thought, had better be stopped, since the degree and quality of the
crime was so like that known as 'sharp practice' in Wall street,
that to punish one and let another go free would only be manifesting
a strange disregard of equal justice. And the landlord was too
shrewd a fellow not to know that to employ detectives, who were
costly men to move, would entail an expense greater than the sum
lost, without mending the damaged reputation of his house. I
therefore contented myself with the satisfaction of having had my
character restored to me by the newspapers.

"A different turn now came in my affairs, and finding it was only a
harmless custom of the editors to make splinters of a great public
man, I invited them to a sumptuous dinner, which they set upon with
an appetite equaled only by that displayed by them while devouring
my character. But, on the whole, they were a jolly set of fellows
-quite as jolly as one could desire. If they entertained a
magnificent dislike for one another, it was to be set down to a
spirit of commercial rivalry, which, though it might work out good
in some instances, was of itself to be deplored, inasmuch as it had
nothing in common with that generosity of soul which should rule
universal among men of letters."

I found the dinner a specific antidote for a bruised character, for
no sooner had my literary friends eaten it than they were ready to
outdo one another in saying good things of me. One cunning fellow
told his readers that the election of General Harrison was entirely
owing to the wisdom I had distilled into the minds of the people of
Cape Cod. And though I never had even scented the perfumery of war,
another said that as a military man I had no superior. Concerning my
mission, they were all sure no testimony they could bear would add