wever, on which the landlord could never get any satisfactory
information from Mr. Doherty. Happily for Miss Slopham again, the week
of trial was almost ended. She had issued invitations to a reception
for a Thursday evening, at which she caused it to be understood a
paper would be read upon an important reform question. Many of her
friends in the apartment-house were included in the bidding to this
feast of reason. The evening had arrived, and she was seated in her
reception-room, talking to the first-comer--a very tall and grave
gentleman with solemn long hair. This was Mr. Blagg, the well-known
newspaper correspondent. He was a most ingenious and laborious writer.
Having accumulated a certain amount of information, he wrote it out on
Monday to a paper in the far West, and on Tuesday to another paper in
the far East, varying the mixture somewhat, and on Wednesday varying
it again to a paper in the North, and on Thursday to a paper in the
South, giving the kaleidoscope of gossip still another shake. If it be
true that a stamp of the foot displaces every atom of the globe, and
that a word, once spoken, never ceases to reverberate through the
universe, the intellectual atmosphere must have been disorganized with
the clash and confusion of Mr. Blagg's contributions to contemporary
history. But Mr. Blagg was also a general literary workman. He took
contracts to write articles, pamphlets, and books, as a lawyer takes
cases--not on their merits, but for the fee. If it must be admitted,
he had written Miss Slopham's paper on the wrongs of the Indian, for a
pecuniary compensation, for that lady was far from being a literary
person.

"Oh, it is so strong, Mr. Blagg," she was saying, "so noble, and the
array of facts is so overwhelming! Where did you get them? Oh, what a
power your pen is!"

"Such as it is, Miss Slopham, it is always at your service;" and Mr.
Blagg closed his eyes in a faint ecstasy. Unlike literary persons as a
class, he was not reluctant to be openly appreciated. "As for the
facts," he continued, "they were easily secured. I had occasion to
write another article on the Indian question, taking an exactly
opposite view, and I found that many of the facts, in the hands of a
skilful artist, could be used in both articles. I have often found
that plan beneficial. It economizes labor, gives exercise to all the
intellectual faculties, and, where one can secure orders for a brace
of documents to contradict each othe