some difficulty in escaping from justice. But it is evident that her
owners are going to deny the whole thing, and say that she had no gun on
board.

In Jacksonville, where she will be tried, the people are already saying
that it is foolish to suppose that there was a gun on so small a tug as
the _Three Friends_, and in Washington it is thought unlikely that it can
be proved that a gun was on the boat.

This makes the matter very interesting, because the New York newspapers
which published the story will not like to have it proved that they print
anything which is not true.

They must do everything in their power to prove that the report _was_
true, while the owners of the tug will make every effort to prove that it
was false, and only a made-up story sent by the newspaper correspondent to
give his paper an interesting item.

These "interesting" items are so frequent that people are afraid to
believe all they read in the papers.

It is for this very reason that we have warned our readers that it is not
safe to say "such and such a thing has happened" until time enough has
passed to prove or contradict a statement; and this is the reason why we
so often say, "it is said that this or that has happened." We want to be
quite sure that a thing is true before we assert it as a fact.

* * * * *

There may be some false report of this character at the bottom of the