2i6 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



journalist — at the peril of his life — actually 

 sought them out, and his account of that inter- 

 view, an admirable piece of work, was read with 

 breathless interest by every man, woman, and child 

 on the Pacific Slope. So cunningly, so artistically, 

 so diabolically (in a sense) were the virtues of these 

 ruffians set forth, that their vices melted from the 

 public sight. Sober citizens observed to the writer : 

 " After all, — such fellows deserve to escape." 



The venality of the Western Press does not make 

 for immorality, because (like a drunkard reeling 

 through the streets) it is seen, and serves as a 

 warning. More, the Press is not nearly so venal 

 as the Man in the Street believes it to be. I have 

 often been asked apropos of a kind review of my 

 novels : " What did that cost you ? " Some papers 

 are notoriously in the pay of certain corporations ; 

 and others — I speak from personal experience — 

 do not hesitate to demand blackmail from men with 

 large interests at stake. And yet I am strongly of 

 the opinion that the people themselves, not the pro- 

 prietors of the newspapers, are chiefly to blame, and 

 the remedy is so obvious as to need no mention here. 

 Lest some English reader may be tempted to curl an 

 " unco guid " lip, it may be well to add that the finan- 

 cial papers of the city of London are more venal and 

 more unscrupulous than the papers of the West. 



I have met many Western journalists and am 

 greatly indebted to them for much kindness and 

 courtesy. For the most part they are Bohemians, 

 of a type that is passing away in London. With 

 some it is always either a feast or a famine ; after 

 a successful " scoop " the wine flows freely, and you 



