Ireland, I am really distressed that we should have had this
discussion. I had hoped that, with years of training and advice, I might
hare been able to make something out of you; but any man who could
seriously hold the opinion you have expressed, and could attempt to
justify it with the mass of inaccuracies and absurdities that you have
given me, is simply a damned fool."
"I am sorry you said that, Mr. Pulitzer," I replied in a very serious
voice.
"Why, for God's sake, you don't mind my calling you a damned fool, do
you?"
"Not in the least, sir. But when you call me a damned fool you shatter
an ideal I held about you."
"What's that? An ideal about me? What do you mean?"
"Well, sir, years before I met you I had heard that if there was one
thing above all others which distinguished you from all other
journalists it was that you had the keenest nose for news of any man
living."
"What has that to do with my calling you a damned fool?"
"Simply this, that the fact that I'm a damned fool hasn't been news to
me any time during the past twenty years."
He saw the point at once, laughed heartily and, putting an arm round my
shoulders, as was his habit with all of us when he wished to show a
friendly feeling or take the edge off a severe rebuke, said:
"Now, boy, you're making fun of me, and you must not make fun of a poor
old blind man.
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