with some curiosity of literature such as the "reverse"-- "Lewd did I live & evil I did dwel," or a fresh conundrum or joke, with all his heart and soul full of it, and he would be as delighted over the proof as if to see himself in print was a startling novelty. We two had "beautiful times" over that column, for there was a great deal of "boy" still left in Barnum; nor was I by any means deficient in it. One thing I set my face against firmly: I never would in any way whatever write up, aid, or advertise the great show or museum, or cry up the elephant. I was resolved to leave the paper first. On that humorous column Barnum always deferred to me, even as a small school-boy defers to an elder on the question of a game of marbles or hop- scotch. There was no affectation or play in it; we were both quite in earnest. I think I see him now, coming smiling in like a harvest-moon, big with some new joke, and then we sat down at the desk and "edited." How we would sit and mutually and admiringly read to one another our beautiful "good things," the world forgetting, by the world forgot! And yet I declare that never till this instant did the great joke of it all ever occur to me--that two men of our experiences could be so simply pleased! Those humorous columns, collected and republished in a book, might truly bear on the title-page, "By Barnum and Hans Breitmann." And we were both of the opinion that it really would make a very nice book indeed. We were indeed both "boys" over it at play. The entire American press expected, as a matter of course, that the _Illustrated News_ would be simply an advertisement for the great showman, and, as I represented to Mr. Barnum, this would ere long utterly ruin the publication. I do not now really know whether I was quite right in this, but it is very much to Mr. Barnum's credit that he never insisted on it, and that in his own paper he was conspicuous by his absence. And here I will say that, measured by the highest and most refined standard, there was more of the gentleman in Phineas T. Barnum than the world imagined, and very much more than there was in a certain young man in good society who once expressed in my hearing disgust at the idea of even speaking to "the showman." Henry Ward Beecher was a great friend of Barnum and the Beaches, of which some one wrote-- "No wonder Mr. Alfred Beach Prefers, as noblest preacher, A man who is not only Beach, But even more so--Beecher." He came very frequently into our office; but I cannot recall any saying of his worth recording. There was also a brother of H. W. Longfellow, a clergyman, who often visited me, of whom I retain a most agreeable recollection. The newsboys who clustered round the outer door were divided in opinion as to me. One party thought I was Mr. Barnum, and treated me with profound respect. The other faction cried aloud after me, "Hy! you --- ---!"