could not find the address of a single manager i tried to reach one of the but there was no response the clock twelve thirty by then and i weakly concluded that things must be all right or that if they weren t i couldn t help it i then went home and to bed and slept poorly troubled by the thought that something might be wrong and wishing now that i had not been so about it all why couldn t i attend to things at the proper time instead of about in this fashion i sighed and tried to sleep the next morning i arose and went through the two morning papers without losing any time to my horror and distress there in the b public was an announcement on the first page to the effect that owing to various wash ou s in several states none of the three shows had arrived the night before and in my own paper to my great pain was a full account of the performances and the agreeable reception accorded them oh lord i groaned what will say what will the other papers say three shows and a book about myself not one here and in connection with one i had written a large and enthusiastic audience received mr smith as the grand and in connection with another that the gallery of pope s was top heavy the perspiration from my forehead jones and my tendency to draw the lightning of public observation and criticism i began to as to what newspaper criticism would follow this last pas god i thought wait till he sees this and i was ready to weep at once i saw myself not only the laughing stock of the town but discharged as well think of being discharged now after all my fine dreams as to the future without delay i proceeded to the office and removed my few resolved to be prepared for the worst with the feeling that i owed mr an explanation i sat down and composed a letter to him in which i explained from my point of view just how the thing had happened i did not attack mr or seek to shield myself but merely illustrated how i had been expected to handle my critical work in this office i also added how kind i thought he had been how much i valued his personal regard and asked him not to think too ill of me this letter i placed in an envelope addressed to mr joseph b personal and going into his private office before any others had come down laid it on his desk then i retired to my room to await the afternoon papers and think they were not long in appearing and neither of the two leading afternoon papers had failed to notice the blunder with the most delicate laughing they had seized upon this latest error of the great as a remarkable demonstration of what they affected to believe was its editor s lately acquired and powers the was r writing up various slate writing and the like in st louis and elsewhere things which mr was interested in or considered good circulation and this was now looked upon as a fresh demonstration of his development in that line oh lord oh lord i groaned when i read the following m a book about to see three at observed the past and those three widely separated by miles of country and washed out sections of railroad in three different states and is indeed a triumph but also to see them as having arrived or as they would have been had they arrived and displaying their individual delights to three separate of varying proportions assembled for that purpose is truly amazing one of the finest of or x we had better say � yet known to science indeed is great the q d indeed now that we think of it it is an achievement so that even the may well be proud of it � one of the finest flights of which the human mind or the great editor s strength is capable we venture to say that no or medium has ever it we have always known that mr h is a great man the charm of his page is sufficient proof of that but this latest essay of his into the of dramatic criticism supernatural insight and is one of the most perfect things of its kind and can only be attributed to genius in the purest form it is supernatural the chronicle for its part troubled to explain low and the spirit and actors although they might as well have been resting the actors at least not having any contract which their or selves to work had conducted themselves doing their parts without a murmur it was also here hinted that in future it would not be necessary for the to carry a dramatic critic seeing that the mind of its chief was sufficient anyhow it was plain that the race was fast reaching that place where it could perceive in advance that which was about to take place in proof of this it pointed of course to the noble mind which now occupied the chair of the seeing all this without moving from his office i was sweat rolled from my forehead my nerves and to think that this was the second time within a book about myself no more than a month that i had made my great benefactor the laughing stock of the city what must he think of me t i could see him at that moment reading these he would discharge me not knowing what to do i sat and gone were all my fine dreams my great future my standing in the eyes of men and of this paper what was to become of me i saw myself returning to � to do what would peter dick 