CHAPTER XIV
BENNIE AND THE CHARMING OLD MAID
There followed a blessed week of work--a "human warious"
week, with something piquant lurking at every turn. A
week so busy, so kaleidoscopic in its quick succession of
events that my own troubles and grievances were pushed
into a neglected corner of my mind and made to languish
there, unfed by tears or sighs.
News comes in cycles. There are weeks when a city
editor tears his hair in vain as he bellows for a
first-page story. There follow days so bristling with
real, live copy that perfectly good stuff which, in the
ordinary course of events might be used to grace the
front sheet, is sandwiched away between the marine
intelligence and the Elgin butter reports.
Such a week was this. I interviewed everything from
a red-handed murderer to an incubator baby. The town
seemed to be running over with celebrities. Norberg, the
city editor, adores celebrities. He never allows one to
escape uninterviewed. On Friday there fell to my lot a
world-famous prima donna, an infamous prize-fighter, and
a charming old maid. Norberg cared not whether the
celebrity in question was noted for a magnificent high C,
or a left half-scissors hook, so long as the interview
was dished up hot and juicy, with plenty of quotation
marks, a liberal sprinkling of adjectives and adverbs,
and a cut of the victim gracing the top of the column.
Pages:
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200