Queed

. Queed; and how he accepted Remunerative Employment

Lee Weyland; but this little body chanced to be one of a system or galaxy, associated with and exercising a certain power, akin to gravitation, over that strong and steady planet known among men as Charles Gardiner West. And the very next day, the back of the morning's mail being broken, the little star used some of its power t

m, I'm now bent on hiring him. Oh, you'd bett

shining Planet l

an I do with him? To paraphrase his own inimitable remark about

e Post directors-to which body Mr. West had been elected at the stockholders' meeting last June-it had been decided that Colonel Cowles should have a little help in the editori

t! The thanks are quite the other way. He may turn out another Charles A. Dana,

his office at that very moment, also petitioning for something, and West received him with just that same unaffected pleasantness of manner which everybody found so agreeable. But this one's business, as it happened, completely knocked from Mr. West's head the matter of Mr. Queed. In fact, he never gave it another thought. The following night he went to New York with a little party of friends, chiefly o

casual way, "shall I send my little D

ed for an unwept grave; promised to call that very day; and, making a memorandum

emained. Having turned over to the agent the full responsibility for finding work for him, he no longer had to bother his head about it. The whole matter dropped gloriously from his mind; he read, w

e called,

e, at which the young man barely

hat does

id not

irritably-"tell him to

o flights; he knocked; was c

he bed was a tiny table. A tiny chair stood at the table; behind the chair stood a tiny bureau; beside the bureau, the tiniest little iron wash-stand in the world. In the chair sat a man,

ted. "Mr. Queed?" he asked

, not looking up. "Wh

laughing; he co

e trifle for you. Which leg the boot is on nobody on earth can say at this juncture. I

e P

out the Post-as yet, so it happened, only the copy of it he had read; and he t

u are Colonel Cowles, the m

e in your hand. I'll sit down here on the bed-shall I?-so that we can talk more comfortably. Sitting does help the flow of ideas so remarkably, don't y

ed complet

en who can do exceptional work. Therefore, I have come to consider with

ed to take light remunerative work to pay his board, and now th

he had said to the agent,

of what you have done and can do on lines useful for a dail

two stray cuttings which proved to be editorials he had written on assignmen

ow. This article on the income tax no

ad, which was aching rather badly, as ind

" he said

You're rather out of my depth here, but at least I

d-humored and anything but gay. Doubtless it would have surprised the young Doctor very much to kn

here," s

way he put it-and wanted to know if such an opening would interest Mr. Queed. Queed said he supposed so, provided the Post t

he explained. "Go to see him in a day or two, w

ping to produce an article or so while he waited. However, the time had come when the inevitable had to be faced. His golden privacy must be ravished for the grim g

ght for white man's rule; had crucified carpet-baggism and scalawaggery upon a cross of burning adjective. Later it had labored gallantly for Tilden; denounced Hayes as a robber; idolized Cleveland; preached free trade with pure passion; swallowed free silver; stood "regular," though no

e for bigger, fatter newspapers, with comic sections and plenty of purple ink, and the Post's owners found themselves unable to supply it. In fact they had to retort by mortgaging their property to the hilt and cutting expenses to rock-bottom. These were dark days for the Post. That it managed to survive them at all was due chiefly to the personality of Colonel Cowles, who, though doubtless laughable as a political economist, was yet conside

lleys a night were child's play to him. Managing editor there was none but himself; the city editor was his mere office-boy and mouthpiece; even the august business manager, who mingled with great advertisers o

his crossings without mishap. Undisturbed by dogs, he landed at the Post building, and in time blundered into a room described as "Editorial" on the glass-door. A friendl

t-sleeves behind a great table, writing with a very black penc

nel C

, sir. How ma

rd West had given him with a p

down, sir. I have been expecting you.-

ueed had decided not to set the Colonel right in his views on taxation; it would mean only a useless discussion which would take time. To the older gentleman's polite inquiries relative to his impressions of the city and so forth, he for the sam

ry is moving more rapidly, or, as I believe, with all our faults, to better ends than this. My own eyes have seen from these windows a broken town, stagnant in trade and population and rich only in memories, transform itself into the splendid thriving city you see before you. Our faces, too long turned backward, are set at last toward the future. From one end of the State to another the spirit of honorable progress is throbbing through our people. We have revolutionized and vastly improved our school system. We have wearied of mud-holes and are laying the foundations of a network of splendid roads. We are doing wonders for the public health. Our farmers are l

familiar with history, interrupted to ask who Henry G. Surfa

for the last. Keep your ear and eye open-and I mean the inner ear and eye as well as the outer-keep your mind open, above all keep your heart open, and it will be given you to understand that we have here the bravest, the sweetest, and th

olitical

ect rises above the valley of partisanry where we old wheel-horses plod-stinging ea

choice of working on space, at the rate of five dollars per column, payment dependent upon publication; or of drawing a fixed honorarium of ten dollars per week, whether called on for the stipulated six articles or

important to the State that our whole tax-system should be overhauled and reformed. The present system is a mere crazy-quilt

ady famili

at do you t

grote

h as that, sir. Now tell me your criticisms on the

Colonel was considerably impressed

you think best-designed to prepare the public mind for a thorough-going reform and point the way that the ref

ught of Colonel Cowles's revising

wrote a preliminary article on tax reform a week or so ago, meaning to

already

did it st

sk me

Colonel Cowles,

, I will say that I tho

n, but in his age he had learned the futility of disputati

e quality. Doubtless your work will

u to judge of tha

gnity, and Queed eagerly left him. Glancing at his watch in the elevator, the young man figured that the interview,