The Amazon Quest (House of Winslow Book #25) by Gilbert Morris

Author:Gilbert Morris [Morris, Gilbert]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781441270504
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2006-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

At the End of the Rainbow

Donald Sutton chewed on his cigar, staring at the news copy in front of him and at the enlarged photograph that accompanied it. He did not move for so long that Emily finally demanded, “Well, what do you think of my story?”

Lifting his eyes, Sutton mouthed around his cigar, “What do I think of it? I think you’re crazy, Emily.”

The silence seemed to thicken in the room, and the only movement for a few seconds was the upward curling smoke of Sutton’s cigar. Then Emily demanded, “What’s wrong with it?”

“Everything! This is a family newspaper, Emily, not a trashy New York tabloid.” He slapped his meaty hand down on the photograph, exclaiming, “If I ran that picture, I’d have every preacher in town and almost every mother of a teenage daughter down here demanding my head in a basket!” Removing the cigar, Sutton shook his head. “You’ve been here long enough, Emily, to know this news isn’t fit to print!”

The story was one Emily had covered on her own time. She had gone to the bathing beach on the Potomac along with Wes. She had written a story about a beauty contest being held there, and Wes had taken a great many photographs of the contestants. Emily had captured the essence of the show and written about the prizewinners and what it was like to be a bathing beauty queen. Wes had captured the young women in their tunic bathing suits, their caps over their long curls, and their long stockings—except for one contestant who had daringly rolled her stockings below the knee. Wes had captured the bare knees and clingy bathing suits, with thousands of spectators looking on, mouths open, as they applauded the girls. Emily had interviewed Miss Washington, who was declared the most beautiful girl in America, and had ended the article by saying, “The one-piece bathing suit will become orthodox wear for bathing beauties. Promoters of seaside resorts will start having their own contests, and the tabloid editors will have a field day.”

Emily stared at Sutton, and her face was flushed with anger. “Are you trying to tell me that this story is indecent?”

“I’m trying to tell you, Emily, that the preachers and the mamas will say it’s indecent. Why, we’d lose a thousand subscribers if I printed this story.”

“Donald, I think you’re avoiding the times. This story is news. It’s what’s happening in America, and if you and the preachers and the mamas don’t like it, at least they ought to know what’s going on.”

Sutton rose to his feet and came around to face Emily. “Emily, you’re young. You haven’t had to face irate subscribers. If you had, you’d know that this story won’t do. And the photographs! Why, it looks like one of the Hearst papers from New York.”

“Well, at least people are reading the Hearst papers.”

“No, they’re not! They’re looking at the pictures. We’re a newspaper, not scandal-mongering yellow journalism like those New York sheets!”

Emily argued for the next ten minutes, getting angrier all the time.

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