Thiéblin, who was of French blood, was born in St. Petersburg in 1834. He was graduated at the Russian Imperial Academy of Artillery, and commanded forty pieces of cannon at the siege of Sebastopol. At the close of the Crimean War he went to London and became a member of the staff of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, reporting for that journal the French side of the war with Germany in 1870–71, and the atrocities of the Commune, over the pen-name of “Azamet Batuk.” He reported the Carlist War in Spain for the New York _Herald_, and then came to America to lecture, but Dana persuaded him to join the _Sun_ staff. He contributed to the _Sun_ many articles on foreign affairs, including a series on European journalism; “The Stranger’s Note-Book,” which was made up of New York sketches; letters from the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia; and the Wall Street letters signed “Rigolo.” In the “Sunbeams” column were crowded the vagrant wit and wisdom of the world. The items concerned everything from great men in European chancelleries to organ-grinders in Nassau Street: The mules are all dying in Arkansas. A printer in Texas has named his first-born Brevier Fullfaced Jones. Real estate is looking up at New Orleans. Translations from Hawthorne are becoming popular in France. Venison costs six cents a pound in St. Paul. Queen Victoria says every third woman in Cork is a beauty. Goldwin Smith is coming to the United States. The Pope denounces short dresses. The same terseness is seen in the “Footlight Flashes,” begun in 1876: Clara Morris takes her lap-dog out for a daily drive. Miss Claxton is meeting with indifferent success in “Conscience.” Not less than $30,000 was spent last evening in the theatres of New York. John T. Raymond drew excellent houses as _Colonel Sellers_ at the Brooklyn Theatre. For the term of their appearance in “King Lear,” Lawrence Barrett will receive $1,200 a week; E. E. Sheridan, $1,000; Frederick B. Warde, $500. The interview, invented by the elder Bennett, was becoming more and more popular. The _Sun_ used it, not only as the vehicle of acquired information, but sometimes as the envelope of humour. Take, for example, this bit, printed in 1875, but as fresh in style and spirit as if it were of the product of a reporter of 1918: INTERVIEWING VANDERBILT ANOTHER REPORTER COMES AWAY FREIGHTED WITH VALUABLE INFORMATION Commodore Vanderbilt was eighty-one years old yesterday. He spent the day in his Fourth Avenue offices, taking his usual drive in the afternoon. A _Sun_ reporter visited him in the evening to inquire about a favorable time for selling a few thousands of New York Central. “This,” said the commodore, slowly and solemnly, as he entered the drawing-room, “is my birthday.” “Indeed!” said the reporter. “Do you think the preferred stock----”