Mr. Joseph Pennell has contributed to _The Studio_ an account of an
unpublished chapter, which is delightful reading and reveals Stevenson to
the world as an illustrator and wood engraver. With the people of Le
Monastier, the lace-makers, Stevenson became a popular figure and was
known for miles in the country. In the town every urchin seemed to know
his name, "although no living creature could pronounce it." One group of
lace-makers brought out a chair whenever he went by, and insisted on
having a good gossip. They would have it that the English talked French,
or patois, and "of all patois they declared that mine was the most
preposterous and the most jocose in sound. At each new word there was a
new explosion of laughter, and some of the younger ones were glad to rise
from their chairs and stamp about the streets in ecstasy." In a notice of
the article, a writer in _The London Chronicle_ says:
[Illustration:
NOT I,
And Other POEMS,
_BY_
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Author of
_The Blue Scalper, Travels
with a Donkey, etc._
PRICE 8d.
BLACK CANYON
_or_
Wild Adventures in the
FAR WEST
A
Tale of Instruction and Amusement
for the Young.
_BY
SAMUEL OSBOURNE_