avoid becoming the target of stupid and unscrupulous
attack. It would be pointless now to go into those carping and unjust
accusations directed at me by irresponsible newspaper columnists.
Another man might have ignored these mean assaults, but I am naturally
sensitive, and while it was beneath my dignity to reply personally I
thought it perhaps one of the best investments I could make to add a
newspaper to my other properties.

Now I am certainly not the sort of capitalist portrayed by cartoonists
in the early part of the century who would subvert the freedom of the
press by handpicking an editor and telling him what to say. I think the
proof of this as well as of my broadmindedness is to be found in the
fact that the paper I chose to buy was the _Daily Intelligencer_ and the
editor I retained was William Rufus Le ffacase. The _Intelligencer_ had
lost both circulation and money since it had, so to speak, no home base.
But moved perhaps by sentiment, I was not deterred from buying it for
this reason, and anyway it was purchasable at a more reasonable figure
on this account.

Small circulation or no, it--or rather Le ffacase himself--still
possessed that intangible thing called prestige and I was satisfied with
my bargain. Le ffacase showed no reluctance--as why indeed should
he?--to continue as managingeditor and acted toward me as though there
had never been any previous association, but I did not object to this
harmless eccentricity as a smallerminded person might have.

As publisher I named General Thario. I never knew exactly what purpose a
publisher serves, but it seemed necessary for every newspaper to have
one. Whatever the duties of the office, it left the general plenty of
time to attend to the concerns of Consolidated Pemmican. I fed the paper
judiciously with money and it was not long before it regained most of
the circulation it had lost.

_47._ There was no doubt the grass, our ally to such good purpose in the
war, had definitely slowed down; now it was looked upon as a fixture, a
part of the American heritage, a natural phenomenon which had outlived
its sensational period and come to be taken for granted. Botanists
pointed out that _Cynodon dactylon_, despite its ability to sheathe
itself against a chill, had never flourished in cold areas and there was
no reason to suppose the inoculated grass, even with its abnormal
metabolism, could withstand climates foreign to its habit. It was true
it had touc