ble, everybody should be kept in ignorance of the crime which had
been attempted, and of the deliverance which had taken place.
Very early the next afternoon the air was filled with the cries of
newsboys, and each paper that these boys sold contained a full and
detailed account of a remarkable attempt by an unknown foreigner upon
the life of Captain John Asher, a visitor in Washington, and the heroic
conduct of his niece, Miss Olive Asher, who shot the murderous assailant
with his own pistol. There were columns and columns of this story, but
strange to say, in not one of the papers was there any allusion to the
two gentlemen in the barouche, or to the air-gun.
How this most important feature of the occurrence came to be omitted in
all the accounts of it can only be explained by those who thoroughly
understand the exigencies of the stock-market, and the probable effect
of certain classes of news upon approaching political situations, and
who have made themselves familiar with the methods by which the
pervasive power of the press is sometimes curtailed.
In the later afternoon editions there were portraits of Olive, and her
uncle. Olive was broad-shouldered, with black hair and a determined
frown, while the captain was a little man with a long beard. There were
no portraits of the anarchist. He passed away from the knowledge of man,
and no one knew even his name: his crime had blotted him out; his
ambition was blotted out; even the evil of his example was blotted out.
There was nothing left of him.
When they were released from detention the captain and Olive quickly
left the station--which they did without observation--and entered a
carriage which was waiting for them a short distance away. The fact that
another carriage with close-drawn curtains had stopped at the station
about ten minutes before, and that a thickly veiled lady (the matron)
and an elderly man with his collar turned up and his hat drawn down (one
of the police officers in plain clothes) had entered the carriage and
had been driven rapidly away had drawn off the reporters and the
curiosity mongers on the sidewalk and had contributed very much to the
undisturbed exit of Captain and Miss Asher.
These two proceeded leisurely to the railroad-station, where they took a
train which would carry them to the little town of Glenford. Their
affairs at the hotel could be arranged by telegram. There were calls at
that hotel during the rest of the day from peopl
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