Reporter, editorial writer, exchange editor, make-up man, proof-reader,
correspondent, advertisement solicitor, was I.

As exchange editor, did I read all the papers in the English language
in eager search of fish news. And while you are about the matter, just
find me a finer bit of literary style evoking the romance of the vast
wastes of the moving sea, in Stevenson, Defoe, anywhere you please,
than such a news item as this: "Capt. Ezra Pound, of the bark _Elnora_,
of Salem, Mass., spoke a lonely vessel in latitude this and longitude
that, September 8. She proved to be the whaler _Wanderer_, and her
captain said that she had been nine months at sea, that all on board
were well, and that he had stocked so many barrels of whale oil."

As exchange editor was it my business to peruse reports from Eastport,
Maine, to the effect that one of the worst storms in recent years had
destroyed large numbers of the sardine weirs there. To seek fish
recipes, of such savoury sound as those for "broiled redsnapper,"
"shrimps bordelaise," and "baked fish croquettes." To follow fishing
conditions in the North Sea occasioned by the Great War. To hunt down
jokes of piscatory humour. "The man who drinks like a fish does not
take kindly to water.--Exchange." To find other "fillers" in the
consular reports and elsewhere: "Fish culture in India," "1800 Miles in
a Dory," "Chinese Carp for the Philippines," "Americans as Fish
Eaters." And, to use a favourite term of trade papers, "etc., etc."
Then to "paste up" the winnowed fruits of this beguiling research.

As editorial writer, to discuss the report of the commission recently
sent by congress to the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, to report on the
condition of our national herd of fur seals; to discuss the official
interpretation here of the Government ruling on what constitutes