asure of receiving letters had been so far balanced
by this drudgery of writing them as to keep correspondence within some
bounds, nothing less than freight trains could suffice for the mail
service in these days, when to write was but to speak, and to listen was
to read.

After I had given my order, the waiter brought a curious-looking oblong
case, with an ear-trumpet attached, and, placing it before me, went
away. I foresaw that I should have to ask a good many questions before I
got through, and, if I did not mean to be a bore, I had best ask as
few as necessary. I determined to find ont what this trap was without
assistance. The words "Daily Morning Herald" sufficiently indicated
that it was a newspaper. I suspected that a certain big knob, if pushed,
would set it going. But, for all I knew, it might start in the middle of
the advertisements. I looked closer. There were a number of printed slips
upon the face of the machine, arranged about a circle like the numbers
on a dial. They were evidently the headings of news articles. In the
middle of the circle was a little pointer, like the hand of a clock,
moving on a pivot. I pushed this pointer around to a certain caption,
and then, with the air of being perfectly familiar with the machine, I
put the pronged trumpet to my ears and pressed the big knob. Precisely!
It worked like a charm; so much like a charm, indeed, that I should
certainly have allowed my breakfast to cool had I been obliged to
choose between that and my newspaper. The inventor of the apparatus had,
however, provided against so painful a dilemma by a simple attachment
to the trumpet, which held it securely in position upon the shoulders
behind the head, while the hands were left free for knife and fork.
Having slyly noted the manner in which my neighbors had effected
the adjustments, I imitated their example with a careless air, and
presently, like them, was absorbing physical and mental aliment
simultaneously.

While I was thus delightfully engaged, I was not less delightfully
interrupted by Hamage, who, having arrived at the hotel, and learned
that I was in the breakfast-room, came in and sat down beside me. After
telling him how much I admired the new sort of newspapers, I offered one
criticism, which was that there seemed to be no way by which one could
skip dull paragraphs or uninteresting details.

"The invention would, indeed, be very far from a success," he said, "if
there were no such provis