It was charged that I had used my reputation to play a swindle upon the public; that Mr.
Warner had written as much as half of the book, and that I had used my name to float it and give it currency; a currency--so the critic averred--which it could not have acquired without my name, and that this conduct of mine was a grave fraud upon the people.

The "Graphic" was not an authority upon any subject whatever.

It had a sort of distinction, in that it was the first and only illustrated daily newspaper that the world had seen; but it was without character; it was poorly and cheaply edited; its opinion of a book or of any other work of art was of no consequence.

Everybody knew this, yet all the critics in America, one after the other, copied the "Graphic's" criticism, merely changing the phraseology, and left me under that charge of dishonest conduct.

Even the great Chicago "Tribune," the most important journal in the Middle West, was not able to invent anything fresh, but adopted the view of the humble "Daily Graphic," dishonesty-charge and all.
However, let it go.