The competition, too, for
advertisements, was keen, and the editors were continually taunting each
other with taking them for the duty alone. AEneas M'Quirter was the editor
of the _Patriot_, and Felix Grimes that of the _Guide to Glory_.
M'Quirter, we need hardly say, was a Scotsman--a big, broad-shouldered
Sawney--formidable in 'slacks,' as he called his trousers, and terrific in
kilts; while Grimes was a native of Swillingford, an ex-schoolmaster and
parish clerk, and now an auctioneer, a hatter, a dyer and bleacher, a
paper-hanger, to which the wits said when he set up his paper, he added the
trade of 'stainer.'
At first the rival editors carried on a 'war to the knife' sort of contest
with one another, each denouncing his adversary in terms of the most
unmeasured severity. In this they were warmly supported by a select knot of
admirers, to whom they read their weekly effusions at their respective
'houses of call' the evening before publication. Gradually the fire of
bitterness began to pale, and the excitement of friends to die out;
M'Quirter presently put forth a signal of distress.
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