Journalism 101-part Six

Chesterton:
"Just as he is solving this problem upon principles of the highest
morality, it occurs to him suddenly that he has not written his
Saturday article; and that there is only about an hour to do it in.

He wildly calls to somebody (probably the gardener) to telephone to
somewhere for a messenger, he barricades himself in another room
and tears his hair, wondering what on earth he shall write about.

A drumming of fists on the door outside and a cheerful bellowing
encourage and clarify his thoughts; and he is able to observe some
newspapers and circulars in wrappers lying on the table. One is a
dingy book catalogue; the second is a shiny pamphlet about petrol;
the third is a paper called The Christian Commonwealth.

He opens it anyhow, and sees in the middle of a page a sentence
with which he honestly disagrees. It says that the sense of beauty in
Nature is a new thing, hardly felt before Wordsworth. A stream of
images and pictures pour through his head, like skies chasing each
other or forests running by. "Not felt before Wordsworth!" he thinks.
" Oh, but this won't do . . . bare ruined choirs where late the sweet
birds sang . . . night's candles are burnt out . . . glowed with living
sapphires . . . leaving their moon-loved maze . . . antique roots
fantastic . . . antique roots wreathed high . . . what is it in As You
Like It?"

This is not unlike some Gilbert columnists, who, they will recall, are coming up on a deadline (Feb. 5th) for whom I may remind that the editor is waiting, his hand at the door, ready to pounce, ready to maim any columnist who does not succeed in producing a column of no less that 900 words by Sunday! Sunday! That reminds me of Thursday, which is today. I think I need to go listen to some Mozart to straighten out my thinking so that I can work on my column and have something interesting to say...