Walking-Stick Papers

"Our distinguished grandfathers carried canes, frequently handsome gold-headed ones, especially if they were ministers. Bishops, or "Presiding Elders;" when, in those mellow times, it was the custom for a congregation to present its minister with a gold-headed cane duly inscribed. Our fathers of some consequence carried canes of a gentlemanly pattern, often ones with ivory handles. Though in the days when those of us now sometime grown were small, one had to have arrived at the dignity of at least middle-age before it was seemly for one to carry a cane. In England, however, and particularly at Eton, it has long been a common practice for small aristocrats to affect canes…" 'Walking-Stick Papers' is a collection of sketches, albeit with a twist of humor, by the American writer and literary editor Robert Cortes Holliday. Topics covered include "Why Men can't read novels by Women", "Memories of a Manuscript", "Humors of a Bookshop" and "On Carrying a Cane", among other interesting titles.