“I bought the Enterprise, and could hardly believe my eyes,” said he, “but I always thought you would find some one to appreciate your pluck. I’m mighty glad for you, my lad, and you must always let me know how you are getting along.” This Archie promised to do, and returned to his lodging to sleep.
The next morning he was on hand at the Enterprise office before the editor himself was down. The place was quite as fascinating as it had been on the preceding day, and he found something new to look at every minute. The reporters at their desks, several of whom introduced themselves and congratulated Archie on his perseverance, were a source of great interest to him, and the copy-boys, running here and there with special copy for the first edition, gave an air of hustling activity to the place that was very attractive to this new reporter.
When the editor came he had already thought of something for Archie to do. “Now you’ve been introduced to the public,” he said, “and we want to feature you for a few days. Every one will be interested in knowing what you are doing, and what is going to become of you. You must write us an article for the paper to-day, telling about your experiences since yesterday, about getting a new suit, and about hunting for a room. And you can tell about your policeman friend, too.”
This was surprising. Archie couldn’t imagine why any one should be interested in knowing about his daily life, but he sat down and succeeded in writing a very interesting two columns about it. He was much surprised that he should be able to write so easily and so well. Of course he knew that composition and rhetoric had been his two strongest studies at school, but he had never realised before that he had any great talent for writing. When he had finished this article, the editor looked it over, and said, “That’s great. You’re all right, my boy. We’ll make a great journalist of you yet,” and of course this made Archie very happy. “Wait until this story is set up,” said Mr. Jennings, the editor, “and I’ll see what you can do in the way of correcting proofs.”
When the proofs came, in a very short time, he hardly knew what to do with them. But in reading them he discovered several mistakes, which he lost no time in correcting, and Mr. Jennings said that he had done very well indeed. “Now you can spend the day in doing what you please. I would suggest that you go about New York and have as many strange experiences as possible, so that to-morrow you can write them up for us. And it will pay you, by the way, to go out to Coney Island, which is a different place from any you have seen before. You are sure to see some unusual things, and in the morning you can bring me in two columns about it.”
Before leaving, Archie was asked if he needed any money. “You mustn’t hesitate to ask for it, because you can have it as well to-day as on Saturday.” But as he had left several dollars of the thirty he had received the day before, Archie didn’t draw any more, and he thought it most remarkable that the editor should have so much money to pay out.
He had no difficulty in getting a trolley-car to Coney Island, and, after an hour’s riding through Brooklyn streets, he found himself in the most unique and most delightful place imaginable, It was a queer-looking town, with great wheels in the air, high towers, with elevators and innumerable merry-go-rounds, and other sources of amusement. The noise was something terrific. Hand-organs, street-pianos, and German bands were all playing at the same time, while people hurried about from one place to another, enjoying the hundreds of games and riding the various scenic railways and carrousels. Archie stood mute with delight at it all, but before five minutes had passed he had shot the chutes, and had ridden over a steeplechase which took him through dark caverns, where dragons glared at him and where electrical sparks were constantly flying through the air. It was all so new, so different from anything he had seen before, that he was simply lost in admiration. He was standing near a theatre, when a short, dark man touched him on the arm, and said, “Come this way, young man, and I’ll teach you the best game of all.”
CHAPTER XI.
A DAY AND A NIGHT IN CONEY ISLAND—RAIDING A GAMBLING DEN.