The boy's early education had been picked up in the streets (his father had got the truant officer his position) and it was thorough.

Later he had received a more theoretical training in the University of New York, but I think it was his early education which stuck by him longest, and which, in the end, was probably the more useful of the two.

Armed with this equipment, it was inevitable that he should develop into a star reporter.

Not only did he write his news in an entertaining form, but he first made the news he wrote about.

When any sensational crime had been committed which puzzled the police, Terry had an annoying way of solving the mystery himself, and publishing the full particulars in the Post-Dispatch with the glory blatantly attributed to "our reporter." The paper was fully aware that Terence K.Patten was an acquisition to its staff.