“But,” I replied, rather hotly, “I should appeal for justice to the public through the newspapers.”

“The newspapers!” he said, and his face darkened as he spoke; “the newspapers are simply the hired mouthpieces of power; the devil’s advocates of modern civilization; their influence is always at the service of the highest bidder; it is their duty to suppress or pervert the truth, and they do it thoroughly.  They are paid to mislead the people under the guise of defending them.  A century ago this thing began, and it has gone on, growing worse and worse, until now the people laugh at the opinions of the press, and doubt the truth even of its reports of occurrences.”

“Can this be possible?” I said.

“Let me demonstrate it to you,” he replied, and, stepping to the wall, he spoke quietly into a telephone tube, of which there were a number ranged upon the wall, and said: 

“Give me the particulars of the whipping of Prince Cabano’s coachman, this afternoon, at the south gate of Central Park.”

Almost immediately a bell rang, and on the opposite wall, in What I had supposed to be a mirror, appeared these words: 

From the Evening Guardian:

A horrible outrage!

Highway robbery!—­One thousand dollars reward!

This afternoon, about three o’clock, an event transpired at
the south gate of Central Park which shows the turbulent
and vicious

spirit of the lower classes, and reinforces the demand we
have so often made for repressive measures and a stronger
government.

As the carriage of our honored fellow-citizen Prince Cabano, containing two ladies, members of his family, was quietly entering the Park, a tall, powerful ruffian, apparently a stranger, with long yellow hair, reaching to his shoulders, suddenly grasped a valuable gold-mounted whip out of the hands of the driver, and, because he resisted the robbery, beat him across the face, inflicting very severe wounds.  The horses became very much terrified, and but for the fact that two worthy men, John Henderson of 5222 Delavan Street, and William Brooks of 7322 Bismarck Street, seized them by the head, a terrible accident would undoubtedly have occurred.  Policeman number B 17822 took the villain prisoner, but he knocked the guardian of the law down and escaped, accompanied by a ragged old fellow who seemed to have been his accomplice.  It is believed that the purpose of the thieves was to rob the occupants of the carriage, as the taller one approached the ladies, but just then his companion saw the policeman coming and gave him warning, and they fled together.  Prince Cabano is naturally very much incensed at this outrage, and has offered a reward of one thousand dollars for the apprehension of either of the ruffians.  They have been tracked for a considerable distance by the detectives; but after