* * * * * This tour, I believe, brought a great deal of pleasure and profit to the novel-reading public (and whom does that term not include?) who had their first opportunity to hear the greatest realist in American fiction explain the technique of his profession. It seems, too, that some of the experiences were an education to Mr. Howells, who wrote me: * * * * * “Grinnell was my first glimpse of the real West, and it is simply stupendous. The beauty and richness of the country are marvellous. Co-education is the true thing for the West. I have never met brighter minds than among the women members of the faculty. What charming people, all!” * * * * * But he got homesick for New York and his desk, and some weeks before the tour was completed, he countermanded his request to make engagements for him only every other day, and asked me to crowd in all the dates possible in November, so as to let him off early in December. Although in haste to escape from what he termed “the worst slavery I ever imagined,” and to get back to his writing, he called a halt at Hamilton, Ohio, the town of his early boyhood. How much human nature and “boy” nature the following few words reveal: * * * * * “Hamilton is my ‘Boy’s Town’ and I wish to go there on almost any terms. I could lecture there the night after Cincinnati, and I should like a day off there afterward.” * * * * * He did stop off there, and preceding his regular lecture on “The Novel and Novel Writing,” he delighted the people of Hamilton with some of his autobiographical reminiscences. The town was proud of him, if one may judge from the extended reports that appeared in the local papers. I have since made several attempts to induce Mr. Howells to fill lecture engagements and thus give pleasure to the many people who are constantly applying to me for him, but his prejudice against the platform seems adamantine. Here is a record of one such futile attempt: * * * * * (Dict.) “May 24, 1900. “MY DEAR MR. HOWELLS: “Will you go to Wilmington, Del., and lecture for $350? I should think it would be splendid recreation for you. There are a great many people who have died for the want of platform ozone.” “Sincerely yours, “J. B. POND.” “Mr. W. D. Howells, 40 West 59th St., N. Y.” * * * * * “40 WEST 59TH ST., May 24, 1900.” “MY DEAR MAJOR:” “I am not quite hungry enough yet. But I appreciate your kindness, and I wonder at Wilmington.” “Yours truly, “W. D. HOWELLS.” * * * * * I wanted to say something of Mr. Howells--better than I knew how to write--so I asked my friend, Mr. George W. Cable, to write it for me, and here is what he has to say: * * * * *