Coulter was a hypocrite and a snob. Also he fancied he knew how to conduct
a newspaper. He was as unscrupulous as Stokely but tried to mask it.
When Stokely wished the _News-Record to advocate a "job," or steal, or
the election of some disreputable who would work in his interest, he told
Malcolm precisely what he wanted and left the details of the stultification
to his experienced adroitness. When Coulter wished to "poison the fountain
of publicity," as Malcolm called the paper's departures from honesty and
right, he approached the subject by stealth, trying to convince Malcolm
that the wrong was not really wrong, but was right unfortunately disguised.
He would take Malcolm into his confidence by slow and roundabout steps,
thus multiplying his difficulties in discharging his "duty." If Coulter's
son had not been married to Malcolm's daughter, it is probable that not
even his complete subserviency would have enabled him to keep his place.
"If you had told me frankly what you wanted in the first place, Mr.
Coulter," he said after an exasperating episode in which Coulter's
Pharisaic sensitiveness had resulted in Malcolm's having to "flop" the
paper both editorially and in its news columns twice in three days, "we
would not have made ourselves ridiculous and contemptible.
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