appeared a double-column editorial, running over into another double column, celebrating "The Jungle" and myself in emphatic capitals, and urging the American people to read my all-important revelations of the infamies of the Beef Trust:
In his book — which ought to be read by at least a million Americans — Mr. Sinclair traces the career of one family. It is a book that does for modern INDUSTRIAL slavery what "Uncle Tom's Cabin" did for black slavery. But the work is done far better and more accurately in "The Jungle" than in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Mr. Sinclair lived in the stockyards. He saw how the men that work there are treated, how the people that buy dreadful, diseased products are treated. HE TOLD THE TRUTH SIMPLY AND CONVINCINGLY. He went there to study life, not merely to tell a story.
As a result of the writing of this book, of the horror and the shame it has aroused, there is a good prospect that the Beef Trusty devilries will be CHECKED at least, and one hideous phase of modern life at least modified. ....
Meanwhile, the public should be thankful to Mr. Sinclair for the public service he is rendering, and his book "The Jungle" should sell as no book has sold in America since "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
And then on May 31st, two days later, appeared another editorial of the same character, conveying to the readers of the "Evening Journal" the fact that they might read this wonderful novel in the Hearst newspapers; the first chapter would be published in both the "Evening Journal" and the "American," and after that the complete story would run in the "American." The ordinary capitals used by Mr. Brisbane in his editorials were not sufficient in this crisis; he used a couple of sizes larger — almost an advertising poster. I quote the closing paragraphs from his editorial:
It will please our readers to know that for the right to publish Mr. Sinclair's book serially in our newspapers — which includes no interest whatever in its publication in book form — we pay to him an amount of money exceeding all that he has been able to earn in six years of hard literary work.
This newspaper, which has opposed the Beef Trust and its iniquities for years, and which first published the facts and the affidavits that form part of Mr. Sinclair's indictment, rejoices that this young man should have had the will, the courage and the ability to write a work that HAS FORCED NATIONAL ATTENTION, including the attention of the President of the United States. .... We urge that you read the first installment of Mr. Sinclair's book in this newspaper to-day, and that you continue reading it daily as the various installments appear in THE AMERICAN.
