Guy Wetmore Carryl

“ Could I expect you to comprehend with me that first give of self-control which lets the demon loose, and the meaning of the sight or smell of drink at that exact moment when the will is weakest — the first glass, hastily swallowed, as a brute, long thirsty, gulps down the water it has craved — the second and third, taken more slowly — and then, that slackening of every nerve, that jettisoning of all the moral cargo, that sudden love and appreciation of the sensuous side of life? ”

“ Barclay came forward, laid his hand on Cavendish’s shoulder, and looked down at him, slowly nodding his head.
“The Governor of Alleghenia is a dyed-in-the-wool scoundrel, my good sir,” he said. “It is his manifest duty to enforce the law rigidly and at once, and if the police of Kenton City cannot or will not assist him, to summon the militia to his aid. In that way only can the honor of Alleghenia be saved. And that is what Elijah Abbott will never do. There is anarchy open and flagrant in the streets of Kenton City — there is anarchy silent and sneering in the Governor’s chair. ”

“ Every time he touched earth his strength was multiplied. Well, that’s the way with drink. I can throw the temptation for a while, but every time I do so it rises, stronger many-fold. Sooner or later, I’m forced to give in. ”

“ Well, I wonder if you are destined to be the only conscientious reporter in Kenton City, or whether you will simply be like all the rest. Are you going to have the courage of your convictions — which I think I can surmise, though you haven’t as yet confided them to me — or are you going to wear the slave-chains of your fellows, and distort, and misrepresent, and truckle and kow-tow to the policy of the most venal press in America?”
“On fait çe qu’on peut,” [1] said Cavendish, with a shrug. “Orders are orders, John. If the orders of the editor don’t go, the orders on the cashier don’t come. ”

“ You’re yourself again. What’s the use of dwelling on a time gone by, when you were in reality somebody else — or, rather, nobody at all? When are you going to call at the Rathbawnes’? The old man is pretty ill, I’m afraid, but I think the rest would like to see you again. ”

“ It would be rather futile to attempt the Don Quixote act, if only for the reason that one would never get into print. One can’t do more than follow instructions. The reporter’s best policy is his paper’s best honesty. ”

“ Cavendish leaned forward in his chair, with his elbows on his knees, and his forehead against his interlaced fingers, staring at the floor.
“I’m glad, in a way, to have you ask that question,” he said slowly. “We are wary of mock heroics, or even real heroics, men like you and me. And yet there are things which must be explained, things not easy to explain, because they come so close at times to melodrama. I’ve always had a horror of emotional situations ”