just what we thought, and
advertised nothing that we did not believe in. No advertisements of
quack remedies appeared in our columns. One of our clerks once published
a bread powder advertisement, which I did not see until the paper
appeared; so, in the next number, I said, editorially, what I thought of
it. I was alone in the office, one day, when a man blustered in. "Who,"
said he, "runs this concern?" "You will find the names of the editors
and publishers," I replied, "on the editorial page." "Are you one of
them?" "I am," I replied. "Well, do you know that I agreed to pay
twenty dollars to have that bread powder advertised for one month, and
then you condemn it editorially?" "I have nothing to do with the
advertising; Miss Anthony pays me to say what I think." "Have you any
more thoughts to publish on that bread powder?" "Oh, yes," I replied, "I
have not exhausted the subject yet." "Then," said he, "I will have the
advertisement taken out. What is there to pay for the one insertion?"
"Oh, nothing," I replied, "as the editorial probably did you more injury
than the advertisement did you good." On leaving, with prophetic vision,
he said, "I prophesy a short life for this paper; the business world is
based on quackery, and you cannot live without it." With melancholy
certainty, I replied, "I fear you are right."

CHAPTER XVII.

LYCEUMS AND LECTURERS.

The Lyceum Bureau was, at one time, a great feature in American life.
The three leading bureaus were in Boston, New York, and Chicago. The
managers, map in hand, would lay out trips, more or less extensive
according to the capacity or will of the speakers, and then, with a
dozen or more victims in hand, make arrangements with the committees in
various towns and cities to set them all in motion. As the managers of
the bureaus had ten per cent. of what the speakers made, it was to their
interest to keep the time well filled. Hence the engagements were made
without the slightest reference to the comfort of the travelers. With
our immense distances, it was often necessary to travel night and day,
sometimes changing cars at midnight, and perhaps arriving at the
destination half an hour or less before going on the platform, and
starting again on the journey immediately upon leaving it. The route was
always carefully written out, giving the time the trains started from
and arrived at various points; but as cross trains often failed to
connect, one traveled, guidebook