"No trouble to show goods," Banneker said, unclasping the suitcase. He preferred to keep the talk in light tone until his time came. From the case he extracted two close-packed piles of news-print, folded in half.

"Coals to Newcastle," smiled Marrineal. "These seem to be copies of The Patriot."

"Not exact copies. Try this one." Selecting an issue at random he passed it to the other.

Marrineal went into it carefully, turning from the front page to the inside, and again farther in the interior, without comment. Nor did he speak at once when he came to the editorial page. But he glanced up at Banneker before settling down to read.

"Very interesting," he said presently, in a non-committal manner. "Have you more?"

Silently Banneker transferred to the table-top the remainder of the suitcase's contents. Choosing half a dozen at random, Marrineal turned each inside out and studied the editorial columns. His expression did not in any degree alter.

"You have had these editorials set up in type to suit yourself, I take it," he observed after twenty minutes of perusal; "and have pasted them into the paper."

"Exactly."

"Why the double-column measure?"

"More attractive to the eye. It stands out."

"And the heavy type for the same reason?"

"Yes. I want to make 'em just as easy to read as possible."

"They're easy to read," admitted the other. "Are they all yours?"

"Mine--and others'."

Marrineal looked a bland question. Banneker answered it.

"I've been up and down in the highways and the low-ways, Mr. Marrineal, taking those editorials from the speech of the ordinary folk who talk about their troubles and their pleasures."

"I see. Straight from the throbbing heart of the people.

Jones-in-the-street-car."

"And Mrs. Jones. Don't forget her. She'll read 'em."

"If she doesn't, it won't be because they don't bid for her interest.

Here's this one, 'Better Cooking Means Better Husbands: Try It.' That's the _argumentum ad feminam_ with a vengeance."

"Yes. I picked that up from a fat old party who was advising a thin young wife at a fish-stall. 'Give'm his food _right_ an' he'll come home to it, 'stid o' workin' the free lunch.'"

"Here are two on the drink question. 'Next Time Ask the Barkeep Why _He_ Doesn't Drink,' and, 'Mighty Elephants Like Rum--and Are Chained Slaves.'"

"You'll find more moralizing on booze if you look farther. It's one of the subjects they talk most about."

"'The Sardine is Dead: Therefore More Comfortable Than You, Mr.

Straphanger,'" read Marrineal.

"Go up in the rush-hour L any day and you'll hear that editorial with trimmings."

"And 'Mr. Flynn Owes You a Yacht Ride' is of the same order, I suppose."

"Yes. If it had been practicable, I'd have had some insets with that: a picture of Flynn, a cut of his new million-dollar yacht, and a table showing the twenty per cent dividends that the City Illuminating Company pays by over-taxing Jones on his lighting and heating. That would almost tell the story without comment."

"I see. Still making it easy for them to read."

Marrineal ran over a number of other captions, sensational, personal, invocative, and always provocative: "Man, Why Hasn't Your Wife Divorced You?" "John L. Sullivan, the Great Unknown." "Why Has the Ornithorhyncus Got a Beak?" "If You Must Sell Your Vote, Ask a Fair Price For It."

"Mustn't Play, You Kiddies: It's a Crime: Ask Judge Croban." "Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Christ; All Dead, But--!!!" "The Inventor of Goose-Plucking Was the First Politician. They're At It Yet." "How Much Would You Pay a Man to Think For You?" "Air Doesn't Cost Much: Have You Got Enough to Breathe?"

"All this," said the owner of The Patriot, "is taken from what people talk and think about?"

"Yes."

"Doesn't some of it reach out into the realm of what Mr. Banneker thinks they _ought_ to talk and think about?"

Banneker laughed. "Discovered! Oh, I won't pretend but what I propose to teach 'em thinking."

"If you can do that and make them think our way--"

"'Give me place for my fulcrum,' said Archimedes."

"But that's an editorial you won't write very soon. One more detail.

You've thrown up words and phrases into capital letters all through for emphasis. I doubt whether that will do."

"Why not?"

"Haven't you shattered enough traditions without that? The public doesn't want to be taught with a pointer. I'm afraid that's rather too much of an innovation."

"No innovation at all. In fact, it's adapted plagiarism."

"From what?"

"Harper's Monthly of the seventy's. I used to have some odd volumes in my little library. There was a department of funny anecdote; and the point of every joke, lest some obtuse reader should overlook it, was printed in italics. That," chuckled Banneker, "was in the days when we used to twit the English with lacking a sense of humor. However, the method has its advantages. It's fool-proof. Therefore I helped myself to it."

"Then you're aiming at the weak-minded?"

"At anybody who can assimilate simple ideas plainly expressed," declared the other positively. "There ought to be four million of 'em within reaching distance of The Patriot's presses."

"Your proposition--though you haven't made any as yet--is that we lead our editorial page daily with matter such as this. Am I correct?"

"No. Make a clean sweep of the present editorials. Substitute mine. One a day will be quite enough for their minds to work on."

"But that won't fill the page," objected the proprietor.

"Cartoon. Column of light comment. Letters from readers. That will,"

returned Banneker with severe brevity.

"It might be worth trying," mused Marrineal.