Well, and what was the sequel to all this?  Why, to sum up what remains to be told, in a few words; only two hundred dollars out of the sixteen hundred were collected, and from those who had paid small trifles in advance, I received dozens of letters, couched in the most offensive terms.  Some charged me with being a swindler, and said, if I didn’t immediately send the money overpaid, or some other paper in the place of mine, they would publish me to the world.  Others said they would be in the city at a certain time and require me to refund; while many, residing on the spot, took out their money’s worth, by telling me to my face what they thought of my conduct.  One man issued a warrant against me for thirty-five cents, the sum overpaid by him.

So much for my experience in starting a newspaper.  A year and a half before, I had a clerkship which brought me in seven hundred dollars a year; was easy in mind, respected by all my friends, looked upon as an honest man by every one who knew me, and out of debt.  I started a newspaper in a moment of blind infatuation, and now I owed above three thousand dollars, my good name was gone, and I was dispirited, out of employment, afraid to walk the street lest I should encounter some one I owed, and as wretched as a man could well be.  I soon after left the city, and sought employment hundreds of miles away.  So much for my experience in starting a newspaper.

THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS.

“Do not go out to-night, Amanda.  The pavements are damp, and the air is loaded with vapour.”

“Indeed, ma, I must go.”

“Amanda, there is no necessity for your attending this party; and very urgent reasons why you should stay at home.  Your cough is still troublesome, and a little exposure might give it permanency.  You know that from your father you inherit a predisposition to disease of the lungs.”

“You only say that to alarm me.”

“Not so, my child; I know your constitution, and know how fatally the exposure of a night like this may affect you.”

“But I’ll wrap up warmly, and put on my India rubbers.”

“A necessary precaution, if you will go out, Amanda.  But I wish I could persuade you to be guided by me.  You know that the Bible says, the way of transgressors is hard.”

“I don’t know how you will apply that to me, ma.  I am transgressing no law of divine appointment.”

“Be not sure of that, Amanda.”

“I do not understand you, ma.”

“I will try and make my meaning clear.  In our creation, as organized beings, we were so constituted as to bear a certain relation to every thing around us, and our bodily health was made dependent upon this relation.  Here then, we have a law of health, which may be called a divine law—­for there is nothing good that does not flow from the Divine Creator.  If we violate this law, we become transgressors, and shall certainly prove the way we have chosen, in so doing, to be a hard one.”