Before leaving the subject of newspapers I may describe the method by which Mr. Pulitzer kept in touch with the news and put himself in the position to maintain a critical supervision over The World.

An elaborate organization was employed for this purpose.  I will explain it as it worked when we were on the yacht, but the system was maintained at all times, whether we were cruising, or were at Cap Martin, at Bar Harbor, at Wiesbaden, or elsewhere, merely a few minor details being changed to meet local conditions.

In the Pulitzer Building, Park Row, New York, there were collected each day several copies of each of the morning papers, including The World, and some of the evening papers.  These were mailed daily to Mr. Pulitzer according to cabled instructions as to our whereabouts.  In addition to this a gentleman connected with The World, who had long experience of Mr. Pulitzer’s requirements, cut from all the New York papers and from a number of other papers from every part of the United States every article that he considered Mr. Pulitzer ought to see, whether because of its subject, its tenor, or its style.  These clippings were mailed by the hundred on almost every fast steamer sailing for Europe.  In order that there might be the greatest economy of time in reading them, the essential matter in each clipping was marked.

So far as The World was concerned a copy of each issue was sent, with the names of the writers written across each editorial, big news story, or special article.

As we went from port to port we got the principal French, German, Austrian and Italian papers, and The World bureau in London kept us supplied with the English dailies and weeklies.

Whenever we picked up a batch of American papers, each of the secretaries got a set and immediately began to read it.  My own method of reading was adopted after much advice from Mr. Pulitzer and after consultation with the more experienced members of the staff, and I do not suppose it differed materially from that followed by the others.

I read The World first, going over the “big” stories carefully and with enough concentration to give me a very fair idea of the facts.  Then I read the articles in the other papers covering the same ground, noting any important differences in the various accounts.  This task resolved itself in practice into mastering in considerable detail about half a dozen articles—­a political situation, a murder, a railroad wreck, a fire, a strike, an important address by a college president, for example—­and getting a clear impression of the treatment of each item in each paper.

With this done, and with a few notes scribbled on a card to help my memory, I turned to the editorial pages, reading each editorial with the closest attention, and making more notes.

The final reading of the news served to give me from ten to twenty small topics of what Mr. Pulitzer called “human interest,” to be used as subjects of conversation as occasion demanded.  As a rule, I cut these items out of the paper and put them in the left-hand pocket of my coat, for when we walked together J. P. always took my right arm, and my left hand was therefore free to dip into my reservoir of cuttings whenever conversation flagged and I needed a new subject.