And let's be
sure to get the word 'Banker' into the top head."
Or he would deliver a practical lecture from a text picked out of what
to a less keen-scented news-hound might have appeared an unpromising
subject.
"Can't we round out that disappearance story a little; the suburban
woman who hasn't been seen since she went to New York three days ago?
Get Capron to fake up a picture of the home with the three children in
it grouped around Bereaved Husband, and--here, how would something like
this do for caption: '"Mamma, Mamma! Come Back!" Sob Tiny Tots.' The
human touch. Nothing like a bit of slush to catch the women. And we've
been going a little shy on sentiment lately."
The "human touch," though it became an office joke, also took its place
as an unwritten law. Severance's calm and impersonal cynicism was
transmuted into a genuine enthusiasm among the copy-readers. Headlining
took on a new interest, whetted by the establishment of a weekly prize
for the most attractive caption. Maximum of sensationalism was the
invariable test.
Despite his growing distaste for the Severance cult, Banneker was honest
enough to admit that the original stimulus dated from the day when he
himself had injected his personality and ideas into the various
departments of the daily.
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