Nothing is more uncertain than the value of a fine cigar. Nine smokers out of ten would prefer an ordinary domestic article, three for a quarter, to a fifty-cent Partaga, if kept in ignorance of the cost of the latter. The flavor of the Partaga is too delicate for palates that have been accustomed to Connecticut seed leaf. So it is with humor. The finer it is in quality, the more danger of its not being recognized at all. Even Mark Twain has been taken in by an English review of his _Innocents Abroad_. Mark Twain is by no means a coarse humorist, but the Englishman's humor is so much finer than his, that he mistakes it for solid earnest, and “larfs most consumedly.” A man who cannot learn stands in his own light. Hereafter, when I write an article which I know to be good, but which I may have reason to fear will not, in some quarters, be considered to amount to much, coming from an American, I will aver that an Englishman wrote it and that it is copied from a London journal. And then I will occupy a back seat and enjoy the cordial applause. (Still later) Mark Twain at last sees that the _Saturday Review's_ criticism of his _Innocents Abroad_ was not serious, and he is intensely mortified at the thought of having been so badly sold. He takes the only course left him, and in the last _Galaxy _claims that _he _wrote the criticism himself, and published it in _The Galaxy_ to sell the public. This is ingenious, but unfortunately it is not true. If any of our readers will take the trouble to call at this office we sill show them the original article in the _Saturday Review_ of October 8th, which, on comparison, will be found to be identical with the one published in _The Galaxy._ The best thing for Mark to do will be to admit that he was sold, and say no more about it. The above is from the Cincinnati _Enquirer_, and is a falsehood. Come to the proof. If the _Enquirer _people, through any agent, will produce at _The Galaxy_ office a London _Saturday Review_ of October 8th, containing an article which, on comparison, will be found to be identical with the one published in _The Galaxy_, I will pay to that agent five hundred dollars cash. Moreover, if at any specified time I fail to produce at the same place a copy of the London _Saturday Review_ of October 8th, containing a lengthy criticism upon the _Innocents Abroad_, entirely different, in every paragraph and sentence, from the one I published in _The Galaxy,_ I will pay to the _Enquirer_ agent another five hundred dollars cash. I offer Sheldon & Co., publishers, 500 Broadway, New York, as my “backers.” Any one in New York, authorized by the _Enquirer_, will receive prompt attention. It is an easy and profitable way for the _Enquirer _people to prove that they have not uttered a pitiful, deliberate falsehood in the above paragraphs. Will they swallow that falsehood ignominiously, or will they send an agent to _ The Galaxy _office. I think the Cincinnati _Enquirer _must be edited by children.