REVIEW.

Evening Star, Issue 2806, 14 February 1872, Page 3

REVIEW.

The Eve Openers, by J/d k Twain. John Cavnlen Jlotten, London. Henry ITise,

Dunedin. Mapk Twain's wrpipgs ap.e generally witty. They' are net dependent for the acceptation (f the public upon burlesque spelling nor vulgar colloquialisms There is a playful polish about them which att acts through its quaintness ; a quiet way of ridiculing the follies of rhetoric, literature, and social intercourse. There is net a page from the frontispiece to the end that does not abound with witty forms of expression. Ho introduces hia autobiography telling that |je writes it pi compliance with the frenzied public demand by two tlpve pc-sous. With exquisite humour he chaiacteriscs his ancestors in succession as ’‘a solicitor on the highway,” “ a born humorist ” who full of fun struck his sword “ through people as they went by ; “ the scholar ” who imitated other people's handwriting and was rewarded for forty years with government contrac s ; “as a sailor who took other people’s ships home” expecting the owners to come for them •which they novel’ did. Tor these peculiarities of highway robbing, assassination, forgery, piracy, &c., they were rewarded with the gallows, beheading, and other deserved punishments—only they are not called so. Asa change, wc are told, one was “ a good tender missionary,” who onverted sixteen thousand South Sea Islanders, who, when his funeral was over, came out of the restaurant Avith tears in their eyes wishing “they had some more of him.” “The judge’s spirited Avoman” is an excellent sarcasm upon American justice. Every phase of social folly and pot tpe least, the press conics under Hark Twain’s larii. Professedly a mere Avork or humor, the “ Eye openers” is a moral teacher, shewing the folly of many very common practices so humorously as to rouse no anger in those readers who may be self convicted. Mark TAvaiu’s moral lessons remind one of medicine hidden in jams—pleasant to take and curative when taken. We commend “ Eye openers” to all excepting those who Avish to remain blind.