Chapter 30 A Newspaper Experience

At eight o'clock in the morning, the ink of "Correcting Times and Malpractices" was still wet, and it was already placed on the special newsstand on the corner opposite the newspaper office to attract passers-by.Following the business practice of its peers, the newsstands of "Correcting Times and Malpractices" were left unattended, and the newspapers were picked up by customers.This is undoubtedly a management method based on the so-called theory that "there will be no one watching the pot". This distinctive newspaper, according to its conception and tradition, is published as an educator, tutor, moralist, family counselor, and guide to everyday life.

To illustrate the virtues of this paper, three editorials may be selected for discussion.One of them guides teachers and parents in concise and clear language, denouncing the practice of corporal punishment on children. Another was a reproach and a serious warning to a notorious labor leader who was inciting a group of his workers to strike a strike that was sure to cause trouble. The third piece appeals eloquently and movingly that the police force must be supported in all aspects in order to improve the efficiency of its social security and services. In addition to these major accusations and higher requirements for the quality of citizens, the editor of the "Heart to Heart" column proposed a "prescription" or treatment method for a young man's persistent complaints about his lover, guiding How can he win her heart.

Furthermore, on the "Beauty" page, there is a complete answer to a young lady who asked for instructions on how to make her eyes bright, her face peachy, and her appearance beautiful. There is another one that needs special attention, which is a short "private advertisement", which is actually an announcement: At eight o'clock, a haggard-faced young man with anxious eyes walked past the "Corrector" newsstand, dropped a penny, and picked up the top paper.He got up late today because of a sleepless night.He was due at the office at nine o'clock sharp, during which time he had to shave and drink a quick cup of coffee.

He went to the barber shop he frequented to shave, then hurried away.He stuffed the newspaper into his coat pocket.He flipped through it while eating breakfast, but now he was lost in thought.At the next turn, the newspaper fell out of his pocket, along with his new pair of gloves.After another three blocks, he couldn't find the glove and walked back angrily. At exactly half-past eight he came to a corner where, by chance, his gloves and newspaper were still there.But he seemed to turn a blind eye to what he came back to find. He squeezed his two little hands hard, stared into his penitent brown eyes, and his heart rolled with joy.

"Dear Jack," she said, "I know you'll be here on time." "I don't know what she means by that," he thought to himself, "but it's good, it's good." A gust of wind from the west lifted the paper from the sidewalk, opened it, and sent it rolling down a side street.Across the side street a young man was driving up in a buggy with a frightening bay horse who was writing to the editor of Heart to Heart complaining about his girlfriend and asking how to win her over. A recipe for youth. The gust of wind picked up mischievously, and slapped the fluttering newspaper on the face of the easily startled bay horse. The bay horse dragged the cart and galloped four blocks at a stretch.And so in the midst of the change a fire hydrant worked, the buggy crumbled to pieces as fate would have it, and the driver was thrown to rest motionless on the blacktop in front of a brownstone mansion.

Someone came out of the room and immediately carried him in. One of the women put his head on her lap, and regardless of the surprised eyes of others, she bent down and said to him: "Oh, it turned out to be you. You have nothing at all. Change, Bob! Can't you see? If you die, well, I don't want to live, and—" But in this gale we must hurry before we lose touch with that paper. Cop O'Brien seized the paper, casting it as a traffic hazard.He smoothed out the crumpled newspaper with his big hands, and stood a few feet away from the entrance of Shandong Zhong restaurant to read it.He thoughtfully spelled out a headline: "Press Unite to Assist Police."

But boo!The voice of Danny, the bartender, came from the crack of the door: "Come and have a drink, Mike, old man." O'Brien, shielding his face from the newspaper's well-circulated friendly columns, drank quickly a small glass of real good wine, and walked off to continue his patrol, looking more burly and refreshed.The editor of the newspaper may not publish any more articles, but proudly praise the achievements of the police in spirit and substance! Policeman O'Brien folded the newspaper and playfully stuck it under the arm of a passing boy.The boy's name was Johnny, and he brought the newspaper home.His older sister, Gladys, once wrote to the beauty editor asking for tips on how to be beautiful.That was a few weeks ago, and she wasn't waiting for a reply anymore.Gladys was a pale girl with dark eyes and a displeased expression.She is getting ready to buy a hair tie on the street.She had two newspapers that Johnny had brought back pinned to the inside of her dress, so that it rustled as she walked, like a real silk dress.

On the street she met the brown girl who lived downstairs from her house and stopped to talk to her.The brown girl was suddenly envious, only five dollars a yard of silk could make the sound of Gladys walking.The brown girl, jealous, said something nasty, and walked away pouting. Gladys continued down the street.Now her eyes were blazing like skuas, her cheeks flushed, and a triumphant smile transformed and animated her countenance.She is beautiful.It would be great if the beauty editor saw her at this time!I am sure he would have given her an answer in the papers, saying that cultivating a humane feeling for others makes an ordinary countenance attractive.

The labor leader whom the newspaper reprimanded with its solemn and weighty warning turned out to be Johnny and Gladys' father.He picked up the leftover newspapers that Gladys had used for decoration and falsehood.But the editorial did not catch his eye.He caught sight of an ingenious, paradoxical guessing game that would appeal to fools as much as saints. The labor leader tore off the half page, sat down at the table, found a pen and paper, and nailed himself to the riddle. Others are still waiting for him to have a meeting!They waited three hours in vain at the place he had appointed before the more conservative labor leaders ruled and announced that they had agreed to arbitration.The strike and the crisis it created were eliminated.Subsequent issues of the paper, in colored ink, trumpeted its success in denouncing the labor leader's intentions.

The rest of the lively paper has dutifully attested to its effectiveness. When Johnny came home from school, he found a hiding place and pulled out the missing columns of the newspaper from under his clothes.He once cleverly covered these parts of the newspaper on the parts of the body that were easily beaten by the teacher for protection.Johnny went to a private school and didn't get on well with his teachers.As has been said, there was an excellent editorial against corporal punishment in the papers that morning, and no doubt it had had an effect. From now on, will anyone still doubt the power of newspapers?