mischievous persecutors. I remember one instance in which his reprisal
came very near involving me in a serious misunderstanding. Our foreman's
name was Webster; and Wan Lee presently learned to know and recognize
the individual and combined letters of his name. It was during a
political campaign; and the eloquent and fiery Col. Starbottle of
Siskyou had delivered an effective speech, which was reported especially
for "The Northern Star." In a very sublime peroration, Col. Starbottle
had said, "In the language of the godlike Webster, I repeat"--and here
followed the quotation, which I have forgotten. Now, it chanced that Wan
Lee, looking over the galley after it had been revised, saw the name of
his chief persecutor, and, of course, imagined the quotation his. After
the form was locked up, Wan Lee took advantage of Webster's absence to
remove the quotation, and substitute a thin piece of lead, of the same
size as the type, engraved with Chinese characters, making a sentence,
which, I had reason to believe, was an utter and abject confession of
the incapacity and offensiveness of the Webster family generally, and
exceedingly eulogistic of Wan Lee himself personally.

The next morning's paper contained Col. Starbottle's speech in full,
in which it appeared that the "godlike" Webster had, on one occasion,
uttered his thoughts in excellent but perfectly enigmatical Chinese. The
rage of Col. Starbottle knew no bounds. I have a vivid recollection of
that admirable man walking into my office, and demanding a retraction of
the statement.

"But my dear sir," I asked, "are you willing to deny, over your own
signature, that Webster ever uttered such a sentence? Dare you deny,
that, with Mr. Webster's well-known attainments, a knowledge of Chinese
might not have been among the number? Are you willing to submit a
translation suitable to the capacity of our readers, and deny, upon