George Ade

IF Samos, or whatever Grecian neighborhood
it was, had its Æsop, so has Indiana its
George Ade. His business is to give flesh and
blood to maxims. Making maxims is next to
the oldest business in the world. As soon as any
creature has learned an art or trick which helps
him to prosper in his affairs, he sets out to tell
others how they too may prosper; and the sum
of such advice is wisdom. Fish in their wet
caves, one may imagine, concisely counsel their
offspring what banks to hunt along and what glit-
tering baits to shun. Birds teach their fledglings
how to spread their new wings at a proper angle,
how to be architects of nests, how to observe a
happy economy with regard to worms and beetles.
Bees propound the advantages of buckwheat
over clover or of honeysuckle over morning-
glories and tell how stings may be planted

-18-