Subscribers noticed an improvement in the Banner. The local paragraphs became more numerous and were filled with human interest. The editorials also were crisp and to the point. Indeed they became a decided feature of the paper whereas they were formerly accepted as a painful necessity. One day an old reader of the paper who came in to renew his subscription to the paper, said:
“I want to congratulate you on the good paper you are getting out. This is especially true of the editorial columns. I find the comment on the news to be short and snappy. This is much better than the long articles which used to be more or less instructive, but generally as dull as sermons. How do you do it? You must have some secret method. What is it?”
Herbert smiled at this sweeping praise. He pointed to a little motto which hung over his desk.
“I don’t know,” he said, “unless it is because I follow the advice on that card.”
The little inscription to which he pointed said simply:
“That is as true to-day,” he remarked, “as when it was first penned by the great poet.”
Herbert did not tell his caller one of the means he had used to arrive at such a desirable end. When he began writing editorials he found himself almost unconsciously padding them out to a half column and a column in length. He pondered long and earnestly over the means of breaking himself of the habit. Finally he hit on a plan which was as simple as it was effective. He cut his copy paper in such a length that it would not hold more than eight or ten lines. When he got an idea for an editorial comment, he endeavored to express it clearly and pointedly in the number of words that would go on the small sheet of paper. At first it was a very difficult task, but practice makes perfect, and at length he found that he could do it with comparative ease and eventually reached the state of things which had won him unstinted praise.
He had not been in charge of the Banner long before he realized that the local news was the most important thing in the paper to the people of Cleverly. Accordingly he bent all of his energies to the improvement of that department. He pressed the postmaster into his service. He induced some of the young men of the town to contribute, and as a result there was not a wedding, a birth or a funeral that was not fully reported in the Banner. He laid great stress on personal items, taking the ground that a pleasant reference to anyone not only interested the person mentioned, but also their relatives and friends as well as the people of the town. If a church raised its mortgage, or a citizen put an addition to his house, or the school gave an entertainment it was sure to be found in the local columns. It was not surprising, therefore, that the subscribers looked forward with eagerness for their paper and complained bitterly if, by chance, they failed to receive it.