Page:The Ball and the Cross.djvu/79

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A Discussion at Dawn
71

the evening with the announcement that the two heroes of the Police Court had literally been found fighting in a London back garden, with a shopkeeper bound and gagged in the front of the house, the editors and sub-editors were stricken still as men are by great beatitudes.

The next morning, five or six of the great London dailies burst out simultaneously into great blossoms of eloquent leader-writing. Towards the end all the leaders tended to be the same, but they all began differently. The “Daily Telegraph,” for instance began, “There will be little difference among our readers or among all truly English and law-abiding men touching the etc., etc.” The “Daily Mail” said, “People must learn, in the modern world, to keep their theological differences to themselves. The fracas, etc., etc.” The “Daily News” started, “Nothing could be more inimical to the cause of true religion than etc., etc.” The “Times” began with something about Celtic disturbances of the equilibrium of Empire, and the “Daily Express” distinguished itself splendidly by omitting altogether so controversial a matter and substituting a leader about goloshes.

And the morning after that, the editors and

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