The Idiot

ing," said the School-Master, gazing out through the

og ought to sue the Department of Public Works for lib

, sir?" queried the

the Department of Public Works for libel. They've got their sign right up agains

" observed Mr. Brief, with a twinkle in his eye, "but M

old maxim of the law that the greater the truth the greater the libel. Mrs.

frigidly. "And I desire to add, that one who criticises the t

The difficulty I find here lies in ge

s. Pedagog, pursing her lips, as she always di

kly as possible-and may it not be quite such mushy mush as the remar

. Pedagog," replied the Idiot, cheerfully.

old jokes yet?" queried the Bibliomaniac,

COMPLETED HIS ART

, and he intended to make the article comprehensive, but he found he couldn't, because, judging from comments of men lik

ay?" sneered Mr. Pedagog. "You mus

surest to bring immortality to its successful follower. A man may write a splendid book, and become a great man for a while and within certain limits, but the chances are that some other man will come along later and supplant him. Then the book's sale will die out aft

ver, are better off as you are. If you had a more extended reputation or a lasting name you wou

ial, might as well be so as far as my ability to soar above them is concerned-and it's well she has. If it were otherwise, my life would not be safe or bear

at," said

d it. I aim to please, and for once seem to have hit the

so desire to become an architect?" queried Mr. Whitechok

said th

og laughe

Idiot, we have a fund of $800,000 in our hands, actual cash. We think of building a cathedral, and we think of employing you to draw up our

been able to find out what you mean by those terms," the Idiot answered, slowl

, as to reasonableness and intelli

a year would enable him to take 10,000 poor children out of this sweltering city into the country, to romp and drink fresh milk and eat wholesome food for two weeks every summer from now until the end of time, which wou

hitecture, do you?

uppose I could even build a boarding-house like this, but what I should like to do in architecture would be to put up a $5000 dwelling-house for $5000. That's a thing that has never been done, and I think I

el in your mind, eh?"

l hotel if it's in his

aying that it isn't any

ge would lie in the fact, that if you were sleeping in a room next door to another in which there was a crying baby, you could pull the rope and go up two or three flights until you were free from the noise. Then in case of fire the room in which the fire started could be lowered into a sliding tank large enough to immerse the whole thing in, which I should have constructed in the cellar. If the whole building were

your mammoth intellect. It couldn't possibly cost more th

s cheap alongside some of the hot

ed acres of ground, too, I presume?" said

said the Id

a change of air, you could have a tower over each, I suppose, so that the roo

carlet-fever patient, however, in a hotel like that could very easily be isolated from

onder you haven't spoken to som

er that young fellow with a black mustache

," said the Doctor.

ng and turn it into a colonial mansion with a pot of ye

was his

y," said the Idiot,

shouldn't think you would like to

Idiot; "but if you gues

live in a lunatic asylum," sa

n the contrary. He advised me to stop living in one. He s

m; and in the midst of Mrs. Pedagog's expostulation, which followed the School-Master's careless error, the Idiot and the

DEP