"Why!" said I, "if ever there was an abuse that required exposing, it is this."
"Precisely!" he replied.
"And what is the use," I went on, "of general moral preaching that is never applied to any particular case?"
"The use," he replied calmly, "is that that kind of preaching pleases everybody, and increases subscribers, while the other kind makes enemies, and decreases them."
"And you really think that they won't put this article in?" said I.
"I'm certain they won't," he replied. "The fact is this paper is bought up on the other side. Messrs. Goldstick and Co. have intimate connection with Messrs. Bunkam and Chaffem, who are part and parcel of this very affair."
I opened my mouth with astonishment. "Then Goldstick is a hypocrite," I said.
"Not consciously," he answered, calmly.
"Why!" said I, "you would have thought by the way he talked to me that he had nothing so much at heart as the moral progress of society, and was ready to sacrifice everything to it."