Hitherto the subscribers to any paper had been represented in his
mind by a long list of names in purple ink, or else, by their money
equivalent. Now, suddenly, these names became persons, voices, opinions.
No one could take up the _March Hare_ and not be conscious of a
throbbing of hearts. It sounded through every page--that beating of
hearts--fathers, mothers, girls, boys speaking with simple sincerity of
the things they held dearest in their lives.

Why, it was a miracle, this living flesh and blood that glowed so warmly
and sympathetically through the dead mediums of paper and ink!

How had the enchantment been wrought? the magnate asked himself. To be
sure, he had never tried through the columns of the _Echo_ to get into
actual touch with those into whose homes his paper traveled. He had
never cared who they were, what they thought, or how they lived. The
problems puzzling their brains were nothing to him. But he now owned
with characteristic honesty that had he cared to obtain from them this
free expression of opinion and learn the reactions their minds were
constantly reflecting, he would have been at a loss as to how to
proceed.

Yet here, through the instrumentality of a mere boy, a boy the age of
his own son, the elusive result had been accomplished!

Where lay the magic?

The _March Hare_ was not a paper that could speak with authority on any
subject, nor was it a magazine of distinct literary merit. On the
contrary it naively confessed that it was young and did not know. It
explained with frankness that it had not the wisdom to speak; that
instead it merely echoed the thought of its readers.

It was this "echoing idea" that was new to Mr. Arthur Presby Carter. He
had always spoken. To listen to the opinions of others he had considered
tiresome. Very few persons had opinions that were worth listening to.

Nevertheless, after dissecting the reasons for the _March Hare's_
popularity, and lopping off the minor elements of its uniqueness and
wide appeal, the elder man faced the real psychological secret of the
junior paper's success: it listened and did not talk; it was a dialogue
instead of a monologue,--an exact reversal of his policy.

Moreover, this dialogue, contrary to his previous beliefs, presented
amazingly interesting opinions. Here were the past and the present
generation arguing on the policy of the new America,--what its
government, its statesmanship, its ideals should be. The Past was rich