"Well, then, how does the man spell it, anyhow?"
"Why, h-e-r-e, as it should be."
The Colonel rose with wrath in his eyes, and snapped out:
"Gentlemen, I'm too old for such joking," and then left the room and slammed the door after him.
Doubtless few know that the New York Journal of Commerce originated what is popularly known as a newspaper extra. When this occurred times were troublesome in Europe, and the great revolution of 1830 was approaching. Naturally America was anxious for early news, and all the newspapers of New York equipped small boats that cruised about the harbor, waylaying the large packet vessels arriving from abroad to get the tidings.
The Journal of Commerce conceived the plan of sending out a small schooner to intercept the packets two or three days ahead of their arrival. The originators of the plan were laughed at, and told that it would in the end ruin them. Results proved otherwise, however, and when the semaphoric telegraph announced their schooner in the offing, and later, coming up the bay, the crowd would gather around the office of the paper. They had to wait until the extra evening edition was ready, and then one of the partners would sometimes read the news aloud to hundreds of citizens, while thousands of copies were sold. This schooner was the first American news-boat of any size.
There is a small town in one of the Eastern States, not far from Boston, whose inhabitants take great pride in excelling every other town in their vicinity. They try every new invention, and if it has any sort of merit it is sure to be assigned to duty in some part of the place. Two portly gentlemen, one a sea-captain and the other a lawyer, both retired from active life, were the prime movers in the experiments and adoptions, and, naturally, in the course of time they failed to agree. Extreme jealousy then prevailed, and a bitter animosity sprang up between them.
Unfortunately these two gentlemen lived next door to each other—in fact, so close were their houses that the side walls almost adjoined. One very windy night the lawyer was reading a book in his study when a terrific crash upstairs startled him. Upon investigating he found that an unruly chimney had ruthlessly hurled itself through his roof, doing considerable damage. That in itself was a matter of great annoyance, but when he discovered it was the sea-captain's chimney that was responsible, his wrath knew no bounds. Hastening down to his library, he pulled out his law-books and hunted up similar cases, devising and scheming how he could secure satisfaction from the detestable captain. While thus engaged a note arrived from his enemy that read as follows,