16 JUNE 1906, Page 24

Editorial Wild Oats. By" Mark Twain." (Harper and Brothers. 2s.

net.)—This is a reprint of some amusing papers of the farcical kind which have appeared from time to time during the last thirty years. Here are the instructions with which he is favoured by a wounded chief whose place he fills for a time :—"Jones will be here at three—cowhide him. Gillespie will call earlier, perhaps— throw him out of the window. Ferguson will be along about

four—kill him in case of accident, go to Lancet, the surgeon downstairs. He advertises—we take it out in trade." The appointments were kept, but not exactly according to order, and after a final scene, which was not unlike the battle of Leipsic, the sub-editor came to the conclusion that the " Southern hear was too impulsive " and " Tennessean journalism too exciting."