycles from the operation of the act requiring con tracts for sale of personal property on credit to be filed in town clerk's offices. Why not pianos as well? Vermont seems to have " let up " a little in cases of conviction under the prohibitory liquor-law, by limit
ing the sentence to three years ' Probably this came through Mr. Justice Field's strong protest in the case in the United States Supreme Court. Л humane law of the same State is that prohibiting barbed-wire fences around schoolhouses. Let the small boy take green apples, and pumpkins for jacko'-lanterns without hindrance. They could not do it in Maryland; for that State passed an act last year making it larceny to take melons from vines, fruits from vines, and vegetables from soil, the other con ditions existing. This is probably aimed at the noc turnal and predatory Kthiop That is a good law of this State forbidding that any child under sixteen, under a criminal charge, shall be confined with adults. In Ohio sheriffs are permitted to ride with their prisoners on freight-trains Louisiana provides ar tificial limbs for maimed Confederate soldiers Geor gia lets them peddle without license when indigent; and Mississippi gives pensions to them, their widows, and their colored servants This exhibits much more piety than seems to be prevalent in Rhode Island, where it has been found necessary to denounce pen alties for removing flags or markers from graves of soldiers. Georgia properly lets the inmates of insane asylums correspond without censorship In Georgia we read of chain-gangs and whipping-posts, but black and white must not be chained or confined to gether. In New York people are forbidden to descend from balloons by parachute or trapeze Here is a dangerous symptom of Anglomania, — in Massachusetts English bloodhounds are exempted from the act prohibiting the keeping of bloodhounds. Barmaids are prohibited in New York.
THE CRITIC. — " The Critic " is easily the first authority in this country among journals wholly de voted to literature. The book notices in " The Na tion " are generally excellent: but "The Critic" surveys the whole field, and has no other interests. Its criticisms are marked by breadth and humanity, and the author will never feel that he is the victim of malice or jealousy, or a small desire to show off the critic's "smartness." Such a journal deserves suc cess, and we believe this journal has obtained it in a large degree. It gives us pleasure to learn that the ownership of it has been acquired by Mr. J. B. Gilder,
