t
in aiding us to hold our conquest through the instruction and discipline
of those who must take their places when they put their armor off. He
does this by means of a letter, almost an open letter, addressed
personally to each veteran by means of the substitution of his
typewritten name for that of some other veteran, but not differenced in
the terms of the ensuing appeal to his kindness or his conscience. He
puts himself upon a broad humanitarian ground, and asks that the
typewritten author, who, he assumes, is "prominently before the public,"
shall answer certain questions to which the appellant owns that he has
already received hundreds of replies.

By an odd mischance one of his half-open letters found its way to the
Easy Chair, and, although that judgment-seat felt relieved from the
sense of anything like a lonely prominence before the public by the
very multitude of those similarly consulted, it did not remain as Easy
as it would have liked under the erring attribution of prominence. Yet
to have refused to help in so good a work would not have been in its
nature, and it lost as little time as possible in summoning a real
author of prominence to consider the problems so baffling to a mere
editorial effigy; for, as we ought to explain, the _de facto_ editor is
to be found in the Study next door, and never in the Easy Chair. The
author prominently before the public came at once, for that kind of
author has very little to do, and is only too happy to respond to calls
like that of the friend of rising authorship. Most of his time is spent
at symposiums, imagined by the Sunday editions of the newspapers, to
consider, decide the question whether fig-paste is truly a health-food;
or whether, in view of a recent colossal gift for educational purposes,
the product of the Standard Oil Company was the midnight oil which
Shakespeare had in mind when he spoke of the scholar wasting it; or
something of that kind. His mind is whetted to the sharpest edge by its
employment with these problems, and is in prime condition for such
simple practical inquiries as those proposed by the letter we had
received. But, of course, he put on an air of great hurry, and spoke of
the different poems, novels, essays, and sketches which he had laid
aside to oblige us, and begged us to get down to business at once.

"We wish nothing better than to do so," we said, to humor him, "for we
know you are a very busy man, and we will not keep you a momen