Humour in St. Andrews Newspapers
While most of these topics are fairly subject-specific, humour allows an easy freedom to skip hither and yon, from street to courthouse, robber to rakehell. If anything brings the old papers to life, it is humour. There was nothing of this to speak of in the Herald, what little remains of this little weekly, and perhaps not much more in the Standard, but with the Pilot and especially the Beacon the old Shiretown comes to life under the droll pens of these editors, and especially of Robert Armstrong, whose keen eye and good-natured sarcasm appears all over his varied output. Actually his successor, Wallace Broad, could deliver a good line or two. Very honorable mention should be made here of J. F. Worrell, author of "Shiretown Items," a diverting and entertaining column on local news which appeared in the St. Croix Courier roughly from 1930 to 1951. Worrell wasn't a reporter per se, and his naturally light touch was unhindered by the need to cover all the bases.