The fire-tender.  It’s evident we must have a higher order of news-gatherers.  It has come to this, that the newspaper furnishes thought-material for all the world, actually prescribes from day to day the themes the world shall think on and talk about.  The occupation of news-gathering becomes, therefore, the most important.  When you think of it, it is astonishing that this department should not be in the hands of the ablest men, accomplished scholars, philosophical observers, discriminating selectors of the news of the world that is worth thinking over and talking about.  The editorial comments frequently are able enough, but is it worth while keeping an expensive mill going to grind chaff?  I sometimes wonder, as I open my morning paper, if nothing did happen in the twenty-four hours except crimes, accidents, defalcations, deaths of unknown loafers, robberies, monstrous births,—­say about the level of police-court news.

Our next door.  I have even noticed that murders have deteriorated; they are not so high-toned and mysterious as they used to be.

The fire-tender.  It is true that the newspapers have improved vastly within the last decade.

Herbert.  I think, for one, that they are very much above the level of the ordinary gossip of the country.

The fire-tender.  But I am tired of having the under-world still occupy so much room in the newspapers.  The reporters are rather more alert for a dog-fight than a philological convention.  It must be that the good deeds of the world outnumber the bad in any given day; and what a good reflex action it would have on society if they could be more fully reported than the bad!  I suppose the Parson would call this the Enthusiasm of Humanity.

The parson.  You’ll see how far you can lift yourself up by your boot-straps.

Herbert.  I wonder what influence on the quality (I say nothing of quantity) of news the coming of women into the reporter’s and editor’s work will have.

Our next door.  There are the baby-shows; they make cheerful reading.

The mistress.  All of them got up by speculating men, who impose upon the vanity of weak women.

Herbert.  I think women reporters are more given to personal details and gossip than the men.  When I read the Washington correspondence I am proud of my country, to see how many Apollo Belvederes, Adonises, how much marble brow and piercing eye and hyacinthine locks, we have in the two houses of Congress.

The young lady.  That’s simply because women understand the personal weakness of men; they have a long score of personal flattery to pay off too.

Mandeville.  I think women will bring in elements of brightness, picturesqueness, and purity very much needed.  Women have a power of investing simple ordinary things with a charm; men are bungling narrators compared with them.