'
Murray now called on the Editor of the Scottish Leader, the
Gladstonian organ, whom he found very courteous. He was asked to
write some `leader-notes' as they are called, paragraphs which
appear in the same columns as the leading articles. These were
published, to his astonishment, and he was `to be taken on at a
salary of--a week.' Let us avoid pecuniary chatter, and merely say
that the sum, while he was on trial, was not likely to tempt many
young men into the career of journalism. Yet `the work will be very
exacting, and almost preclude the possibility of my doing anything
else.' Now, as four leader notes, or, say, six, can be written in
an hour, it is difficult to see the necessity for this fatigue.
Probably there were many duties more exacting, and less agreeable,
than the turning out of epigrams. Indeed there was other work of
some more or less mechanical kind, and the manufacture of `leader
notes' was the least part of Murray's industry. At the end of two
years there was `the prospect of a very fair salary.' But there was
`night-work and everlasting hurry.' `The interviewing of a half-
bred Town-Councillor on the subject of gas and paving' did not
exhilarate Murray.
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