Big Poker Site hazard of new fortunes 61

Mr. Dryfoos wanted it, because hes the counting-room incarnate, and its cheaper; and I wanted it, because I always like to go with the majority. Now what do you think of that little design itself?" "The sketch?" Beaton pulled the book toward him again and looked at it again. "Rather decorative. Drawings not remarkable. Graceful; rather nice." He pushed the book away again, and Fulkerson pulled it to his aide of the table. "Well, thats a piece of that amateur trash you despise so much. I went to a painter I know-by-the-way, he was guilty of suggesting you for this thing, but I told him I was ahead of him--and I got him to submit my idea to one of his class, and thats the result. Well, now, there aint anything in this world that sells a book like a pretty cover, and were going to have a pretty cover for Every Other Week every time. Weve cut loose from the old traditional quarto literary newspaper size, and weve cut loose from the old two-column big page magazine size; were going to have a duodecimo page, clear black print, and paper that ll make your mouth water; and were going to have a fresh illustration for the cover of each number, and we aint agoing to give the public any rest at all. Sometimes were going to have a delicate little landscape like this, and sometimes were going to have an indelicate little figure, or as much so as the law will allow." The young man leaning against the mantelpiece blushed a sort of protest. March smiled and said, dryly, "Those are the numbers that Mr. Fulkerson is going to edit himself." "Exactly. And Mr. Beaton, here, is going to supply the floating females, gracefully airing themselves against a sunset or something of that kind." Beaton frowned in embarrassment, while Fulkerson went on philosophically; "Its astonishing how you fellows can keep it up at this stage of the proceedings; you can paint things that your harshest critic would be ashamed to describe accurately; youre as free as the theatre. But thats neither here nor there. What Im after is the fact that were going to have variety in our title-pages, and we are going to have novelty in the illustrations of the body of the book. March, here, if he had his own way, wouldnt have any illustrations at all." "Not because I dont like them, Mr. Beacon," March interposed, "but because I like them too much. I find that I look at the pictures in an illustrated article, but I dont read the article very much, and I fancy thats the case with most other people. Youve got to doing them so prettily that you take our eyes off the literature, if you dont take our minds off." "Like the society beauties on the stage: people go in for the beauty so much that they dont know what the play is. But the box-office gets there all the same, and thats what Mr. Dryfoos wants." Fulkerson looked up gayly at Mr. Dryfoos, who smiled deprecatingly. "It was different," March went on, "when the illustrations used to be bad. Then the text had some chance." "Old legitimate drama days, when ugliness and genius combined to storm the galleries," said Fulkerson. "We can still make them bad enough," said Beaton, ignoring Fulkerson in his remark to March. Fulkerson took the reply upon himself. "Well, you neednt make em so bad as the old-style cuts; but you can make them unobtrusive, modestly retiring. Weve got hold of a process something like that those French fellows gave Daudet thirty-five thousand dollars to write a novel to use with; kind of thing that begins at one side; or one corner, and spreads in a sort of dim religious style over the print till you cant tell which is which. Then weve got a notion that where the pictures dont behave quite so sociably, they can be dropped into the text, like a little casual remark, dont you know, or a comment that has some connection, or maybe none at all, with whats going on in the story. Something like this." Fulkerson took away one knee from the table long enough to open the drawer, and pull from it a book that he shoved toward Beacon. "Thats a Spanish book I happened to see at Brentanos, and I froze to it on account of the pictures. I guess theyre pretty good." "Do you expect to get such drawings in this country?" asked Beaton, after a glance at the book. "Such character--such

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