“From our newspapers, I guess; and the newspapers take as the ground-work of their belief the Bow Street cases where Englishmen are cornered for beating their wives.”
“Suppose we were to judge of American Society by the cases in a Chicago Divorce Court?”
“There you have me on toast. That’s what comes of having a husband who takes American papers. Mind you, I haven’t any idea that the American papers are right. I’ve had a lot to do with newspapers, and they are pretty ignorant, I can tell you—cheap all round. What’s a newspaper, anyway, but an editor, more or less smart and overworked, with an owner behind him who has got some game on hand? I know: I’ve been there.”
“How have you ‘been there’?”
“I’ve owned four big papers all at once, and had fifty others under my thumb.”
Lady Lawless caught her breath; but she believed him. “You must be very rich.”
“Owning newspapers doesn’t mean riches. It’s a lever, though, for tipping the dollars your way.”
“I suppose they have—tipped your way?”
“Yes: pretty well. But, don’t follow this lead any farther, Lady Lawless, or you may come across something that will give you a start. I should like to keep on speaking terms with you.”
“You mean that a man cannot hold fifty newspapers under his thumb, and live in the glare of a search-light also?”