Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 8 Payday

"Old John."

He interrupted Old John's persuasion, and Colin turned to look at the old employee of the newspaper.

"Do you think there is any essential difference between earning 5 cents more from the newsboy and earning 5 cents less based on the current sales situation of the Courier?"

"..."

Unsurprisingly, Colin's rhetorical question made Old John fall into silence. He lowered his head and helped the brass glasses on his face, and shook his head helplessly after a while.

"Perhaps you are right, sir."

Indeed, the sales volume of the "Courier" has fallen to the bottom, not even one-fifth of the peak period.

Such sluggish sales have long been insufficient to support the operation of the newspaper.

All three people in the newspaper knew this, but no one wanted to expose it.

After all, once the bubble bursts, what they have to face is the bloody reality of the Great Depression.

"So, instead of worrying about the five cents in the newsboy's hand, it's better to think about how to get the rest of the "Courier" news out before the weekend's publication."

Colin's words made Old John recover from his entanglement. He turned his slightly sore wrist and looked back at the typesetting machine behind him. I have already asked Little John to prepare the materials, but the most important position of the front page has never been settled."

Originally, Old John planned to publish a photo of actress Virginia Cherrill on the front page of the newspaper.

It is the actor who co-played the heroine, the flower girl, with Chaplin in "City Lights".

Although the enthusiasm for movies has long since receded, and Virginia Cherrill is considered a front-page news, it is somewhat suspicious, but given the current situation of the "Courier", there is not much room for picking and choosing.

It's a pity that even such an opportunity did not favor Old John and others.

As Colin heard outside the newspaper office, the shooting of Little John did not go well, and in the end, a clear photo of Cherrill was not taken as the cover photo of the newspaper.

"If it's the front page of a newspaper, I actually already have an idea."

Seeing Old John's distressed appearance, Colin made a confident expression.

Immediately afterwards, amidst the surprised expression of the other party, he handed over the press release paper and photos that he had written long ago.

"This is?"

Subconsciously reaching out to take the manuscript paper from Colin, Old John lowered his head and scanned the content on the paper, then frowned, hesitatingly said: "Will such content be too..."

Although Old John didn't say the rest, Colin still understood the second half of his meaning from his expression.

"So, do you think there's anything wrong with what I've written?"

Facing Colin's rhetorical question, Old John looked at the content in his hand again, then shook his head and said: "Indeed, as you said, boss, there is no problem with the content, except for some ruthless words and phrases. outside."

It's so merciless.

He silently added a sentence in his heart. On the surface, Old John didn't dare to refute more, because he had already seen that since Colin had already prepared the news manuscript, no matter what he said, it was useless.

That being the case, why should he do the opposite and make the boss unhappy for nothing.

"Since there is no problem with the content, let's start typesetting immediately. There is not much time left until the publication date."

Today is already Friday, and there is only less than a day and a half left before the publication date of the "Courier" after all the calculations.

The typesetting of newspapers in this era is far less convenient than that of later generations. Even the best typesetting workers need to spend several hours of effort to complete the typesetting of a newspaper.

Therefore, after receiving the affirmative order, Old John took the manuscript paper in his hand to the typesetting machine without hesitation, and began to edit it word by word according to the above content.

On this side, Old John started working, and on the other side, Colin was not free either.

In the Messenger newspaper with only three people, he is not only the boss, but also the editor of the newspaper.

Sitting at his desk, Colin picked up a pen filled with ink, combined with various news materials collected by Little John, and began to rush to draft.

Fortunately, as a reporter in another world, Colin is already familiar with the news production process.Although the loss of the convenience of the computer slowed him down a lot in the writing process, but the urgency of time forced Ke Lin to get out the manuscript as quickly as possible.

clap clap-

Unknowingly, the sky outside the street gradually darkened.

After finally finishing the typesetting work in hand, Old John let out a long sigh of relief, twisted his sore shoulders, and turned around to see Colin still leaning over his desk, writing furiously.

"Cough cough..."

Seeing this, Old John hesitated for a moment before putting his hand to his mouth and coughing deliberately.

"what happened?"

Old John's coughing didn't attract Colin at the desk, but woke up Little John, who was dozing off with his chin on his side, coughing.

Smacking his lips, he looked at the surrounding environment in a daze, and then Little John asked Old John with a half-dream and half-awake face.

"It's none of your business."

He glanced at Little John with a speechless face, and Old John replied with a straight face while coughing more loudly.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

This time, Old John's cough worked.

Disturbed by the sound of coughing, Ke Lin at the desk stopped the manuscript paper in his hand, and turned his sore wrist.

It was only when I looked up that I noticed the pitch-black night outside the newspaper office.

"It's already so late."

Seeing this, Colin put down the pen in his hand, noticed the gazes from the old John and his son, blinked his eyes, and his expression suddenly became a little bit stunned.

"Sorry, I was so engrossed in writing that I actually forgot to notify you."

"It's okay, I just finished the typesetting of the press release in my hand."

Hearing this, Old John responded quickly, never mentioning what he had just coughed.

Shaking his head, he got up from his desk.

Ke Lin knew very well that the reason why the two of them stayed so late was that it couldn't be as simple as devotion to their duties and love of work.

Therefore, he didn't say anything, reached out his hand to take out the money bag from his pocket, and then poured out two stacks of coins under the gaze of Old John and Little John.

"Thank you, be careful on the road."

After handing the two stacks of ten-dollar coins to Old John and Little John, Colin casually reminded them.

"thank you boss!"

After receiving this week's salary from Colin, Old John showed a faint smile on his skinny face. As for Little John on the other side, he couldn't help showing a happy expression.

Watching John and his son leave the newspaper office, Colin sighed and weighed the purse that didn't weigh too much in his hand.

After paying the workers' weekly wages, the Courier newspaper is really on the verge of running out of fuel.

(End of this chapter)