113
  14.  Sunday.  A dismal and persistently wet
day.     Wrote to Alf.
  {From the 15th Monday       To the Office each day
to the 20th Saturday}       as usual.   I do now, in
part, �let go my opinion, hold it no longer�� as to the
management of the paper, and suppose it to be just as
its projector wishes, and that he has some ulterior
purpose or backers in a pecuniary sense.     Forbes
knows no more than I, and is probably engaged as
an ostensible authority, Russell not wishing � as he
intimated on my engagement � to appear openly in connec-
tion with the paper. (He has other offices in the
building and is  said to be engaged, largely in the
telegraphing business.     These rooms, we newspaper
employees don�t go in)         The printers are all Eng-
lishmen, the foreman�s name appearing as publisher
of the paper.       The Colonel contributes about one
article per week � generally on Italian affairs � which
I think Russell lets go in to please him rather than
considering it of importance.      Forbes too fusses round
generally, entering rooms like a tornado, always lea-
ving doors open, interrupting my proof-reading and
exasperating the printers � whom Seares (the foreman)
fears will insult him some of these days.         He (the
Colonel) will stop the press to have a word changed
from Italics into small caps.       Withal he is good humo-
red and simple-hearted as a boy, though very authorita-
tive.      One day this week he got talking of his Ita-