These books naturally "took." They invited no man to read, but they were

interesting to look at and therefore particularly adapted to those

occasions when one must make a small gift to a friend. Scarce a

center-table in the country but held at least one. The beauty of it was

that the literary matter cost him nothing, and the books were their own

advertising bill-boards; for wherever they went they lay in conspicuous

places.

From books Mr. Early passed on to furniture; and he begot strange

shapes, wherein forgotten Gothic forms were commingled with forms that

never man saw before; and these also took. So the circle widened, until

glass pottery and rugs were gathered into the potpourri of Mr. Early's

genius.

Finally he established his magazine, The Aspirant, for he began to

feel the need of explaining things--chiefly himself--to his expanding

circle. The Aspirant had covers of butcher's paper; and the necessity

for self-defense at last developed in Mr. Early that literary style

which he had found it impossible to cultivate while he still had nothing

to say. He grew a peculiar ability for self-glorification and for

slugging the other man. Particularly caustic did his pen become in

respect to those, whether painters, musicians, poets, novelists or

reformers, who had endeared themselves to the great mass of the public.

The Aspirant always called the public "the rabble," and you can't damn

humanity more easily and cheaply than by calling it "the rabble."

Naturally every one hastened to buy Mr. Early's furniture, his rugs and

his pottery, and diligently to read The Aspirant, in order that he or

she might escape the universal condemnation. Be outré and you'll be

right; be right and you'll be outré; be outré anyway: was the simple

creed.

To those penniless celebrities to whom purchase of Mr. Early's

commodities was over-expensive, there was another way out from under.

They might visit Mr. Early's hospitable home, and so contribute their

mite to the halo of distinction that surrounded him. The great ones came

to St. Etienne. They ate and drank and were exhibited to an admiring

throng. They gave lectures, introduced from the platform by Mr.

Sebastian Early; they went away and The Aspirant chronicled their

satellite excellences. No such ex-guest need fear a blow in the face

upon its pages. All these things came before the public--more and more

before the public every year. They kept Mr. Early's growing corps of

assistants busy, inventing new furniture and new forms of invective.

It is needless to say that the hook-and-eye was never included in the

illustrious list of Mr. Early's productions. That gentleman frequently

blessed himself in private that his first commodity had been put upon

the market as the "Imperial," and not as the "Bright and Early" as he

had once half-resolved. Only a few knew who was responsible for the

bill-boards.




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