From 1925:
The pens and tongues of contumely were arrested. Mocking mouths were shut. Even righteous protestation hushed its clamor, as when, having striven manfully in single combat, a high-helmed champion is stricken by Jove’s bolt and the two snarling armies stand at sudden gaze, astonished and bereft a moment of their rancor.
That was Time, reporting on the start of the Scopes monkey trial.
The New Yorker, where I found this, goes on to add:
This is also a good example of what’s called a “blind lead,” a sort of swooping down from above, and out of nowhere. It could have been about anything. Time‘s obituaries often began, “Death, as it must to all men, came last week to …” They could have been about anyone.
The story, about the rivalry between Henry Luce and Harold Ross, is a great read.
