Jules','" though he often wondered if they were
strictly trustworthy.

THE BOOM IN THE "CALAVERAS CLARION"

The editorial sanctum of the "Calaveras Clarion" opened upon the
"composing-room" of that paper on the one side, and gave apparently upon
the rest of Calaveras County upon the other. For, situated on the very
outskirts of the settlement and the summit of a very steep hill, the
pines sloped away from the editorial windows to the long valley of the
South Fork and--infinity. The little wooden building had invaded Nature
without subduing it. It was filled night and day with the murmur of
pines and their fragrance. Squirrels scampered over its roof when it was
not preoccupied by woodpeckers, and a printer's devil had once seen a
nest-building blue jay enter the composing window, flutter before one
of the slanting type-cases with an air of deliberate selection, and then
fly off with a vowel in its bill.

Amidst these sylvan surroundings the temporary editor of the "Clarion"
sat at his sanctum, reading the proofs of an editorial. As he was
occupying that position during a six weeks' absence of the bona fide
editor and proprietor, he was consequently reading the proof with some
anxiety and responsibility. It had been suggested to him by certain
citizens that the "Clarion" needed a firmer and more aggressive policy
towards the Bill before the Legislature for the wagon road to the South
Fork. Several Assembly men had been "got at" by the rival settlement of
Liberty Hill, and a scathing exposure and denunciation of such methods
was necessary. The interests of their own township were also to be
"whooped up." All this had been vigorously explained to him, and he had
grasped the spirit, if not always the facts, of his informants. It is
to be feared, therefore, that he was perusing his article more with
reference to its vigor than his own convictions. And yet he was not so
greatly absorbed as to be unmindful of the murmur of the pines
without, his half-savage environment, and the lazy talk of his sole
companions,--the foreman and printer in the adjoining room.

"Bet your life! I've always said that a man INSIDE a newspaper office
could hold his own agin any outsider that wanted to play rough or tried
to raid the office! Thar's the press, and thar's the printin' ink and
roller! Folks talk a heap o' the power o' the Press!--I tell ye, ye
don't half know it. Why, when old Kernel Fish was editin' the 'Sierra
Banner,' one