Cabby's Criticism

"You are fond of novel-reading?" said Aurelien Sclioll the other day, as he saw the coadunan he had engaged stow away a formidable volume of 10mance beneath the Beat. "Yessir; 1 have read a great many novéis, and I am disgusted to observe the uniform ignorance of their authors as to the commonest affairs of everyday lile. For instances, here is one story in which I read : 'Tlie Prlnce appeared agitated on hearing these words, and, hailing a carriage, ílung himself into it, cast his purse to the driver , and cried, "Drive me to the Faubourg St Monroe'" ' Then a few lines f urther on I see this : ' Valentino resolved once for all to solve the mystery, and, fiinging her pocketbook to the coadunan, said"Follow yon carriage." ' Now, sir, l have been driving a hack in Paris for forty years, and I've driven thousands of people, - all sorts of people under every imaginable condition, eloping lovers, jealous wives, levanting cashiers, and so on. - and, so help rne St. Fiacrelnever in the course ot niy long and professional career has a tare thrown me his or her purse or pocketbook. No, sir; they have just given ine 35 sous - sometimes it was the round 2 francs, but very rarely,"