COMMERCIAL GAZETTE, Cincinnati, Ohio:

"It is finely critical and appreciative; exceedingly crisp and unusually entertaining from first to last."

CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER, New York:

"A book of pleasant reading, with enough sparkle in it to cure any one of the blues."

CONGREGATIONALIST, Boston:

"They are based upon considerable study of these authors, are highly appreciative in tone, and show a perceptivity of American humor which is yet a rarity among Englishmen."

SALEM TIMES, Mass.:

"No writer in England was, in all respects, better qualified to write a book on American Humorists than Haweis."

CHRISTIAN JOURNAL, Toronto:

"We have been specially amused with the chapter on poor Artemus Ward, which we read on a railway journey. We fear our fellow-passengers would think something ailed us, for laugh we did, in spite of all attempts to preserve a sedate appearance."

OCCIDENT, San Francisco:

"This book is pleasant reading, with sparkle enough in it—as the writer is himself a wit—to cure one of the 'blues.'"

DANBURY NEWS, Conn.:

"Mr. Haweis gives a brief bibliographical sketch of each writer mentioned in the book, an analysis of his style, and classifies each into a distinct type from the others. He presents copious extracts from their works, making an entertaining book."

CENTRAL BAPTIST, St. Louis:

"A perusal of this volume will give the reader a more correct idea of the character discussed than he would probably get from reading their biographies. The lecture is analytical, penetrative, terse, incisive, and candid. The book is worth its price, and will amply repay reading."

SCHOOL JOURNAL, New York:

"Terse and brief as the soul of wit itself."

INDIANAPOLIS SENTINEL, Indiana:

"It presents, in fine setting, the wit and wisdom of Washington Irving, Oliver W. Holmes, James R. Lowell, Artemus Ward, Mark Twain, and Bret Harte, and does it con amore."

THE MAIL, Toronto, Ont.:

"Rev. H. R. Haweis is a writer too well-known to need commendation at our hands for, at least, his literary style. The general result is that not a page repels us and not a sentence tires. We find ourselves drawn pleasantly along in just the way we want to go; all our favorite points remembered, all our own pet phrases praised, and the good things of each writer brought forward to refresh one's memory. In fine, the book is a most agreeable companion."

LUTHERAN OBSERVER, Philadelphia:

"The peculiar style, the mental character, and the secret of success, of each of these prominent writers, are presented with great clearness and discrimination."

IV.