litics" was a startling conception to the minds of the
passive and resigned voters, who discussed the editorial on the street
corners and in the stores. The next week there was another editorial,
personal and local in its application, and thereby it became evident
that the new proprietor of the "Herald" was a theorist who believed, in
general, that a politician's honor should not be merely of that
middling healthy species known as "honor amongst politicians"; and, in
particular, that Rodney McCune should not receive the nomination of his
party for Congress. Now, Mr. McCune was the undoubted dictator of the
district, and his followers laughed at the stranger's fantastic onset.

But the editor was not content with the word of print; he hired a horse
and rode about the country, and (to his own surprise) he proved to be
an adaptable young man who enjoyed exercise with a pitchfork to the
farmer's profit while the farmer talked. He talked little himself, but
after listening an hour or so, he would drop a word from the saddle as
he left; and then, by some surprising wizardry, the farmer, thinking
over the interview, decided there was some sense in what that young
fellow said, and grew curious to see what the young fellow had further
to say in the "Herald."

Politics is the one subject that goes to the vitals of every rural
American; and a Hoosier will talk politics after he is dead.

Everybody read the campaign editorials, and found them interesting,
although there was no one who did not perceive the utter absurdity of a
young stranger's dropping into Carlow and involving himself in a party
fight against the boss of the district. It was entirely a party fight;
for, by grace of the last gerrymander, the nomination carried with it
the certainty of election. A week before the convention there came a
provincial earthquake; the news passed from man to man in awe-struck
whispers--McCune had withdrawn his name, making the hollowest of excuses
to his cohorts. Nothing was known of the real reason for his disordered
retreat, beyond the fact that he had been in Plattville on the morning
before his withdrawal and had issued from a visit to the "Herald" office
in a state of palsy. Mr. Parker, the Rouen printer, had been present at
the close of the interview; but he held his peace at the command of his
employer. He had been called into the sanctum, and had found McCune,
white and shaking, leaning on the desk.

"Parker," said the editor,