Psmith, Journalist
by Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
PREFACE
THE conditions of life in New York are so different from those of
London that a story of this kind calls for a little explanation.
There are several million inhabitants of New York. Not all of them
eke out a precarious livelihood by murdering one another, but there
is a definite section of the population which murders--not
casually, on the spur of the moment, but on definitely commercial
lines at so many dollars per murder. The "gangs" of New York exist
in fact. I have not invented them. Most of the incidents in this
story are based on actual happenings. The Rosenthal case, where
four men, headed by a genial individual calling himself "Gyp the
Blood" shot a fellow-citizen in cold blood in a spot as public and
fashionable as Piccadilly Circus and escaped in a motor-car, made
such a stir a few years ago that the noise of it was heard all over
the world and not, as is generally the case with the doings of the
gangs, in New York only. Rosenthal cases on a smaller and less
sensational scale are frequent occurrences on Manhattan Island. It
was the prominence of the victim rather than the unusual nature of
the occurrence that excited the New York press. Most gang victims
get a quarter of a column in small type.
P. G. WODEHOUSE
New York, 1915
CHAPTER I
"COSY MOMENTS"
The man in the street would not have known it, but a great crisis
was imminent in New York journalism.
Everything seemed much as usual in the city. The cars ran blithely
on Broadway. Newsboys shouted "Wux-try!" into the ears of nervous
pedestrians with their usual Caruso-like vim. Society passed up and
down Fifth Avenue in its automobiles, and was there a furrow of
anxiety upon Society's brow? None. At a thousand street corners a
thousand policemen preserved their air of massive superiority to
the things of this world. Not one of them showed the least sign of
perturbation. Nevertheless, the crisis was at hand. Mr. J. Fillken
Wilberfloss, editor-in-chief of _Cosy Moments_, was about to leave
his post and start on a ten weeks' holiday.
In New York one may find every class of paper which the imagination
can conceive. Every grade of society is catered for. If an Esquimau
came to New York, the first thing he would find on the bookstalls
in all probability would be the _Blubber Magazine_, or some similar
production written by Esquimaux for Esquimaux. Everybody reads in
New York, and reads all the time. The New Yorker peruses his
favourite paper while he is being jammed into a crowded compartment
on the subway or leaping like an antelope into a moving Street car.
There was thus a public for _Cosy Moments_. _Cosy Moments_, as its
name (an inspiration of Mr. Wilberfloss's own) is designed to
imply, is a journal for the home. It is the sort of paper which the
father of the family is expected to take home with him from his
office and read aloud to the chicks before bed-time. It was founded
by its proprietor, Mr. Benjamin White, as an antidote to yellow
journalism. One is forced to admit that up to the present yellow
journalism seems to be competing against it with a certain measure
of success. Headlines are still of as generous a size as
heretofore, and there is no tendency on the part of editors to
scamp the details of the last murder-case.
Nevertheless, _Cosy Moments_ thrives. It has its public.
Its contents are mildly interesting, if you like that sort of
thing. There is a "Moments in the Nursery" page, conducted by
Luella Granville Waterman, to which parents are invited to
contribute the bright speeches of their offspring, and which
bristles with little stories about the nursery canary, by Jane
(aged six), and other works of rising young authors. There is a
"Moments of Meditation" page, conducted by the Reverend Edwin T.
Philpotts; a "Moments Among the Masters" page, consisting of
assorted chunks looted from the literature of the past, when
foreheads were bulgy and thoughts profound, by Mr. Wilberfloss
himself; one or two other pages; a short story; answers to
correspondents on domestic matters; and a "Moments of Mirth" page,
conducted by an alleged humorist of the name of B. Henderson Asher,
which is about the most painful production ever served up to a
confiding public.
The guiding spirit of _Cosy Moments_ was Mr. Wilberfloss.
Circumstances had left the development of the paper mainly to him.
For the past twelve months the proprietor had been away in Europe,
taking the waters at Carlsbad, and the sole control of _Cosy Moments_
had passed into the hands of Mr. Wilberfloss. Nor had he proved
unworthy of the trust or unequal to the duties. In that year _Cosy
Moments_ had reached the highest possible level of domesticity.
Anything not calculated to appeal to the home had been rigidly
excluded. And as a result the circulation had increased steadily.
Two extra pages had been added, "Moments Among the Shoppers" and
"Moments with Society." And the advertisements had grown in volume.
But the work had told upon the Editor. Work of that sort carries
its penalties with it. Success means absorption, and absorption
spells softening of the brain.
Whether it was the strain of digging into the literature of the
past every week, or the effort of reading B. Henderson Asher's
"Moments of Mirth" is uncertain. At any rate, his duties, combined
with the heat of a New York summer, had sapped Mr. Wilberfloss's
health to such an extent that the doctor had ordered him ten weeks'
complete rest in the mountains. This Mr. Wilberfloss could,
perhaps, have endured, if this had been all. There are worse places
than the mountains of America in which to spend ten weeks of the
tail-end of summer, when the sun has ceased to grill and the
mosquitoes have relaxed their exertions. But it was not all. The
doctor, a far-seeing man who went down to first causes, had
absolutely declined to consent to Mr. Wilberfloss's suggestion that
he should keep in touch with the paper during his vacation. He was
adamant. He had seen copies of _Cosy Moments_ once or twice, and he
refused to permit a man in the editor's state of health to come in
contact with Luella Granville Waterman's "Moments in the Nursery"
and B. Henderson Asher's "Moments of Mirth." The medicine-man put
his foot down firmly.
"You must not see so much as the cover of the paper for ten weeks,"
he said. "And I'm not so sure that it shouldn't be longer. You must
forget that such a paper exists. You must dismiss the whole thing
from your mind, live in the open, and develop a little flesh and
muscle."
To Mr. Wilberfloss the sentence was almost equivalent to penal
servitude. It was with tears in his voice that he was giving his
final instructions to his sub-editor, in whose charge the paper
would be left during his absence. He had taken a long time doing
this. For two days he had been fussing in and out of the office, to
the discontent of its inmates, more especially Billy Windsor, the
sub-editor, who was now listening moodily to the last harangue of
the series, with the air of one whose heart is not in the subject.
Billy Windsor was a tall, wiry, loose-jointed young man, with
unkempt hair and the general demeanour of a caged eagle. Looking
at him, one could picture him astride of a bronco, rounding up
cattle, or cooking his dinner at a camp-fire. Somehow he did not
seem to fit into the _Cosy Moments_ atmosphere.
"Well, I think that that is all, Mr. Windsor," chirruped the
editor. He was a little man with a long neck and large _pince-nez_,
and he always chirruped. "You understand the general lines on which
I think the paper should be conducted?" The sub-editor nodded. Mr.
Wilberfloss made him tired. Sometimes he made him more tired than
at other times. At the present moment he filled him with an aching
weariness. The editor meant well, and was full of zeal, but he had
a habit of covering and recovering the ground. He possessed the art
of saying the same obvious thing in a number of different ways to a
degree which is found usually only in politicians. If Mr. Wilberfloss
had been a politician, he would have been one of those dealers in
glittering generalities who used to be fashionable in American
politics.
"There is just one thing," he continued "Mrs. Julia Burdett Parslow
is a little inclined--I may have mentioned this before--"
"You did," said the sub-editor.
Mr. Wilberfloss chirruped on, unchecked.
"A little inclined to be late with her 'Moments with Budding
Girlhood'. If this should happen while I am away, just write her a
letter, quite a pleasant letter, you understand, pointing out the
necessity of being in good time. The machinery of a weekly paper, of
course, cannot run smoothly unless contributors are in good time
with their copy. She is a very sensible woman, and she will
understand, I am sure, if you point it out to her."
The sub-editor nodded.
"And there is just one other thing. I wish you would correct a
slight tendency I have noticed lately in Mr. Asher to be just a
trifle--well, not precisely _risky_, but perhaps a shade _broad_
in his humour."
"His what?" said Billy Windsor.
"Mr. Asher is a very sensible man, and he will be the first to
acknowledge that his sense of humour has led him just a little
beyond the bounds. You understand? Well, that is all, I think. Now
I must really be going, or I shall miss my train. Good-bye, Mr.
Windsor."
"Good-bye," said the sub-editor thankfully.
At the door Mr. Wilberfloss paused with the air of an exile bidding
farewell to his native land, sighed, and trotted out.
Billy Windsor put his feet upon the table, and with a deep scowl
resumed his task of reading the proofs of Luella Granville
Waterman's "Moments in the Nursery."