HERBERT

From what I can learn from the American Minister, the soil of Bolivia is tillable and rich, but markets and facilities are so poor that it is very far from a paying proposition for a stockman and farmer. Land is valued at from $1 to $100 an acre in the rural districts, depending entirely upon the location. The climate is good, excepting for the rainy months. The schools are poor and few.

Taking it altogether, it is not a very hopeful outlook for an American, and there seems to be no effort on the part of the South American authorities to induce settlers to enter. -H. W.

In response to your inquiry regarding bass fishing in Minnesota, I would advise that the best place I know is at Camp Recreation, on Elbow Lake, Dorset, Hubbard County, Minn. This is in the lower end of the great Mantrap Valley, and is the southernmost link of the Mantrap chain of lakes.

I have written Mr. A. G. Irwin, proprietor of the camp, to send you booklet and full information about his place, and I feel sure you would make no mistake in selecting this location. The rates are reasonable and the service first class. If for any reason this is not just what you are looking for, do not hesitate to call upon me again. -H. W.

TARRYTOWN, N. Y.

MR. HERBERT WHYTE: Dear Sir-In the June number of OUTING I have read with real delight the article by E. P. Powell entitled "Strawberries and Cherries." In the early part of this essay, Dr. Johnson is credited with the remark that "God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did."

Now, doubtless Dr. Johnson could have written that, but it is certain that if he ever did he should have used quotation marks. Dr. Johnson lived 1709-84. Writing about 1650 Isaak Walton, in book four of "The Compleat Angler," quotes that saying, ascribing it to Dr. Botelerprobably an alias of Dr. Butler of Cambridge University (1535-1618).

Sincerely yours, J. D. H. Mr. Powell has read your letter and writes me as follows:-"Mr. H. is undoubtedly correct, as far back as he goes. But don't you think this is one of the axioms that lie at the very core of dietary literature? Don't you suppose that human folk always say something of this sort over a dish of good strawberries? I can imagine it to be the sentiment of our old Jutland and Zealand forefathers, before they got out of forest life-strawberries and wild honey! The fact is, I keep a lot of these fine old handed-down good things in a bin, and when I want one I just reach in and take it, without much reference to the original owner.

"Dr. Johnson comes in handy as a possible claimant, and then you know Mr. H. is rarely around to find me out. I am willing, on a pinch, to say that Dr. Johnson wrote 'Beautiful Snow'-unless possibly I wrote it myself. There is no knowing what some future writer in OUTING, say two hundred years from now, will attribute to us. Such is the possibility of immortality.

"Is there not such a thing as common property in wit-a sort of intellectual communism? How long before a really smart thing ought to revert to the public? I do not see why Job has any longer a private claim on his magnificent poem. Have we got to go on to the end of time putting quotation marks around Solomon's saws? Shakespeare is Bacon already; and by and by we shall find out that the best of his good things were simply a sort of conglomerate intellectual collection, drawn to him from all the past ages as a magnet draws iron filings. Please tell Mr. H. that I am glad he likes my work, and that I own up the correction." -H. V

SKANEATELES, N. Y.

MR. HERBERT WHYTE:

Dear Sir-Will you give me information as to the cost of a two weeks' canoe trip from Norcross on the Bangor and Aroostook R.R. to Fort Kent, Me., through Pemedumcook and Chesuncook Lakes and down the Allegash River, returning from Fort Kent by rail? Would one guide be sufficient for two people on such a trip or would it be absolutely necessary to have a guide and canoe for each person? Does the guide furnish tent and cooking outfit besides canoe? Are the charges for a guide any more for two persons than for a single person?

Are there camps along the route I have mentioned where we could procure provisions or would it be necessary to buy our supply before starting on our trip? Could you tell me the proper clothing, etc., to take on such a trip, and also where should I write to procure a good guide? Would the guide's fare have to be paid by us from Fort Kent back to Norcross by rail, if our two weeks' trip only included the water route between those places?

If you can tell me as near as possible what the cost of such a trip would be, per person, from Norcross to Fort Kent, for guide, food, etc., you will greatly oblige, H. G. H.

I have your favor of the 2d, and in reply would say that the trip you have laid out is a decidedly pleasant one, and not at

HE man in the box office, whose swift, money-changing fingers play on the pulse of the amusement-loving public, will tell you that a baseball franchise in a large city is a "mint." The man in the box office cares little for sport; he views it with the sordid eye of one who thinks in figures and dreams in dollars. Those who make a study of the great business of providing amusement for a nation, will tell you that where other outdoor sports and attractions count their devotees by tens, baseball drags its hundreds and even thousands through the turnstiles. There must be some good reason for this state of affairs.

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The same men sit on the bleachers day after day, their straw hats tilted down over keen eyes, their fingers fumbling score cards and pencils. Everything that the gallery is to the stage, the bleachers are to the diamond. The most merciless critic may be found somewhere

behind first or third base where he can see everything which happens. The grand stand may be all very well for the thin-skinned ones who must mingle personal comfort with their amusement; the true baseball fan sits on the bleachers, trimmed down to his shirt sleeves. No wire nettings in front of him, if you please.

Why is he there day after day? He can hope to see nothing absolutely new, for in the present high stage of its development, professional baseball has reached a point where one new play a season is the average. What is the lure of this mighty magnet-this thing, half sport, half business, which draws its millions. of dollars every year?

Is it the science of the game-the inside baseball?

Nine tenths of the men who go to the theater hope for one of two things: they want to be amused or thrilled. The problem play does not appeal to the man who has found life its own problem.