days how Louis would turn out.

I have but one word to add to this. The secret of the Revolution of
February had been in very few hands, which was the secret of its success.
Any one of us could have secured fortune and "honours," or at least
"orders," by betraying it. But we would as soon have secured orders for
the pit of hell as done so. This was known to Louis Napoleon, and he
must have realised who these men of iron integrity were for he was very
curious and inquiring on this subject. Now, I here claim it as a great,
as a surpassing honour for France, and as something absolutely without
parallel in history, that several hundred men could be found who could
not only keep this secret, but manage so very wisely as they did. Louis
Blanc was an example of these honest, unselfish men. I came to know him
personally many years after, during his exile in London.

One morning George H. Boker came to me and informed me that there was a
writing editor wanted on the Philadelphia _Evening Bulletin_. Its
proprietor was Alexander Cummings. The actual editor was Gibson
Bannister Peacock, who was going to Europe for a six months' tour, and
some one was wanted to take his place. Mr. Peacock, as I subsequently
found, was an excellent editor, and a person of will and character. He
was skilled in music and a man of culture. I retain grateful
remembrances of him. I was introduced and installed. With all my
experience I had not yet quite acquired the art of extemporaneous
editorial composition. My first few weeks were a severe trial, but I
succeeded. I was expected to write one column of leader every day,
review books, and "paragraph" or condense articles to a brief item of
news. In which I succeeded so well, that some time after, when a work
appeared on writing for the press, the author, who did not know me at
all, cited one of my leaders and one of my paragraphs as models. It
actually made little impression on me at the time--I was so busy.

I had been at work but a short time, when one day Mr. Cummings received a
letter from Mr. Peacock in Europe, which he certainly had hardly glanced
at, which he threw to me to read. I did so, and found in it a passage to
this effect: "I am sorry that you are disappointed as to Mr. Leland, but
I am confident that you will find him perfectly capable in time." This
gave me a bitter pang, but I returned it to Mr. Cummings, who soon after
came into the office and expressed frankly his