"Brady!" he shrilled. "I insist that you give me a full explanation. I go away by my doctor's orders for a vacation, leaving Mr. Smith to conduct the paper on certain clearly defined lines. By mere chance, while on my vacation, I saw a copy of the paper. It had been ruined." "Ruined?" said John. "On the contrary. The circulation has been going up every week." "Who is this person, Brady? With Mr. Philpotts I have been going carefully over the numbers which have been issued since my departure--" "An intellectual treat," murmured John. "--and in each there is a picture of this young man in a costume which I will not particularize--" "There is hardly enough of it to particularize." "--together with a page of disgusting autobiographical matter." John held up his hand. "I protest," he said. "We court criticism, but this is mere abuse. I appeal to these gentlemen to say whether this, for instance, is not bright and interesting." He picked up the current number of _Peaceful Moments_, and turned to the Kid's page. "This," he said, "describes a certain ten-round unpleasantness with one Mexican Joe. 'Joe comes up for the second round and he gives me a nasty look, but I thinks of my mother and swats him one in the lower ribs. He gives me another nasty look. "All right, Kid," he says; "now I'll knock you up into the gallery." And with that he cuts loose with a right swing, but I falls into the clinch, and then--'" "Pah!" exclaimed Mr. Renshaw. "Go on, boss," urged Mr. Jarvis approvingly. "It's to de good, dat stuff." "There!" said John triumphantly. "You heard? Mr. Jarvis, one of the most firmly established critics east of Fifth Avenue stamps Kid Brady's reminiscences with the hall-mark of his approval." "I falls fer de Kid every time," assented Mr. Jarvis. "Sure! You know a good thing when you see one. Why," he went on warmly, "there is stuff in these reminiscences which would stir the blood of a jellyfish. Let me quote you another passage, to show that they are not only enthralling, but helpful as well. Let me see, where is it? Ah, I have it. 'A bully good way of putting a guy out of business is this. You don't want to use it in the ring, because rightly speaking it's a foul, but you will find it mighty useful if any thick-neck comes up to you in the street and tries to start anything. It's this way. While he's setting himself for a punch, just place the tips of the fingers of your left hand on the right side of the chest. Then bring down the heel of your left hand. There isn't a guy living that could stand up against that. The fingers give you a leverage to beat the band. The guy doubles up, and you upper-cut him with your right, and out he goes.' Now, I bet you never knew that before, Mr. Philpotts. Try it on your parishioners." _"Peaceful Moments_," said Mr. Renshaw irately, "is no medium for exploiting low prize-fighters."