ard_ by means of the fatal telegram
was preceded by an instructive episode. Indeed, it might well be asked
whether anything that happened in this terrible time could not be traced
back pretty far. In order that the news of the naval maneuvers in the
_Evening Standard_ should receive sufficient attention on the critical
day, this paper and consequently the inhabitants of San Francisco had
for some months past been taught to expect over the signature "Our
Naval Correspondent," amazingly correct accounts of the movements of the
American fleet and all matters pertaining to the navy.

Mr. Alfred Stephenson had hard work to keep his head above water as
editor of the _Los Angeles Advertiser_ at Los Angeles. The struggle for
existence gave him considerable cause for worry, and this was due to the
fact that Mrs. Olinda Stephenson wished to cut a figure in society, a
figure that was not at all compatible with her husband's income. Mr.
Stephenson was therefore often called upon to battle with temptation,
but for a long time he successfully withstood all offers the acceptance
of which would have lowered him in his own estimation. The consequence
was that financial discussion had become chronic in the Stephenson
household, and, like a Minister of Finance, he was compelled to develop
considerable energy in order to diminish the financial demands of the
opposition or render them void by having recourse to passive resistance.
This constant worry gradually exhausted Mr. Stephenson, however, and the
check-book, which, to save his face, he always carried with him, was
nothing more than a piece of useless bluff.

He could therefore scarcely be blamed for eagerly seizing the
opportunity offered him one evening at a bar in Los Angeles, when a
stranger agreed to furnish him regularly with news from the Navy
Department for the _Evening Standard_. The affair had, of course, to be
conducted with the greatest secrecy. The stranger told Stephenson that a
clerk in the Navy Department was willing to send him such news for two
hundred dollars per annum. The result was astonishing. The articles
signed "Our Naval Correspondent" soon attracted wide attention, and the
large fees received from San Francisco quite covered the deficits in the
Stephenson household. Mrs. Olinda was soon rolling in money and the
tiresome financial discussions came to a speedy end. From that time on
Stephenson regularly received secret communications, which were mailed
at Pasa