In America, at least, few readers of "Trilby" would have known that, in Joe Sibley, Mr. du Maurier had hit off some of the most salient "peculiarities" of the immensely talented etcher, who, when he takes the newspapers into his confidence, dips his pen in the corrosive acid with which he bites his plates. Joe Sibley is not an engaging character; he is a Bohemian of the Bohemians, clever, witty, penniless and presuming. In taking his sibilant surname as a pseudonym for Whistler, we have the endorsement of the artist himself, though he does not expressly declare himself to be the archetype of this particular character. Sibley is the only man in the book who _could_ have been drawn from Whistler--the Whistler of a generation ago; and no one but Sibley could have written the following letter, in which the creator of the character is so wittily vilified:-- "TO THE EDITOR--SIR: It would seem, notwithstanding; my boastful declaration, that, after all, I had not, before leaving England, completely rid myself of the abomination--the 'friend '! One solitary, unheeded one--Mr. George du Maurier--still remained, hidden in Hampstead. On that healthy heath he has been harboring, for nearly half a life, every villainy of good fellowship that could be perfected by the careless frequentation of our early intimacy and my unsuspecting _camaraderie_. Of this pent-up envy, malice and furtive intent he never at any moment during all that time allowed me, while affectionately grasping his honest Anglo-French fist, to detect the faintest indication. Now that my back is turned, the old _marmite_ of our _pot-au-feu_ he fills with the picric acid of 30 years' spite, and, in an American magazine, fires off his bomb of mendacious recollection and poisoned rancour. The lie with which it is loaded _à mon intention_ he proposes for my possible 'future biographer'--but I fancy it explodes, as is usual, in his own waistcoat, and he furnishes, in his present unseemly state, an excellent example of all those others who, like himself, have thought a foul friend a finer fellow than an open enemy. "PARIS. J. M'NEILL WHISTLER. "Reflection: The _compagnon_ of the _pétard_ we guillotine. Guineas are given to the popular companion who prepares his infernal machine for the distinguished associates in whose friendship he has successfully speculated." * * * * * The following card appeared in _Harper's_ for October:-- "Pursuant to an arrangement made with Mr. J. McNeill Whistler by our London agents, Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., the publishers of the English edition of _Harper's Magazine_, the following letter is published:-- August 31, 1894.