the available
field. They do not begin to cover it.... Did you say something, Mr.
Banneker?"

"Did I? I didn't mean to," said Banneker hastily. "I'm a good deal
interested."

"I'm glad to hear that," returned Marrineal with gravity. "After I'd
made my estimate of what the newspapers publish and fail to publish,
I canvassed the circulation lists and news-stands and made another
discovery. There is a large potential reading public not yet tied up to
any newspaper. It's waiting for the right paper."

"The imputation of amateurishness is retracted, with apologies,"
announced Russell Edmonds.

"Accepted. Though there are amateur areas yet in my mind. I bought The
Patriot."

"Does that represent one of the areas?"

"It represents nothing, thus far, except what it has always represented,
a hand-to-mouth policy and a financial deficit. But what's wrong with it
from your point of view?"

"Cheap and nasty," was the veteran's succinct criticism.

"Any more so than The Sphere? The Sphere's successful."

"Because it plays fair with the main facts. It may gloss 'em up with a
touch of sensationalism, like the oil on a barkeep's hair. But it does
go after the facts, and pretty generally it presents 'em as found. The
Patriot is fakey; clumsy at it, too. Any man arrested with more than
five dollars in his pocket is a millionaire clubman. If Bridget
O'Flaherty jumps off Brooklyn Bridge, she becomes a prominent society
woman with picture (hers or somebody else's) in The Patriot. And the
cheapest little chorus-girl tart, who blackmails a broker's clerk with a
breach of promise, gets herself called a 'distinguished actress' and him
a 'well-known financier.' Why steal the Police Gazette's rouge and
lip-stick?"

"Because it's what the readers want."

"All right. But at least give it to 'em well done. And cut out the
printing of wild rumors as news. That doesn't get a paper anything in
the long run. None of your readers have any faith in The Patriot."

"Does any paper have the confidence of its public?" returned Marrineal.

Touched upon a sensitive spot, Edmonds cursed briefly. "If it hasn't,
it's because the public has a dam'-fool fad for pretending it doesn't
believe what it reads. Of course it believes it! Otherwise, how would
it know who's president, or that the market sagged yesterday? This
'I-never-believe-what-I-read-in-the-papers' guff makes me sick to the
tips of my toes."

"Only the man who knows newspapers from the