Hello again.  This is the same Scott Holmes that was at netcom.com. and am
now at a new address with PPP rather than a mere shell account.  If you recall,
I recently posted on an article, published in Harper's Magazine, by Jane Smiley.

  The latest issue has some reader responses that I believe Twain-L subscribers
will find interesting.  One reader suggested that the reason Harper's published
the article was they (Harper's) "...are still smarting from Twain's 1871
comment..., that the way to distinguish the educated from the ignorant in
Carson City was to ascertain whether their canvas-and-flour-sack walls had
`...pictures from Harper's Weekly on them'".

  Another reader mentioned a caveat included in his edition of Huck Finn
(not found in my own copy) about prosecuting, banishing and/or shooting
those who attempt to find motives, morals and/or plots in the book.  This
reader suggested that Smiley was at triple risk.

  Anyway, for those of you who bothered to read Smiley's diatribe the
responses published offer amusing counterpoints.

Scott