Vastly less important, but swifter and more definite in results and more popular in effect, was the “Clarion’s” anti-hat-check campaign.  The Stickler, Worthington’s newest hotel, had established a coat-room with the usual corps of girl-bandits, waiting to strip every patron of his outer garments before admitting him to the restaurant, and returning them only upon the blackmail of a tip.  All the other good restaurants had followed suit.  Worthington resented it, as it resented most innovations; but endured the imposition, for lack of solidarity, until the “Clarion” took up the subject in a series of paragraphs.

“Do you think,” blandly inquired the editorial roosters, “that when you tip the hat-check girl she gets the tip?  She doesn’t.  It goes to a man who rents from the restaurant the privilege of bullying you out of a dime or a quarter.  The girl holds you up, because if she doesn’t extort fifteen dollars a week, she loses her job and her own munificent wages of seven dollars.  The ‘Clarion’ takes pleasure in announcing a series of portraits of the high-minded pirates of finance whom you support in luxury, when you ‘give up’ to the check-girl.  Our first portrait, ladies and gentlemen, is that of Mr. Abe Hotzenmuller, race-track bookmaker and whiskey agent, who, in the intervals of these more reputable occupations, extracts alms from the patrons of the Hotel Stickler.”

Next in line was “Shirty” MacDonough, a minor politician, “appropriately framed in silver dimes,” as the “Clarion” put it.  He was followed by Eddie Perkins, proprietor of a dubious resort on Mail Street.  By this time coat-room franchises had suffered a severe depreciation.  They dropped almost to zero when the newspaper, having clinched the lesson home with its “Photo-graft Gallery of Leading Dime-Hunters,” exhorted its readers:  “If you think you need your change as much as these men do, watch for the coupon in to-morrow’s ‘Clarion,’ and Stick it in Your Hat.”  The coupon was as follows: 

     I READ THE CLARION.  I WILL NOT GIVE ONE CENT IN TIPS TO ANY
     COAT-ROOM GRAFTER.  WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

The enterprise hit upon the psychological moment.  Every check-room bristled with hats proclaiming defiance, and, incidentally, advertising the “Clarion.”  The “cut-out coupon” ran for three weeks.  In one month the Stickler check-room, last to surrender, gave up the ghost, and Mr. Hotzenmuller sued the proprietor for his money back!

Over the theatrical managers the paper’s victory was decisive in this, that it established honest dramatic criticism in Worthington.  But only at a high cost.  Not a line of theater advertising appeared in the columns after the editorial announcement of independence.  Press tickets were cut off.  The “Clarion’s” dramatic reporter was turned back from the gate of the various theaters, after paying for admittance.  Nevertheless, the “Clarion” continued to publish frank criticism