ge of
a metropolitan newspaper. What New Yorkers thought of this particular
newspaper was a detail.

SHELBY AND THE DEMIJOHN.

A Sidelight on the Storm Centre of
the Most Picturesque Political
Fight in the Empire State.

The Opponent of the Author of the Ode on the
Victory of Samothrace talks of his Rival
for Congressional Honors and his Book.

MR. SHELBY'S VIGOROUS VIEWS ON THE
ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN.

There followed a well-spiced "story" in which Shelby, with his diction
chastened and his colloquialisms omitted save where they lent a racy
strength, was made to say the things the reporter concluded he ought to
have said--it was a party organ--and to sparkle after a fashion which
is actually attained by few in the presence of the interviewer. Even
at his weakest he was caused to shine. A kindly platitude he had let
fall anent Graves's book astonished him as he met it again; the merest
crust upon the waters, under the reporter's manipulation, it returned
to him a filling loaf:--

"But," said Mr. Shelby, "is the production of literature, however
delightful, the fittest school for official life? This, I conceive, is
the whole issue between me and this gifted youth whose illness I
deplore."

It would have been well had he stopped here; but he turned to the other
papers. There was no repetition of the first page glory, his
eulogist's contemporaries entertaining other ideas of space; but he
found his name in most of them.

"MR. GRAVES'S OPPONENT HERE"

"That virtuous spellbinder of county fairs, the "Hon." C. R. Shelby,
reached the city to-day arm in arm with the notorious Jake Krantz. The
character of this aspirant for congressional preferment in the
so-called Demijohn District may be readily judged by the company he
keeps."

Shelby needed no plainer signpost than the style to warn him that he
had fallen foul of the caustic journal which had flayed his plagiarism.
He stole a glance toward the desk, wondering whether the Boss had read
these things. Then he ran hastily through the scurrilous perversion of
his words. Could nothing curb this tyranny?

Yet a greater indignity was in store. His cup brimmed at the discovery
that in the cherub also he had cherished a viper. His mortification
was too keen for the perusal of more than an occasional phrase: "Art's
New Patron"--"The Champion of Canals couches a lance against the tariff
on art"--"his naive canons of criticism"--"judges