or with respect to the character of The Oregonian, he would say, "Oh, he means well, but I suspect that if I had slammed his interest or had bumped one of his favorite prejudices his tune would have been pitched in another key. If he had read widely he would know better than to estimate extravagantly an article which merely applies in a timely way principles as old as civilization." Then if there was a moment of leisure or if the mood was upon him—and when the mood was upon him there was always leisure—he would, commonly rising from his chair and pacing the floor, recite in a sort of measured sing-song which never failed to bring out the full meaning, some classic passage pertinent to the matter immediately under consideration.
It would be too much to say that Mr. Scott did not relish commendation. What I wish to make clear is he never allowed his pleasure in the approval of others to unhorse his judgment, least of all to magnify to himself the merit of his own performances. His standards in the matter of estimating the value of any piece of work were wholly apart from his own relation to it, and the only fault I could ever discover in his judgment of his own work and the work of others was that he was infinitely more considerate of the latter than of the former. Yet there was one curious exception to this rule. Somehow Mr. Scott could never feel that the work of any pen other than his own could pledge The Oregonian to anything. In later years—that is, within the latter half of his editorial life—the editorial page was the work of various hands. Scrupulous as he was in respect to his own articles, he could never, unless the subject chanced to be important, be brought to give more than perfunctory attention in manuscript or proofs to the work of anybody else. "Oh, let it go in," he would say, if asked to pass upon an article, "and take its chance for whatever it may be worth." And so four times out of five Mr. Scott's first reading of the articles of his associates was when they appeared in printed form. Then, perhaps, if there was anything which he seriously disapproved he would soon thereafter bring the paper round with one
