"But you are a genius!" exclaimed the editor, surprised into enthusiasm.
"As for the rest of the pictures," said the applicant, "I have perhaps peculiar views, but I hold that they ought to be photographs of Members of Parliament walking to or from the House of Commons, a profoundly interesting phase of modern life too little touched upon; photographs of the fiancées of soldiers, of whom it does not matter if no one had ever heard before, engagements being of the highest importance, especially at a time when marriage is a state duty. So much for the staple of the picture-page, which I trust you do not consider too daring."
"Daring, perhaps," said the editor, "but not excessively so, and one must be both nowadays. One must innovate."
"And then," pursued the youth, "for padding—though padding of course only to the experts, not to the great hungry asinine public—anything can be rendered serviceable provided that the words beneath are adroit enough. Thus, a view of Westminster Abbey would be 'The architectural jewel of England which the Zeppelins have in vain tried to bomb'; a view of Victoria Station, 'The terminus at which every day and night, thousands of homing Tommies are welcomed'; any picture of a dog or cat or canary or parrot would bear a legend to the effect that all our brave lads love pets and are never so happy as when accompanied by a favourite animal; while any maritime scene would be certainly related to a recent submarine outrage, the Almighty in His infinite wisdom and prevision having made all expanses of ocean look alike."
"You are certainly," said the editor, "a very original and enterprising young man and I have great pleasure in engaging you to enrich our sheet."
But when the paper came out the picture page was found to differ in no single respect from the other picture pages in the other dailies.
LITERARY REPRISALS.
Nearly three years ago Mr. E. C. Bentley wrote an excellent detective story called Trent's Last Case. We now see amongst the latest literary announcements, Bentley's Conscience, by Paul Trent.
This retaliation prepares us for a whole series of recriminatory works of fiction. Among those shortly to be expected are the following:—