er. "Journalism is the
greatest power in the country to-day. We used to call you the Reverend
David. Well, if you still have any lingering desire to be a preacher,
the paper is the place for you, not the pulpit. The editorial is the
sermon of the future. If you would become a preacher, by all means
take up journalism. If you have red blood in your veins you will be a
journalist."

Having delivered this advice, Boller sat in silence, regarding me
through his drooping glasses and pulling at his goatee, and at that
moment I decided to be a journalist. It was the picture which Boller
made that settled my mind. There was something attractive in his
careless attire--the baggy clothes, the flowing tie; and the glasses
with the broad ribbon gave an air of dash and intellectuality which I
had never seen in the stiff uniform of the bar, even as worn by that
leader, Judge Bundy. It is often such absurd impressions on our
unsophisticated minds that set the course of our lives. It was so with
me. I compared Boller with Doctor Todd, with Mr. Pound, and in the
younger generation with Simmons of his own class, who had become
principal of a high-school, and I said to myself that the profession
which in two years had made him this confident, masterful man offered
the opportunity that I sought.

"If you have red blood, Malcolm--" Boller went on as he polished his
glasses. There was a suggestion in his careless manner that he waded
in red blood set flowing by his pen. "Journalism is one long fight.
If you have ideals, Malcolm--" He looked at me, and then my cheeks
flushed as by an inclination of the head I confessed to the possession
of ideals. "If you have ideals, you can make a fight for right. In
journalism we stand aloof from the play itself, but we endeavor to make
the actors perform their parts properly. You remember my description
of how we exposed the Pokono County ring. It's a fight like that all
the time, but you make yourself felt, you know."

Thoroughly pleased with the militant side of the profession, and having
decided that I should enter it, I lost no time inquiring how I should
begin. This question took some thought on Boller's part, and he combed
his hair with his fingers while he gave it consideration.

"I could put you on the _Sentinel_," he said at last. "You will have
to start at the bottom, as a reporter, you understand."

He evidently believed that I should jump at such a prospect, but he did