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My Discovery of England by Stephen Leacock
page 76 of 149 (51%)
respect for Mr. Bung. Miss De Forrest, who talks admirably on a
variety of topics, expressed herself as warmly in favour of the
League of Nations and as a devotee of the short ballot and
proportional representation."

Any American reader who studies the English Press comes upon these
wasted opportunities every day. There are indeed certain journals
of a newer type which are doing their best to imitate us. But they
don't really get it yet. They use type up to about one inch and
after that they get afraid.

I hope that in describing the spirit of the English Press I do not
seem to be writing with any personal bitterness. I admit that there
might be a certain reason for such a bias. During my stay in England
I was most anxious to appear as a contributor to some of the leading
papers. This is, with the English, a thing that always adds prestige.
To be able to call oneself a "contributor" to the Times or to Punch
or the Morning Post or the Spectator, is a high honour. I have met
these "contributors" all over the British Empire. Some, I admit, look
strange. An ancient wreck in the back bar of an Ontario tavern
(ancient regime) has told me that he was a contributor to the Times:
the janitor of the building where I lived admits that he is a
contributor to Punch: a man arrested in Bristol for vagrancy while I
was in England pleaded that he was a contributor to the Spectator. In
fact, it is an honour that everybody seems to be able to get but me.

I had often tried before I went to England to contribute to the
great English newspapers. I had never succeeded. But I hoped that
while in England itself the very propinquity of the atmosphere, I
mean the very contiguity of the surroundings, would render the
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