AS COMMISSIONER TO SANTO DOMINGO -1871 503 



shown us one rather curious detail. Not long before our 

 visit, the legislature had been abolished and the island 

 had been made a crown colony ruled by a royal governor 

 and council ; therefore it was that, there being no further 

 use for it, the gorgeous chair of "Mr. Speaker," a huge 

 construction apparently of carved oak, had been trans- 

 ferred to her ladyship's drawing-room, and we were in- 

 formed that in this she received her guests. 



From Kingston we came to Key West, and from that 

 point to Charleston, where, as our frigate was too large to 

 cross the bar, we were taken off, and thence reached Wash- 

 ington by rail. 



One detail regarding those latter days of our commis- 

 sion is perhaps worthy of record as throwing light on a 

 seamy side of American life. From first to last we had 

 shown every possible civility to the representatives of the 

 press who had accompanied us on the frigate, constantly 

 taking them with us in Santo Domingo and elsewhere, 

 and giving them every facility for collecting information. 

 But from time to time things occurred which threw a new 

 and somewhat unpleasant light on the way misinformation 

 is liberally purveyed to the American public. One day 

 one of these gentlemen, the representative of a leading 

 New York daily, talking with me of the sort of news his 

 paper required, said, "The managers of our paper don't 

 care for serious information, such as particulars regarding 

 the country we visit, its inhabitants, etc., etc. ; what they 

 want, above all, is something of a personal nature, such as 

 a quarrel or squabble, and when one occurs they expect us 

 to make the most of it. ' ' 



I thought no more of this until I arrived at Port-au- 

 Prince, where I found that this gentleman had suddenly 

 taken the mail-steamer for New York on the plea of ur- 

 gent business. The real cause of his departure was soon 

 apparent. His letters to the paper he served now began 

 to come back to us, and it was found that he had exer- 

 cised his imagination vigorously. He had presented a 

 mass of sensational inventions, but his genius had been 



