DEAR MR. PUNCH,--I notice that a complaint has been made that those
charming stories of wild life in the Far West, are out of date.
Nay, more, that they are calculated to do a great deal of harm to
a considerable amount of valuable property. On the other hand, the
talented authors of the picturesque romances to which I have referred,
insist that there is a great demand for these literary wares, and they
would suffer much loss if they were to discontinue their production.
Could not the matter be compromised? We are less sensitive than our
American cousins, and if the scene were changed from St. Francisco to
some quiet watering-place on the Kentish Coast, our kindred beyond
the seas ought to be satisfied. I do not pretend to be a master of the
style of those who write Backwood sensations, but I think I can jot
down a few lines to show what I mean. Beneath I give a specimen of the
sort of thing that might take the place of stories revelling in such
titles as the "_Luck of Murder Camp_," "_Slack Bill's Banker_," and
"_The Talk of Stab-in-the-Backman's Chasm_."