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That old rogue, Briggs.
Briggs, Gayler and Rosenberg! a delightful
triumvirate! Just the old story. From Addey�s
account, I could see how the first-named old fox
had blarneyed him. �He was delighted with the
title!� said Addey. Now I heard Briggs� real
sentiments on the matter; altogether condemnatory.
He is as vulturous after a stray dollar or two
as if he specially needed it; has sent his articles
to �Vanity Fair� and had them rejected, too. I don�t
believe in him as a humorist; he is on the fence
in politics; like most of his class when past the
age of forty, he don�t believe in any good motive
where a bad one can be attributed � and where can
it not be? He�s a non-committal, dough-face
Republican, so one can conceive how brave his arti-
cles political will be. He goes in for office and
other indirect bribery, don�t believe in honesty
and pluck, in short. Besides one regular, inevi-
table series of papers of this sort I hold to be
a mistake; he�ll shirt his work � do it �Courier�
fashion. How greedy the old wolf is, too � has
just assumed the �editorship� of the �Irving,�
inaugurating it with a mean article against Thack-
eray, apropos of his noble tribute, in the �Corn-
hill� to Washington Irving. This is what Briggs
loves to do, underhand depreciation of better men
than himself. The man is an old hack literateur