Page:Chronicles of Clovis - Saki.djvu/281

 the Angel-proprietor of the "Evening Views," the principal rival evening halfpenny paper, who forthwith issued an ukase decreeing a similar ban on betting news, and in a short while the regular evening press was purged of all mention of starting prices and probable winners. A considerable drop in the circulation of all these papers was the immediate result, accompanied, of course, by a falling off in advertisement value, while a crop of special betting broadsheets sprang up to supply the newly-created want. Under their influence the betting habit became if anything rather more widely diffused than before. The Duke had possibly overlooked the futility of koepenicking the leaders of the nation with excellently-intentioned angel understudies, while leaving the mass of the people in its original condition.

Further sensation and dislocation was caused in the press world by the sudden and dramatic rapprochement which took place between the Angel-Editor of the "Scrutator" and the Angel-Editor of the "Anglian Review," who not only ceased to criticise and disparage the tone and tendencies of each others' publication, but agreed to exchange editorships for