Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/128

 how Newman Flower became a Cassellite. He soon demonstrated that he was a man after my own heart. Quietly but effectively he unravelled tangled skeins; he submitted new propositions; he turned failures into successes; and in due course Newman Flower became our Chief Editor, and later a valued member of the Board of Directors. There are two familiar lines written by a comparatively unknown poet named Chalmers:

"But Newman Flower has done better than that, for he has wiped out the losses on the roundabouts and added to the profits on the swings."

Mr. Flower's first charge was the Penny Magazine; later he took control of other periodicals. He went from strength to strength, and in 1919 he received the responsible appointment of Literary Director.

Other changes in the personnel may be briefly noted. Mr. E. J. Golding became secretary to the Company in 1906 in succession to Mr. Woods, and in the same year Mr. D. G. Milne became printing manager. In 1908 Mr. Cross was succeeded in the Publicity Department by Mr. Robb Lawson, who left ten years later to take up cinema publicity work. The office is now filled by Mr. Walter Haydon. It may be added that the Production Department, one of the vital organs of the business, has long been conducted by Mr. W. H. Mellor. It furnishes estimates of costs, is responsible for the quality of the work produced, and for carrying it out according to programme. Its head has been humorously described by Mr. Max Pemberton: "Armed," he says, "with a foot rule, a number of blue pencils, a Whitaker's almanack, and the 'Lives of the Popes,' to which was invariably added a most pleasant smile, Mr. Mellor demonstrated to a tick the impossibility of selling a penny for three farthings; in other words he was the Wizard of the Costs and Production Cave."