To those who are unfamiliar with it, the life in an American newspaper office seems singularly eventful and striking. A friend of mine who visited a sanctum (ours) for the first time, said, as he left, that he had never experienced such an interesting hour in his life. _Firstly_, came our chief city reporter, exulting in the manner in which he had circumvented the police, and, despite all their efforts, got, by ways that were dark, at all the secrets of a brand-new horrible murder. _Secondly_, a messenger with an account of how I, individually, had kicked up the very devil in the City Councils, and set the Mayor to condemning us, by a leader discussing certain municipal abuses. _Thirdly_, another, to tell how I had swept one-half the city by an article exposing its neglect, and how the sweepers and dirt-carts were busy where none had been before for weeks, and how the contractor for cleaning wanted to shoot me. _Fourthly_, a visit from some great dignitary, who put his dignity very much _a l'abri_ in his pocket, to solicit a puff. _Fifthly_, a lady who, having written a very feeble volume of tales which had merely been gently commended in our columns, came round in a rage to shame me by sarcasm, begging me as a parting shot to at least _read_ a few lines of her work. _Sixthly_, a communication from a great New York family, who, having been requested to send a short description of a remarkable wedding-cake, sent me _one hundred and fifty pages_ of minute history of all their ancestors and honours, with strict directions that not a line should be omitted, and the article printed at once most conspicuously. {225} _Seventhly_, . . . but this is a very mild specimen of what went on all the time during office-hours. And on this subject alone I could write a small book. Now, at this time there came about a very great change in my life, or an event which ultimately changed it altogether. My father had, for about two years past, fallen into a very sad state of mind. His large property between Chestnut and Bank Streets paid very badly, and his means became limited. I was seriously alarmed as to his health. My dear mother had become, I may say, paralytic; but, in truth, the physicians could never explain the disorder. To the last she maintained her intellect, and a miraculous cheerfulness unimpaired.