land of art and
society, who lived daintily and talked about life with unconventional
freedom. Slight in figure, with very black hair, and eyes of cloudy
gray, an olive complexion, and features trained to an immobility proof
against emotion or surprise, the whole poised as we would say in the
act of being gentlemanly, it is needless to say that he took himself
seriously. His readiness, self-confidence, cocksureness, Philip thought
all expressed in his name--Olin Brad.

Mr. Brad was not a Bohemian--that is, not at all a Bohemian of the
recognized type. His fashionable dress, closely trimmed hair, and dainty
boots took him out of that class. He belonged to the new order, which
seems to have come in with modern journalism--that is, Bohemian in
principle, but of the manners and apparel of the favored of fortune. Mr.
Brad was undoubtedly clever, and was down as a bright young man in the
list of those who employed talent which was not dulled by conscientious
scruples. He had stood well in college, during three years in Europe
he had picked up two or three languages, dissipated his remaining small
fortune, acquired expensive tastes, and knowledge, both esoteric and
exoteric, that was valuable to him in his present occupation. Returning
home fully equipped for a modern literary career, and finding after some
bitter experience that his accomplishments were not taken or paid for
at their real value by the caterers for intellectual New York, he had
dropped into congenial society on the staff of the Daily Spectrum, a
mighty engine of public opinion, which scattered about the city and
adjacent territory a million of copies, as prodigally as if they had
been auctioneers' announcements. Fastidious people who did not read it
gave it a bad name, not recognizing the classic and heroic attitude of
those engaged in pitchforking up and turning over the muck of the Augean
stables under the pretense of cleaning them.

Mr. Brad had a Socratic contempt for this sort of fault-finding. It was
answer enough to say, "It pays. The people like it or they wouldn't buy
it. It commands the best talent in the market and can afford to pay
for it; even clergymen like to appear in its columns--they say it's
a providential chance to reach the masses. And look at the 'Morning
GooGoo' (this was his nickname for one of the older dailies), it
couldn't pay its paper bills if it hadn't such a small circulation."

Mr. Brad, however, was not one of the editors, th