This particular newspaper was, according to its custom and design, an educator, a guide, a monitor, a champion and a household counsellor and vade mecum.
From its many excellencies might be selected three editorials. One was in simple and chaste2 but illuminating3 language directed to parents and teachers, deprecating corporal punishment for children.
Another was an accusive and significant warning addressed to a notorious labour leader who was on the point of instigating4 his clients to a troublesome strike.
The third was an eloquent5 demand that the police force be sustained and aided in everything that tended to increase its efficiency as public guardians6 and servants.
Besides these more important chidings and requisitions upon the store of good citizenship7 was a wise prescription8 or form of procedure laid out by the editor of the heart-to-heart column in the specific case of a young man who had complained of the obduracy9 of his lady love, teaching him how he might win her.
Again, there was, on the beauty page, a complete answer to a young lady inquirer who desired admonition toward the securing of bright eyes, rosy10 cheeks and a beautiful countenance11.
One other item requiring special cognizance was a brief "personal," running thus:
DEAR JACK:—Forgive me. You were right. Meet me corner Madison and ––––th at 8.30 this morning. We leave at noon. PENITENT12.
At 8 o'clock a young man with a haggard look and the feverish13 gleam of unrest in his eye dropped a penny and picked up the top paper as he passed Giuseppi's stand. A sleepless14 night had left him a late riser. There was an office to be reached by nine, and a shave and a hasty cup of coffee to be crowded into the interval15.
He visited his barber shop and then hurried on his way. He pocketed his paper, meditating16 a belated perusal17 of it at the luncheon18 hour. At the next corner it fell from his pocket, carrying with it his pair of new gloves. Three blocks he walked, missed the gloves and turned back fuming19.
Just on the half-hour he reached the corner where lay the gloves and the paper. But he strangely ignored that which he had come to seek. He was holding two little hands as tightly as ever he could and looking into two penitent brown eyes, while joy rioted in his heart.
"Dear Jack," she said, "I knew you would be here on time."
"I wonder what she means by that," he was saying to himself; "but it's all right, it's all right."
A big wind puffed20 out of the west, picked up the paper from the sidewalk, opened it out and sent it flying and whirling down a side street. Up that street was driving a skittish21 bay to a spider-wheel buggy, the young man who had written to the heart-to-heart editor for a recipe that he might win her for whom he sighed.
The wind, with a prankish22 flurry, flapped the flying newspaper against the face of the skittish bay. There was a lengthened23 streak24 of bay mingled25 with the red of running gear that stretched itself out for four blocks. Then a water-hydrant played its part in the cosmogony, the buggy became matchwood as foreordained, and the driver rested very quietly where he had been flung on the asphalt in front of a certain brownstone mansion26.
They came out and had him inside very promptly27. And there was one who made herself a pillow for his head, and cared for no curious eyes, bending over and saying, "Oh, it was you; it was you all the time, Bobby! Couldn't you see it? And if you die, why, so must I, and—"
But in all this wind we must hurry to keep in touch with our paper.
Policeman O'Brine arrested it as a character dangerous to traffic. Straightening its dishevelled leaves with his big, slow fingers, he stood a few feet from the family entrance of the Shandon Bells Café. One headline he spelled out ponderously28: "The Papers to the Front in a Move to Help the Police."
But, whisht! The voice of Danny, the head bartender, through the crack of the door: "Here's a nip for ye, Mike, ould man."
Behind the widespread, amicable29 columns of the press Policeman O'Brine receives swiftly his nip of the real stuff. He moves away, stalwart, refreshed, fortified30, to his duties. Might not the editor man view with pride the early, the spiritual, the literal fruit that had blessed his labours.
Policeman O'Brine folded the paper and poked31 it playfully under the arm of a small boy that was passing. That boy was named Johnny, and he took the paper home with him. His sister was named Gladys, and she had written to the beauty editor of the paper asking for the practicable touchstone of beauty. That was weeks ago, and she had ceased to look for an answer. Gladys was a pale girl, with dull eyes and a discontented expression. She was dressing32 to go up to the avenue to get some braid. Beneath her skirt she pinned two leaves of the paper Johnny had brought. When she walked the rustling33 sound was an exact imitation of the real thing.
On the street she met the Brown girl from the flat below and stopped to talk. The Brown girl turned green. Only silk at $5 a yard could make the sound that she heard when Gladys moved. The Brown girl, consumed by jealousy34, said something spiteful and went her way, with pinched lips.
Gladys proceeded toward the avenue. Her eyes now sparkled like jagerfonteins. A rosy bloom visited her cheeks; a triumphant35, subtle, vivifying, smile transfigured her face. She was beautiful. Could the beauty editor have seen her then! There was something in her answer in the paper, I believe, about cultivating kind feelings toward others in order to make plain features attractive.
The labour leader against whom the paper's solemn and weighty editorial injunction was laid was the father of Gladys and Johnny. He picked up the remains36 of the journal from which Gladys had ravished a cosmetic37 of silken sounds. The editorial did not come under his eye, but instead it was greeted by one of those ingenious and specious38 puzzle problems that enthrall39 alike the simpleton and the sage40.
The labour leader tore off half of the page, provided himself with table, pencil and paper and glued himself to his puzzle.
Three hours later, after waiting vainly for him at the appointed place, other more conservative leaders declared and ruled in favour of arbitration41, and the strike with its attendant dangers was averted42. Subsequent editions of the paper referred, in coloured inks, to the clarion43 tone of its successful denunciation of the labour leader's intended designs.
When Johnny returned from school he sought a secluded45 spot and removed the missing columns from the inside of his clothing, where they had been artfully distributed so as to successfully defend such areas as are generally attacked during scholastic46 castigations47. Johnny attended a private school and had had trouble with his teacher. As has been said, there was an excellent editorial against corporal punishment in that morning's issue, and no doubt it had its effect.
After this can any one doubt the power of the press?
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1
philandered
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| v.调戏，玩弄女性( philander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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3
illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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4
instigating
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| v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的现在分词 ) | |
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eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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7
citizenship
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| n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份) | |
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8
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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obduracy
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| n.冷酷无情，顽固，执拗 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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12
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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14
sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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15
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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16
meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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17
perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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18
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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19
fuming
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| 愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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20
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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21
skittish
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| adj.易激动的，轻佻的 | |
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22
prankish
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| adj.爱开玩笑的，恶作剧的；开玩笑性质的 | |
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23
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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25
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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ponderously
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29
amicable
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| adj.和平的，友好的；友善的 | |
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30
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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31
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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32
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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33
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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34
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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35
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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36
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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cosmetic
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| n.化妆品；adj.化妆用的；装门面的；装饰性的 | |
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38
specious
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| adj.似是而非的；adv.似是而非地 | |
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39
enthrall
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| vt.迷住，吸引住；使感到非常愉快 | |
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40
sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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41
arbitration
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| n.调停，仲裁 | |
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42
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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43
clarion
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| n.尖音小号声；尖音小号 | |
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44
potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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45
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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46
scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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47
castigations
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| n.严厉的责骂、批评或惩罚( castigation的名词复数 ) | |
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