The editor of the "Democrat" was an extremely stout person, who sprawled at ease in a battered swivel chair, with his slippered feet thrown across a desk littered with newspapers, clippings, letters, and manuscript.

A file hook was suspended on the wall over his shoulder, and on this it was his habit to impale, by a remarkable twist of body and arm, gems for his hebdomadal journal.

He wrote on a pad held in his ample lap, the paste brush was within easy reach, and once planted on his throne the editor was established for the day.

Bound volumes of the "Congressional Record" in their original wrappers were piled in a corner.

A consular report, folded in half, was thrust under the editor's right thigh, easly accessible in ferocious moments when he indulged himself in the felicity of slaughtering the roaches with which the place swarmed.