The Third Circle

THE THIRD CIRCLE
FRANK NORRIS
AUTHOR OF THE PIT, THE OCTOPUS, ETC.
INTRODUCTION BY
WILL IRWIN
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY 1909
CHEAP EDITION
Printed from electrotype plates by Butler & Tanner, Frome and London.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
It used to be my duty, as sub editor of the old San Francisco Wave , to put the paper to bed. We were printing a Seattle edition in those days of the Alaskan gold rush; and the last form had to be locked up on Tuesday night, that we might reach the news stands by Friday. Working short-handed, as all small weeklies do, we were everlastingly late with copy or illustrations or advertisements; and that Tuesday usually stretched itself out into Wednesday. Most often, indeed, the foreman and I pounded the last quoin into place at four or five o'clock Wednesday morning and went home with the milk-wagons—to rise at noon and start next week's paper going.
For Yelton, most patient and cheerful of foremen, those Tuesday night sessions meant steady work. I, for my part, had only to confer with him now and then on a Caption or to run over a late proof. In the heavy intervals of waiting, I killed time and gained instruction by reading the back files of the Wave , and especially that part of the files which preserved the early, prentice work of Frank Norris.