“And ‘Mr. Flynn Owes You a Yacht Ride’ is of the same order, I suppose.”

“Yes.  If it had been practicable, I’d have had some insets with that:  a picture of Flynn, a cut of his new million-dollar yacht, and a table showing the twenty per cent dividends that the City Illuminating Company pays by over-taxing Jones on his lighting and heating.  That would almost tell the story without comment.”

“I see.  Still making it easy for them to read.”

Marrineal ran over a number of other captions, sensational, personal, invocative, and always provocative:  “Man, Why Hasn’t Your Wife Divorced You?” “John L. Sullivan, the Great Unknown.”  “Why Has the Ornithorhyncus Got a Beak?” “If You Must Sell Your Vote, Ask a Fair Price For It.”  “Mustn’t Play, You Kiddies:  It’s a Crime:  Ask Judge Croban.”  “Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Christ; All Dead, But—!!!” “The Inventor of Goose-Plucking Was the First Politician.  They’re At It Yet.”  “How Much Would You Pay a Man to Think For You?” “Air Doesn’t Cost Much:  Have You Got Enough to Breathe?”

“All this,” said the owner of The Patriot, “is taken from what people talk and think about?”

“Yes.”

“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.”

“Then you’re aiming at the weak-minded?”

“At anybody who can assimilate simple ideas plainly expressed,” declared the other positively.  “There ought to be four million of ’em within reaching distance of The Patriot’s presses.”

“Your proposition—­though you haven’t made any as yet—­is that we lead our editorial page daily with matter such as this.  Am I correct?”

“No.  Make a clean sweep of the present editorials.  Substitute mine.  One a day will be quite enough for their minds to work on.”