the first number going for Bevans's novels. Better get Maxwell to do
it."

"Why, I thought you liked Bevans's novels?"

"So I did; but where the good of 'Every Other Week' is concerned I am a
Roman father. The popular gag is to abuse Bevans, and Maxwell is the man
to do it. There hasn't been a new magazine started for the last three
years that hasn't had an article from Maxwell in its first number cutting
Bevans all to pieces. If people don't see it, they'll think 'Every Other
Week' is some old thing."

March did not know whether Fulkerson was joking or not. He suggested,
"Perhaps they'll think it's an old thing if they do see it."

"Well, get somebody else, then; or else get Maxwell to write under an
assumed name. Or--I forgot! He'll be anonymous under our system,
anyway. Now there ain't a more popular racket for us to work in that
first number than a good, swinging attack on Bevans. People read his
books and quarrel over 'em, and the critics are all against him, and a
regular flaying, with salt and vinegar rubbed in afterward, will tell
more with people who like good old-fashioned fiction than anything else.
I like Bevans's things, but, dad burn it! when it comes to that first
number, I'd offer up anybody."

"What an immoral little wretch you are, Fulkerson!" said March, with a
laugh.

Fulkerson appeared not to be very strenuous about the attack on the
novelist. "Say!" he called out, gayly, "what should you think of a paper