The Brass Check: A Study of American JournalismSinclair, Upton
General
The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism
Sinclair, Upton
Associated Press; Journalism -- United States; Press -- United States
The idea that there lived on earth a human being who could have enjoyed
the experience I was then undergoing was one which would not have
occurred to me; however, the fact that this newspaper writer could
conceive it indicated that there was at least one such person living. I
have since heard that certain actors and actresses have increased their
fame and incomes by being many times divorced and remarried. But with
authors it does not work out that way. Mitchell Kennerley, publisher of
“Love’s Pilgrimage,” had been selling a thousand copies a week of this
book, and after the divorce-scandal he did not sell a hundred copies in
six months!
I felt in those terrible days precisely like a hunted animal which seeks
refuge in a hole, and is tormented with sharp sticks and smoke and
boiling water. Under the law it had been necessary for me to obtain
certain evidence. I had taken steps to obtain it, and this became a
source of mystery as thrilling as a detective-story. For days men
followed me every step I took; my mail was tampered with continually,
and likewise the mail of my friends. I ran away into the country to
hide, I even changed my name for a while, but that did no good—I was
found out. Up to this time I had never had a grey hair in my head, but I
found many after these months, and have them still.
Among the mass of newspaper items I note one that seems trifling, yet is
curiously significant. There appeared in the “New York Times” a
telegraphic dispatch from Wilmington, Delaware, to the effect that I was
being sued by a store-keeper in New Jersey for thirty-eight dollars
worth of fertilizer. Stop and think a minute how many men in America are
sued every day for bills which they refuse to pay, and how seldom does
the “New York Times” hunt out such news by telegraph! Often I have tried
to get radical news into the “Times,” and heard the editors plead space
limitations; yet they found room for a dispatch about my being sued for
thirty-eight dollars!
Five years before this I had owned a little farm, and had left it in
charge of a man who contracted bills in my name. I had paid all the
bills which were properly rendered; but after four years had passed, and
I had sold the farm and wiped the matter off my books, I received for
the first time a bill for thirty-eight dollars worth of fertilizer.
Naturally I refused to pay this bill; so I was sued—and the “New York
Times,” having me down and desiring to trample further on my face,
obtained the news and published it in connection with my
divorce-scandal.
Nor was that all. The day after this item was published, there appeared
in the “New York World” a column of humor about me, one part of which I
quote. Please take the trouble to read it carefully, because it
illustrates a significant point.
The following statement, with several long-hand corrections, was
received by the “World” yesterday:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account