e.

Your big papers pride themselves on their brevity, except in murder
cases, and I understand that almost every New York editor thinks he
could boil the story of the Creation down into less than the six hundred
words which the Bible wasted on it. But Editor Ayers could give all your
editors instructions in this kind of economy. If the Creation had
happened around Homeburg while he was on the job, he would have called
attention to it the next week about as follows:

"We understand there was a creation in these parts during the last week.
We did not learn the particulars but those who were on the ground at the
time say that it was a successful affair, and that the new world is
doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances."

Ayers would write it this way for two reasons. In the first place he
hates to write more than one paragraph. Coming after a hard day's work
collecting bills and chasing subscribers, it is a wearing effort.
Nothing gets much space in the _Democrat_ except obituaries and
marriages, and they are all contributed--the former by the relatives and
the latter by the minister. In the second place, there wouldn't be any
use of wasting a lot of space on a big item because by the time the
_Democrat_ comes out, everybody knows all about it, and the mere facts
would be stale and unimportant beside the superstructure of soaring
fancy which has been built up by the easy-running imaginations of our
chief news dispensers on the street corners. And so, when the creamery
burns down or the evening fast freight runs through an accommodation on
the crossing, the old man puts his duty off until the last minute and
then writes a few well-chosen lines merely to let us know that he is on
the job and lets no news escape him. When you are running a weekly
paper, your competitors in the news business are the talkers in the town
who mingle seven days a week and issue a hundred thrilling extras to
their fellow citizens before your press day comes around.

Besides, as I have said, old man Ayers can't afford to waste much time
chasing news. He has to get a living for himself as well as for the
_Democrat_, and keeping both his family and the paper alive is a
distinct feat performed weekly. His pay-roll for a foreman and two
girls must amount to over fifteen dollars a week, and that means cold
solid cash which must be wrung from a reluctant public. Seems to me I
never go into a store that I don't see old man Ayers tryi