“In comparing the lot of humanity in 1900 and 2000 I came to conclusions very different from yours”, responded Mr. Forest. “You do not mean to say, that the condition of the people of the nineteenth century was better than that of the present generation?” I asked with some curiosity. “That is my opinion”, said Mr. Forest. “The only way I can understand you holding such extraordinary views, is that you are personally quite unacquainted with the civilization of which you speak so highly,” I declared. “I have as a matter of course, drawn my information from our libraries, and I am forced to admit that you can support your argument in regard to the civilization of the last century by pointing to your personal knowledge. But I am afraid that you are not so familiar with the present state of affairs, at the fountain of your information in regard to the twentieth century is only one man, Dr. Leete. I may therefore claim that my information of the civilization of your days is better than yours of our institutions, because mine is based on the testimony of more witnesses than one.” “Then you must of course disapprove the views developed in my lecture?” “Your address will undoubtedly be published in extenso in all the administration organs, that is, in nearly every newspaper in the land”, said Mr. Forest, evading a direct answer to my question. “Administration organs you say”, I asked with surprise: “Has the administration organs, and why does it need them?” “Of course the administration has organs”, answered Forest. “And it is both difficult and unpleasant to edit an opposition paper. Therefore we have only a few of them.” “But Dr. Leete said: “We have no parties or politicians and as for demagoguery and corruption, they are words having only a historical significance.”[5] And yet you speak of opposition and of administration papers?” I said this very likely with an expression of some doubt in my eyes. [5] Page 60. My companion broke into a loud laugh, after which he asked: “Excuse, please, my merriment, but Dr. Leete is a great joker, who never fails to “bring down the house.” Well! Well! That is too good. I wish I could have seen his face when he gave you that information.” And Mr. Forest laughed again. “I beg your pardon, Mr. West”, he continued, when I met his merriment with silence; “but you would not only excuse but share my laughter, if you were familiar with our public life, if you knew Dr. Leete as well as I do and then learned that he had claimed, we were suffering from a want of politicians. But I wish to say right here”, added Mr. Forest in a more composed tone, “that I have not a poor opinion of Dr. Leete. He is a practical joker, a shrewd politician, but otherwise as good a man as our time can produce.” “Dr. Leete is a politician?” I asked in the utmost astonishment.