He replied, "The headlines in your daily
press." Just what M. Dubost did think of our achievements in that
department of journalism may be gathered from a letter he addressed the
very same day to his friend, Marcel Complans, director of the Bureau of
Cipher Codes in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
"In nothing, my dear Marcel, is the American genius for saving time so
strikingly exemplified as in their newspaper headlines. Think of our
_Figaro_ or _Temps_ with its dreary columns of solid type introduced by
a minute solitary heading, and then pick up one of Uncle Sam's great
dailies. It may be only an item of four or five inches, what they call
here a stickful or two, but are you left to make your way unassisted
through the brief account? No. Your eye immediately catches a
time-saving headline like this:
DESERTED GIRL WIFE
TO HOLD UP MAN.
Having that concise legend before you, all you need to do, my dear
Marcel, is simply to decide for yourself whether our story deals with an
unscrupulous wretch who abandons his young wife to engage on a career of
highway robbery; or whether it is the history of a deserted girl who
becomes the wife of a professional outlaw; or whether it is a betrayed
young wife who gives herself up to the cause of elevating the human
race.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207