"Then give me that pad and pencil." He rapidly dashed off a note to H.
Fisbee:
"September 5th.
"H. FISBEE, "Editor 'Carlow Herald.'
"Dear Sir: You have not acknowledged my letter of the 2d September by
a note (which should have reached me the following morning), or by the
alteration in the tenor of my columns which I requested, or by the
publication of the McCune papers which I directed. In this I hold you
grossly at fault. If you have a conscientious reason for refusing to carry
out my request it should have been communicated to me at once, as should
the fact--if such be the case--that you are a personal (or impersonal, if
you like) friend of Mr. Rodney McCune. Whatever the motive, ulterior or
otherwise, which prevents you from operating my paper as I direct, I
should have been informed of it. This is a matter vital to the interests
of our community, and you have hitherto shown yourself too alert in
accepting my slightest suggestion for me to construe this failure as
negligence. Negligence I might esteem as at least honest and frank; your
course has been neither the one nor the other.
"You will receive this letter by seven this evening by special delivery.
You will print the facts concerning McCune in to-morrow morning's paper.
"I am well aware of the obligations under which your extreme efficiency
and your thoughtfulness in many matters have placed me. It is to you I owe
my unearned profits from the transaction in oil, and it is to you I owe
the 'Herald's' extraordinary present circulation, growth of power and
influence. That power is still under my direction, and is an added
responsibility which shall not be misapplied.
"You must forgive me if I write too sharply. You see I have failed to
understand your silence; and if I wrong you I heartily ask your pardon in
advance of your explanation. Is it that you are sorry for McCune? It would
be a weak pity that could keep you to silence. I warned him long ago that
the papers you hold would be published if he ever tried to return to
political life, and he is deliberately counting on my physical weakness
and absence. Let him rely upon it; I am not so weak as he thinks.
Personally, I cannot say that I dislike Mr. McCune. I have found him a
very entertaining fellow; it is said he is the best of husbands, and a
friend to some of his friends, and, believe me, I am sorry for him from
the bottom of my heart. But the 'Herald' is not.