The Gentleman from Indiana

"Then give me that pad and pencil." He rapidly dashed off a note to H.

Fisbee:

"September 5th.

"H. FISBEE, "Editor 'Carlow Herald.'

"Dear Sir: You have not acknowledged my letter of the 2d September by

a note (which should have reached me the following morning), or by the

alteration in the tenor of my columns which I requested, or by the

publication of the McCune papers which I directed. In this I hold you

grossly at fault. If you have a conscientious reason for refusing to carry

out my request it should have been communicated to me at once, as should

the fact--if such be the case--that you are a personal (or impersonal, if

you like) friend of Mr. Rodney McCune. Whatever the motive, ulterior or

otherwise, which prevents you from operating my paper as I direct, I

should have been informed of it. This is a matter vital to the interests

of our community, and you have hitherto shown yourself too alert in

accepting my slightest suggestion for me to construe this failure as

negligence. Negligence I might esteem as at least honest and frank; your

course has been neither the one nor the other.

"You will receive this letter by seven this evening by special delivery.

You will print the facts concerning McCune in to-morrow morning's paper.

"I am well aware of the obligations under which your extreme efficiency

and your thoughtfulness in many matters have placed me. It is to you I owe

my unearned profits from the transaction in oil, and it is to you I owe

the 'Herald's' extraordinary present circulation, growth of power and

influence. That power is still under my direction, and is an added

responsibility which shall not be misapplied.

"You must forgive me if I write too sharply. You see I have failed to

understand your silence; and if I wrong you I heartily ask your pardon in

advance of your explanation. Is it that you are sorry for McCune? It would

be a weak pity that could keep you to silence. I warned him long ago that

the papers you hold would be published if he ever tried to return to

political life, and he is deliberately counting on my physical weakness

and absence. Let him rely upon it; I am not so weak as he thinks.

Personally, I cannot say that I dislike Mr. McCune. I have found him a

very entertaining fellow; it is said he is the best of husbands, and a

friend to some of his friends, and, believe me, I am sorry for him from

the bottom of my heart. But the 'Herald' is not.