ad, which his luminous sallies on foreign affairs altogether
failed to effect--they put money into his pocket. The next thing
Americans like to hearing themselves well praised, is to hear somebody,
even if it be themselves, well abused; and accordingly, on the mornings
when Mr. Fuster let out an anti-polka article, the usually small
circulation of his small sheet was multiplied by a very large
factor--almost every stranger bought a copy, the million to see the
abuse of the fashionables, the fashionables to see the abuse of
themselves.

Benson, in the course of his almost annual visits to Oldport Springs,
had been frequently amused by the antics of this formidable gentleman,
and had laudably contributed to make them generally known. Once, when
Mr. Fuster had politely denominated the Austrian emperor "a scoundrel,"
Harry moved _The Blunder and Bluster_ to say, that it was very sorry for
that potentate, who would undoubtedly be overwhelmed with mortification
when he learned that _The Twaddler_ entertained such an opinion of him.
Whereupon Fuster, who was of a literal dulness absolutely joke-proof,
struck off a flaming article on "the aristocratic sympathies" of _The
Blunder and Bluster_, which, like a British Whig and Federal journal as
it was, always came to the rescue of tyrants and despots, &c. &c. On
another occasion--the very morning of a State election--_The Twaddler_
had announced, with a great flourish, "that before its next sheet was
issued Mr. Brown would be invested with the highest honors that the
State could confer upon him." But even American editors are not always
infallible; Mr. Brown came out sadly in the minority, and the day after
_The Blunder and Bluster_ had a little corner paragraph to this
effect:--

"_We sincerely regret to see that our amusing little contemporary, THE
OLDPORT DAILY TWADDLER, has suspended publication_."

At this Mr. Fuster flared up fearfully, and threatened to sue _The
Blunder and Bluster_ for libel.

Now this magniloquent editor, who professed to be a great moral reformer
at home, and to regulate the destinies of nations abroad, was in truth
the mere creature and toady of Mr. Grabster, the greater part of the
revenue of his small establishment being derived from printing the bills
and advertisements of the Bath Hotel. As in duty bound, therefore, he
set to work to abuse the anonymous assailant of that atrociously-kept
house, calling him a quantity of heterogeneous names, and