And who does not chuckle over the caustic humor of the doctor's definitions of words that touched his own rugged career? "Lexicographer: a harmless drudge;" "book-learned: versed in books or literature; a term implying some slight contempt"; "Grub street: a street in London much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries and temporary poems."
O. Henry was a great devotee of word-beagling in dictionaries, and his whimsical "review" of Webster deserves to be better known:—
"We find on our table quite an exhaustive treatise on various subjects written in Mr. Webster's well-known, lucid and piquant style. There is not a dull line between the covers of the book. The range of subjects is wide, and the treatment light and easy without being flippant. A valuable feature of the work is the arranging of the articles in alphabetical order, thus facilitating the finding of any particular word desired. Mr. Webster's vocabulary is large, and he always uses the right word in the right place. Mr. Webster's work is thorough, and we predict that he will be heard from again."
What exhilaration can Theda Bara or the nineteenth putting green offer compared to the bliss of pursuing through a thousand dictionary pages some Wild Word We Have Known, and occasionally discovering an unfamiliar creature of strange and dazzling plumage?
