noon
The scrap-book grew rapidly to alarming proportions , for having now my opportunity I worked hard , and Mr. Hanks was fond of telling me that I was rapidly outgrowing the reputation Doctor Todd and Mr. Pound had made for me on Park Row . Accounts of murders , suicides , yacht-races , robberies , public meetings , railroad accidents -- all the varied events which make up a day 's news -- followed the funeral into Gladys Todd 's archives . You can readily imagine that my views of life soon underwent a change . They became rather distorted , as I see them now ; and was it a wonder when my day began at noon and ended in the small hours of the morning , carried me through hospitals , police-stations , and courts , from the darkest slums to the stateliest houses on the Avenue , from the sweatshop to the offices of the greatest financiers . To me all men were simply makers of news , and by their news value I judged them . A man 's greatness I measured by the probable length of his obituary notice . Indeed , greatness itself was but the costume of a puppet , so often did I see the sawdust stuffing oozing from the gashes in the cloth .