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The newsmaker is the kind of man who, when he meets a friend puts on a modest demeanour and asks smilingly 'Whence come you? What news? How? have you anything fresh about it? And as if it were something very urgent he asks again Is there any word in?’ ‘Well, that is good news,’ and without giving the man time to reply goes on, 'What’s your opinion Have you heard nothing? I think I can regale you with some news.’ He has, of course, a soldier, or a slave of Asteins the flute player, or Lykon the contractor just arrived from the seat of war, from whom he swears he has his information. At any rate the sources of that information are always too far away for anyone to get hold of. Mentioning some one of the above he tells how Polysperchon and the king have conquered and how Kassander is a prisoner. If someone asks him ‘Do you believe this?’ he answers Why, the town is full of it it gains ground every moment everyone has exactly the same account they give the same news of the battle,’ and adds, ‘What a slaughter there has been Isle declares a clear proof of it is found in the faces of the magistrates you can see they have all ctanged colour. He affirms he heard privately that man is kept by them concealed in a house wbo arrived five days ago from Mace- donia and knows all about it, and be will appear really grieved — the scoundrel — as he adds, ‘Poor Kassander poor man. It is Fortune’s usual way yet how great he once was and ‘Now none but you must know this,' after he has hastened to everyone in town with his tale. I have always wondered what men who make such tales desire, for not only do they become liars, but they suffer material loss. Often those who gather a crowd round them at the baths lose their cloaks, and those who are thus fighting on sea and land in the Stoa lose cases by failing to appea, and some of those who stormed cities with words have to go dinnerless. In what porch, what workshop, what corner of the market-place, do they not waste the day striking their hearers speechless or boring them to death with their romances? 1. On the death of Antipater (v. p. 12) Polysperchon
became regent of Macedonia by Antipaters desire. Antipaters son Kassander
appealed to arms to support his claim to succeed his father. The king
referred to is the mentally deficient Philip Arrhidaios whom Alexanders
generals raised to the throne an their great monarchs deaih. ror the true
history or the times as distinct from the invdntion o( the newsrnaker
v. [nirod. to edition by Tedmonds and Austen, or a general history like
Mahaffy's Alexander’s Successors
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NEWSMAKING is the manufacture
of false words and deeds as the newsmaker desires.
