The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-01
THE COUP OF
 THE CITY EDITOR
BY PAUL BLAKE. Copyright, 1905. by Daily Story Pub


 NCopyright, 1905, by Daily Story Pup
 fishing Company)
 Caroline Elizabeth Hicks enjoyed the distinction of being sought by the city editors of both the rival newspapers of the city. It is betraying no secret to say that Caroline Elizabeth en- joyed 1t.
 erary and philanthropic tendency and had evolved from plain Carrie Hicks to Caroline Elizabeth Hicks, in which latter form she had her name printed on her cards and on the programs or the Literary Society, the Woman's Club. the Aid Society and in the newspapers when she was so fortunate as to at tract public attention. This happened quite often after the two city editors succumbed to her charms.
 It was entirely natural that the ann bilious young woman should feel flat tered at the attention of the two youth full editors. because. as everybody knows the newspapers represent the highest form of literary life in bud ding city and possess the awesome power to reward charitable work by adequate mention and to foster litera- ture by printing the fruits of local genius And likewise everybody knows that the city editor of a small daily Is pretty much the entire paper, so far as matters pertaining to the community Is concerned, because he both directs and executes the collecting of the news and passes on 1t.
 In the case of The Morning Clarion. Walter Bemis had two youthful re- porters to assist him. In the case of The Evening Palladium, Charles Col- lins had one, the difference being equal szed by the greater amount of happen ings in the evening, which the even- ing paper was able to pick up the next day, and in the case of formal or rou- tine matters. to rewrite from the morn ing paper.
 There was one distracting element in the situation. Caroline Elizabeth was unable to choose between her two admirers and both pressed for de- cision. The pressure became stronger and yet more strong as time elapsed until the poor. girl felt that she could put it off no longer.
 Then it was that Bemis made a dis covery. It was that Collins had the inside track and was likely to carry of the prize. The advantage was that Collins labored during the day. while Bemis was kept at his desk during the afternoon and evening. This gave Col lins a clear field and leisure to culti- vate 1t every evening. Bemis was compelled to go on duty at 80 o'clock
 
 til 2 in the morning. His only time for pressing his suit was on his day of. Collins went to work at in the morning and was off at 4:30 or 5 every day, an dall day on Sunday.
 While in the midst of his despair over this discouraging condition he was confronted with another irritat- ing circumstance, for which Collins was responsible. And this was the straw that broke the camefs back.
 The city had a very large Swedish population, an entire section being set tied almost entirely by emigrants from Scandinavia and their descend ants. Both papers struggled hard to cover this important section in a man. ner to make themselves popular and saleable among the Swedish people. Moreover. the Swedes were a power in politics and the owners of both pa pers were particularly anxious to have a large clientele amoing them for the sake of the influence their editorial columns might wield.
 Now Bemis had stolen a march on the other paper and employed a bright youth of Swedish extraction as a re- porter. The boy had grown up in the Swedish settlement and knew every