It only means that a poor mother, who
has suddenly gone insane, breaks into a house of refuge, where her
little boy is being cared for by a religious fraternity, accuses,
without warrant, the brothers of torturing her child, and faints. Or
take
FRENCH RACE WORN OUT
ENGLISH TO TRIUMPH.
These lines are not the summary of a study in national growth and decay,
but expressive of the fact that a French bicycle team wins a signal
victory over a group of exhausted English competitors. Do you see now
how far towards the art of simplified story-telling these Americans have
gone?
"I can only express my profound admiration, as I pass, for the genius of
those men who almost automatically will dig the heart out of a 'story,'
and blazon it before the reader not only with marvellous brevity and
meaning, but with extraordinary appropriateness of characterisation.
Can you seize, for instance, the full relevancy of a headline like
PRESBYTERIAN FALLS
TWENTY FEET
or,
PROFESSOR THRICE MARRIED
DENIES AUTHENTICITY OF BIBLE
or see how the essential point is caught when a 'head' writer places
FLORODORA GIRL EXPELLED
FROM CZAR'S CAPITAL
over an account of the latest ukase which banishes from St.
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