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educed to his last desperate stake. He grew almost haggard over the proposition, and he spent two solid weeks in investigation. He went to Washington to see Jack Starlett, who knew three or four newspaper proprietors in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He obtained introductions to these people and consulted with them, inspected their plants and listened to all they would say; as they liked him, they said much. Ripened considerably by what he had found out he came back home and bought the _Bulletin_. Moreover, he had very definitely made up his mind precisely what to do with it. On the first morning that he walked into the office of that paper as its sole owner and proprietor, he called the managing editor to him and asked: "What, heretofore, has been the politics of this paper?" "Pale yellow jelly," snapped Ben Jolter wrathfully. "Supposed to be anti-Stone, hasn't it been?" Bobby smilingly inquired. "But always perfectly ladylike in what it said about him." "And what are the politics of the employees?" At this Mr. Jolter snorted. "They are good newspaper men, Mr. Burnit," he stated in quick defense; "and a good newspaper man has no politics." Bobby eyed Mr. Jolter with contemplative favor. He was a stout, stockily-built man, with a square head and sparse gray hair that would persist in tangling and curling at the ends; and he perpetually kept his sleeves rolled up over his big arms. "I don't know anything about this business," confessed Bobby, "but I hope to. First of all, I'd like to find out why the _Bulletin_ has no circulation." "The lack of a spinal column," asserted Jolter. "It has had no policy, stood pat on no proposition, and made no aggressive fight on anything." "If I understand what you mean by the word," said Bobby slowly, "the _Bulletin_ is going to have a policy." It was now Mr. Jolter's turn to gaze contemplatively at Bobby. "If you were ten years older I would feel more hopeful about it," he decided bluntly. The young man flushed uncomfortably. He was keenly aware that he had made an ass of himself in business four successive times, and that Jolter knew it. By way of facing the music, however, he showed to his managing editor a letter, left behind with old Johnson for Bobby by the late John Burnit: The mere fact that a man has been foolish four times is no absolute proof that he is a fool; but it's a mighty significant hint. However, Bobby, I'm still betting o
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