Page:Lynch Williams--The stolen story and other newspaper stories.djvu/267

 side of life he came in contact with, he also saw plenty of the normal side in his business, or after office-hours, at least.

But the reporter had little to do with anyhing normal, because his job was to hunt and handle The News, which means the interesting, the unusual, surprising, shocking, remarkable, wonderful, wicked, horrible—not the commonplace, the expected, the normal.

He had very little to do with the ninety-nine worthy ministers of the gospel who were neither spectacular preachers jumping at a chance to be interviewed and advertised, nor puppet-like little curates with absurd voices and lady-like manners. He had very little to do with their solid church pillars who did not fall. He had very little to do with the parish's ninety-nine nice little married couples that did not get tired of each other.

The Day was no yellow journal, but it was not conducted for fun. It published what the intelligent classes of a great city would buy. This did not include such items as "John Smith is still living in peace and