Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-13

them with the conviction to which G., In
fact, did finally arrive-the conviction that
the letter was not upon the premises. L
felt also, that the whole train of thought,
which I was at some pains in detailing to
you just now, concerning the invartable
principle of policial action in searches for
articles concealed-I felt that this whole
train of thought would necessarily pass
through the mind of the minister. 1t would
imperatively lead him to despise all the or
binary hooks of concealment. He could not,
l reflected, be SO weak as not to see that
the most intricate and remote recess of his
hotel would be as open as his commonest
closets to the eyes, to the probes, to the
gimlets. and to the microscopes Of the pre-
feet. l saw, in fine, that he would be
driven as a matter of course, to simplicity,
IL not deliberately induced te it as matter
of choice. You will remember. perhaps,
how desperately the project laughed when
I suggested, upon our first interview, that
it was just possible this mystery troubled
him so much on account Of its being so
very sef-evident."
yes" said I, IT remember his merriment
well. I really thought he would have fallen
into commissions.
THE material world continued Dupin,
''abounds with very strict analogies to the
tmmaterial, and thus some color of truth
has been given to the rhetorical dogma,
that metaphor, or smile, may be made to
strengthen an argument, as well as to en-
beilish description. The principle Of the
Wis tnertiae, for example seems to be iden-
more true in the former that a large
body is with more difficulty set in motion
than smaller one, and that its subsequent
momentum is commensurate with this diff
Guilty than it is in the latter; that intel
lects of the vaster capacity, while more
forcible, more constant and more eventful
in their movements than those of inferior
grade, are yet the less readily moved, and
more embarrassed and full OF hesitation in
the first few steps of their progress. Again:
Have you ever noticed which of the street
signs, over the shop doors, are the most
attractive of attention."
Il have never given the matter
thought" said.
There is game Of puzzles" he resum d,
(which Is played upon map. One party
playing requires another to find a given
word-the name Of town. river state or
empire-any word in short upon the motley
and perplexed surface of the chart. A nov
Ice in the game generally seeks to en-
barrass his opponents by giving them the
most infinitely lettered names; but the adept
selects such words as stretch, in large char
acters, from one end of the chart to the
other. These, like the over-largely lettersd
signs and placards of the streets, escape
observation by dint of being xcessively
obvious; and here the physical Oversight. is
precisely analogous with the moral in ap-
prehension by which the intellect suffers to
pass, unnoticed, those considerations which
are too obtrusively and too palpabiy self
evident. But this is point, 1t appears,
somewhat above or beneath the under
OF the preItCl. lie never once
thought 1t probable, or possible, that the
minister had deposited the letter imme-
diately beneath the nose of the whole world
by way of best preventing any portion of
that world from perceiving It,
But the more reflected upon the daring
dashing and discriminating ingenuity of
D; upon the fact that the document
must always have been at hand, If he in
tended to use 1t to good purpose, and upon
the decisive evidence, obtained by the pre-
feet that 1t was not hidden within the
limits of that dignitary's ordinary search
the more satisfied became that, 70 con-