Dr. Doyle heard some fine speeches that evening after he had finished. Bill Nye was the first to follow him; then Edward Eggleston, Thomas Nelson Page, Charles Dudley Warner, F. Hopkinson Smith, James Lane Allen, and others; but the intellectual part of the feast was listening to Dr. Doyle’s story-telling. He has a brilliant capacity for telling a true story with absolute correctness of historical detail and with anything but historical dulness. After Dr. Doyle returned to his home he was, of course, obliged to say something of the impressions left by his visit. Among other things that he said, he made a remark to the effect that an English author should come here with the primary purpose of seeing the country and not of making money. This was immediately seized upon as a hint that his own tour had not paid. The following letter put that idea at rest: * * * * * “TO THE EDITORS OF “THE CRITIC,” NEW YORK: “I notice that you allude to my recent lecturing tour in America as though it had been unsuccessful. In justice to my most able manager, Major J. B. Pond, will you allow me to say that it was successful beyond all possible expectation, that I had crowded houses nearly everywhere, and that I could have easily doubled the list of my engagements? My remarks about American lecturing were impersonal, and I repeat that an English author should go there with the primary idea of seeing the country and the people, and that the making of money should be a secondary one.” A. CONAN DOYLE. “MALOJA, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 2, 1895.” * * * * * The warm feeling of friendship he felt toward America and the American people is well illustrated by the following letter which he wrote me some time after his American tour: * * * * * “UNDERSHAW, HINDHEAD, HASLEMERE. NIND “MY DEAR MAJOR: “It was quite a pleasure to me to see your handwriting again. I shall always regret that I did not see you when you came to London. Pray give my kindest remembrances to Mrs. Pond and the little man. You will, I am sure, be glad to hear that my wife’s health has much improved. “Has not the Anglo-American _entente cordiale_ which I preached when I was in the States grown since 1894? It is the best and healthiest sign in the waning century. But we have much still to do. Yours always, “A. CONAN DOYLE.” * * * * * I would give him more money to-day than any Englishman I know of if he would return for a hundred nights. He must be a great disappointment to his old teacher. When he had finished school the teacher called the boy up before him and said solemnly: “Doyle, I have known you now for seven years, and I know you thoroughly. I am going to say something which you will remember in after-life. Doyle, you will never come to any good.” [Illustration]