“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.”