[The Confessions of Artemas Quibble by Arthur Train]@TWC D-Link bookThe Confessions of Artemas Quibble CHAPTER VI 24/37
But, now that the matter is settled, would you mind telling me who the lady really is ?" Gottlieb looked at him very solemnly and, to my horror, gave an imperceptible wink. "All I can tell you, sir," he replied, "is that her name is Lizzie Yarnowski, and that you married her under the name of Sadie Bings before a justice of the peace at Piqua, Ohio." At one time Gottlieb and I represented a very objectionable old party who ran a scurrilous "society" paper, chiefly for the opportunity it gave him to blackmail people.
His method was the very simple one of publishing some unfounded scandal without using any names, and then to print a paragraph immediately following in which the real names of the parties appeared, ostensibly with relation to some other item of news: "It is a well-known fact that a certain young society couple, both of whom have, to say the least, led rather lurid lives, are no longer on good terms and are carrying on--_sub rosa_--independent establishments.
Mr .-- -- prefers the upper West Side, while Mrs. -- -- has a tidy little Louis XVI flat on Eleventh Street.
Incidentally the family mansion remains at -- -- Fifth Avenue. "Mr.and Mrs.Kopeck Louis d'Or Jones are not going to Newport this summer.
There is a persistent rumor that Mrs.Jones will remain with her mother on the Hudson, while her husband's plans are quite indefinite." In point of fact it was Gottlieb who had invented this neat method of publishing scandal without any of the usual attendant risks. Generally what would happen would be that the day after the issuing of the number in which the objectionable article had appeared, Mr. Kopeck Louis d'Or Jones would call up the white-haired editor of _Social Sifting_ on the telephone and tell him that he proposed to sue him for libel unless he printed an immediate retraction.
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