Hinde urged him to do journalism and advised him to make a study of the London newspapers so that he might discover which of them he could most happily work for. "You could do a few articles, perhaps, and then it wouldn't matter whether you agreed with the paper or not, but I'd advise you to try and get a job on one paper for a while. You'll learn a lot from journalism if you don't stay at it too long. It'll be a good while yet before you can make a living at writing books, and you'll want something to keep you going until you can. Journalism's as good as anything, and in some ways, it's a lot better than most things, and let me tell you, Mac, anybody can make a decent living out of newspapers if he only takes the trouble to earn it. Half the fellows in Fleet Street treat journalism as if it were a religious vocation, and they lie about in pubs all day waiting for the Holy Ghost to come down and inspire them with a scoop!"
John studied the London newspapers, as Hinde advised him, but he did not feel drawn towards them. He considered that the morning papers were very inferior to the _Northern Whig_, and he was certain that the _North Down Herald_ was far more interesting than the _Times_. The London evening papers, he said to Hinde, gave less value for a half-penny than the _Belfast Evening Telegraph_, and he complained that there was nothing to read in them.
"You'll have to start a paper yourself, Mac," said Hinde. "All the best papers were started by men who couldn't find anything to read in other papers. It would be a grand notion now to set up a paper for Ulstermen who can't find anything in London that's fit to read. By the Hokey O, that would be a grand notion. We could call the paper _To Hell With the Pope or No Surrender!_..."
"Ah, quit your codding," John interrupted. "You know rightly what's wrong with these London papers. They're not telling the truth!"
"And do you think the _Whig_ and the _Telegraph_ are?" Hinde demanded.
"Well, it's what _we_ call the truth anyway," John stoutly retorted.
Hinde slapped him on the back. "That's right," he said. "Ulster against the whole civilised world!"
"If I was to take a job on one of these papers," John continued, "I'd insist on telling the truth to the people!"