The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (6.1895)

In an American Newspaper Office

By Charles Miner Thompson

I


unt was the night-editor of the respectable Dawn. This

1 I knowing journal declared that “ business men desire a news-
paper which they can take home to their families,” and, with the
immodest confidence of virtue, asserted that it “filled this long-
felt want.” Its columns were carefully kept unspotted from
sensational crime. It was edited with the most solicitous regard
for the proprieties. Its proofs were reported to be read by Mrs.
Grundy herself. “ The duty of the press,” said the Dawn,“ is to
conserve the public morals. The editor, with a high ideal of the
function of journalism, will not follow the almost universal and
highly regrettable fashion of the times, and sacrifice decency to
dollars.” This truly disinterested paper sacrificed indecency on
the same altar, without a blush, and, with a pride that aped
humility, posed as the Dawn of a Better Day. By the same
token, Hunt occupied a position of eminence.
When he reached the editorial rooms in the evening he usually
found Master, his assistant, already seated at the big night-desk
hard at work. Hunt had not been so many years in existence, as
Master had been in journalism ; and his superiority in rank made

his