With all this he had the high art to keep his style direct, unaffected,
almost severe. No frills, no literary graces, no flashes of wit except
an occasional restrained touch of sarcasm: the writing was in the purest
style and of a classic simplicity. The typical reader of The Patriot had
a friendly and rather patronizing feeling for the editorials: they were
generally deemed quite ordinary, "common as an old shoe" (with an
approving accent from the commentator), comfortably devoid of the
intricate elegancies practiced by Banneker's editorial compeers. So they
were read and absorbed, which was all that their writer hoped or wished
for them. He was not seeking the bubble, reputation, but the solid
satisfaction of implanting ideas in minds hitherto unaroused to mental
processes, and training the resultant thought in his chosen way and to
eventual though still vague purposes.
"They're beginning to imitate you, Ban," commented Russell Edmonds in
the days of The Patriot's first surprising upward leap. "Flattery of
your peers."
"Let 'em imitate," returned Banneker indifferently.
"Yes; they don't come very near to the original. It's a fundamental
difference in style."
"It's a fundamental difference in aim."
"Aim?"
"They're writing at and for their owners; to make good with the boss.
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