Short Fiction · Chapter
A Newspaper Story explained
A single newspaper, fresh off the press, sets off a chain of serendipitous events throughout the city.
What happens
A single newspaper, fresh off the press, sets off a chain of serendipitous events throughout the city. It reunites a young couple, causes a carriage accident that leads to a romantic revelation, enables a policeman to receive a bribe, provides a girl with a makeshift silk rustle that boosts her confidence, distracts a labor leader from a strike, and perhaps even protects a schoolboy from corporal punishment.
Themes in this chapter
Humor and Irony
The newspaper's lofty editorial goals are comically undercut by its actual effects: facilitating a bribe, causing an accident, and being used as padding against a spanking.
Deception and Appearance vs. Reality
Gladys uses newspaper pages to fake the sound of silk, deceiving the Brown girl and boosting her own appearance, while the newspaper's self-proclaimed moral influence is belied by its mundane uses.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrative voice that follows the newspaper's journey and the interconnected fates of the characters.
- Johnny Atwood
A small boy who receives the newspaper from Policeman O'Brine and takes it home, where his sister Gladys uses it.
- Annie Williams
The 'Penitent' who places a personal ad in the newspaper, leading to a reunion with Jack at the corner of Madison.
Key passages
“At 8 a.m. it lay on Giuseppi’s newsstand, still damp from the presses. Giuseppi, with the cunning of his ilk, philandered on the opposite corner, leaving his patrons to help themselves, no doubt on a theory related to the hypothesis of the watched pot.”
The newspaper was placed on the stand at 8 a.m., fresh from printing. Giuseppi, being sly, lingered across the street, trusting that customers would serve themselves—perhaps believing that if he watched too closely, no one would buy.
The narrator humorously describes the newsvendor's strategy using the 'watched pot' proverb.
“The wind, with a prankish flurry, flapped the flying newspaper against the face of the skittish bay. There was a lengthened streak of bay mingled with the red of running gear that stretched itself out for four blocks.”
A gust of wind playfully blew the newspaper into the horse's face, causing a wild runaway that left a trail of horse and wrecked buggy for four blocks.
The newspaper causes a carriage accident, leading to a romantic reunion.
“When she walked the rustling sound was an exact imitation of the real thing. On the street she met the Brown girl from the flat below and stopped to talk. The Brown girl turned green.”
The newspaper pinned under her skirt rustled just like expensive silk, and when she met the Brown girl, the sound made the Brown girl jealous and envious.
Gladys uses the newspaper to fake the sound of silk, deceiving her neighbor.