The public is an
ass, but it is an ass with a memory at least three days long. Your
stealthiness has made the ass bray at us instead of with and for us. And
that is dangerous when you consider that running a newspaper is like
running a restaurant--you must please your customers every day afresh."
Coulter was further difficult because of his anxieties about social
position for himself and his family. He was disturbed whenever the
_News-Record_ published an item that might offend any of the people
whose acquaintance he had gained with so much difficulty, and for whose
good will he was willing to sacrifice even considerable money. Personally,
but very privately, he edited the _News-Record's_ "fashionable
intelligence" columns on Sunday and made them an exhibit of his own
sycophancy and snobbishness which excited the amused disgust of all who
were in the secret.
Malcolm liked Howard, admired him, in a way envied his fearlessness, his
earnestness for principles. For years he had had it in mind to retire and
write a history of the Civil War period which had been his own period of
greatest activity and most intimate acquaintance with the behind-the-scenes
of statecraft. Howard's energy, steady application, enthusiasm for
journalism and intelligence both as to editorials and as to news made
Malcolm look upon him as his natural successor.
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