Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/221



HEN Miss Van Dyke joined the staff of the "Evening Globe," the men of that small but ably conducted sheet bestowed on her a due amount of critical observation. After cursory but thorough consideration of her appearance and manner, they decided that she "was all right," as Matthews, the political editor, elegantly put it. That important point being settled, they proceeded to waste a great deal of their time at her desk, telling her about their wives or sweethearts and their personal affairs. This retarded her work and annoyed the managing editor; but it gave her a sweet sense of good-fellowship with her associates, and made her very happy. As she was fully twenty-three, she gave the younger reporters much motherly advice, which they immediately forgot, and assumed the rôle of sister to several of the older ones. On the very rare occasions when she worked late at the office, one of her