"
Banneker's editorials pervaded and gave the keynote. With sublime
self-confidence he had adopted the untried scheme of having no set and
determined place for the editorial department. Sometimes, his page
appeared in the middle of the paper; sometimes on the back; and once,
when a most promising scheme of municipal looting was just about to be
put through, he fired his blast from the front sheet in extra heavy,
double-leaded type, displacing an international yacht race and a most
titillating society scandal with no more explanation than was to be
found in the opening sentence:
"This is more important to YOU, Mr. New Yorker, than any other news in
to-day's issue."
"Where Banneker sits," Russell Edmonds was wont to remark between puffs,
"is the head of the paper."
"Let 'em look for the stuff," said Banneker confidently. "They'll think
all the more of it when they find it."
Often he used inset illustrations, not so much to give point to his
preachments, as to render them easier of comprehension to the
unthinking. And always he sought the utmost of sensationalism in caption
and in type, employing italics, capitals, and even heavy-face letters
with an effect of detonation.
"Jollies you along until he can see the white of your mind, and then
fires his slug into your head, point-blank," Edmonds said.
Pages:
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548