Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, September 12, 1913, Page 4

et i - DS S At A A U S e et S e e < PAGE ki o T The L Sl Putiishe. Kentu o e g wantera fand, Ik peccnd cliss A e M. F. Hir foronGTON, EDITOL HE NG i MANAGER. SUL: e 1ION RA'TS? PR voat e ey $5.01 Bx montts- e T e ) Waree mMui'Hs L..ieiecenen 1.2¢ Delitor n-where wiwnin the Umits of 1 iy of Laketand for 1t poLts 4 Frow 4 Lue olie? i8 issued THE LELAND NEWS, h wer PRy giving & resume | of lo i crop eonditions ' &) U Sent ‘-.uy\\'nv.'n‘1 i é 10 | “A CASE O LITETARY LARCENY” i 194 Te YR b Journal has the followi secing to show a clear « y theft of most detestal characters = 1P NFRG- dAps thur W B Wihose name appears in ‘iihe | 1 as the author of the st tion is not guilty he o ten to exenlpate him- gelfl. To o.r personal knowledse Miss Celia Myrover Robinson wrote that story ard Pae knows that he didi't ¢ it, and, such being the case, he ourht to make the amende due from any gentleman, disclaim the aunthorshin and pay to Miss Rob- inson the received from “The Bookman' or any other source for it. that either Page or “The Bookman’ make rectitution in this case. The Journal says: “Some time ago, Miss Celia My- rover Robiveon, of the Journal staff, wrote an 0. [lenry story which she tried to digposc of to a syndicate but which was apparently rejected al- though the manuscript was returned. Later the Pensacola Jour- nal published the story and, while money he it was a fine piece of literature in itself, it attracted more than ordi- nary attention throuzhout Florida because because of the fact that a Florida newspaper man, “Uncle Joe Dixon,” was one of the two central figures in it, O. Henry being the other one. The story now comes to light again, word for word as Miss Robincon wrote it, except for a brief introduction, in “The Bookman" with the name of Arthur W. Page as its author, This seems to be a case of literary larceny on the nart of someone. The story was unique in that it dealt with incidents in the life of 0. Henry and phases of his character, as told by a man who was with him at the time, that had nev- er been pnblished in all of the stories that had been written about the great author. There ought to be some way of punishing a person or a publication which steals litera- | Ccmmon honesty dnm:mds] | | | influential men of Texas In the article appearing in The Dookman uuder the seueral titie “Littie Pictures ot 0. lieury,” the foliowing extract will be of iuterest to I'lorida frieuds of “Uncle Joe” Dixon of the Lakeland Telesram: (By Celia Mjyrover Robinson) Will Porter found a new kind of life in Texas—a life that filled his mind with that rich variety of types and adventures which late: was trauslated into his stories. lere he got—firom observation, and not from experience, as has ol- ten been said, for he was never & cowboy-—tlie originals of his west. ern characters and western scenes. He looked on at the more pictur- esque life about him rather thau shared it; though through his warm sympathy and his vivid imagination he catered into its spirit as com- pletely as any one who had fully lived its vavied parts, It was while he was the Hall ranch, to which he had cone in search of health, that he wrote and at once destroyed his first Angd it was the aow -living op westrn life. drew strations for a printed. ‘The that “Uncle Jou” v prospector in the - nanza mining days in Colorado. Now he is a newspaper editor in Florida; and he has lately toyid, for the survivors of Wil stories of there, too, that he il famous serics of that never we book author of Divon wi book i re- the orizin of these drawinos narrative illustrates anew the markable impression that Will Por. ter's quaint and whimsical person- ality, even in his boyhood made upon those who knew him. “Uncle Joe's” story is this: “Years before 1 went to Colorade, John Maddox—now one of ¢he most and my- {self had been intimate friends in ture just as can be done if the theft was of money, but as Miss Robin. son did not take the precaution to copyri~ht her story she can probably do nothing about it.” —0 In that little matter of our recent advice to l.eo I'rank, of Atlanta, to permit himself to be hanged in ac- cordance with the sentence of the court without gummingz up the case by further dilatory tactics, we sus- pect that the Orlando Reporter-Sta: fs more than half right when it says: “A thoronchly selfish man neither cares nor thinks of sociefy or coun try save to get what he can out of each and su:h lteincs are a menace to both. 1If Mr. Hetherington is huntinz somehody to nose as a mar tyr and permit himself to be “hun« by the neck nutil he is dead, dead, dead,” he will have to 20 further than Frank's cell in Atlanta. No, no, Fra 1k will not 20 to the gallows as a martyr or an example but to pay a just doht and to die the i“no- minlous death that we are confident he deserves.” O Possibly ‘eome of onr readers “are contemplatine snicide by the bi- cloride of r:~rcury ronte under the impression that tt is a sweet, swift and easy way to die. Don’t do it. The Journal of the American Medl- cal Association eays the public should know that there are few K cone Texas, which State was my home. In 1877 he and I learned of the ;:()l(l‘ excitement in the Black 1ills «f Da- kota and had started for tuat ro- nn-\'orlf”‘“ and were stranded in e where we were fleeced like lambs by the Chicago Board of Tra:de, when we tried a little flyer in the wheat market. as, where he made a fortune in the land business, but 1 stopped in Kan- sas City, got into the newspaper work and made that my ‘home. It was from there I went to Leadville in 1879 and spent several years in the Rockies prospecting for gold and silver. “One day Maddox wrote to me, af- ter I had been in the Rockies for some time, and said: ‘Joe, your carbonates lic at the bottom of an ink well. Come back and put down the pick for the pen, and you'll make a fortune. A man who can sce what you can see in the common things of life, and can write of them, can create a gold mine of his own. Come back to Austin and write a book. I will stake you for six months or longer, and you write of your life in the Rockies as you can write of it, and your fortune is made.’ “I hesitated, but John kept writ- ing to me, so in 1883 I went. “John owned a lovely home in the suburbs of Austin, and so there | gettled in the lap of luxury to write the book that was to make me fam- ous. “‘Take all the time you want.’ said John, ‘and 1 will have the book illustrated and published in the very best style and when it is finished we will go to Galveston and take boat for New York and ourselves see that it is well launched.’ “I shut myself up and worked early and late cver the story, which [ called ‘Carbonate Days.’ Joln came in every now and then to read ind praise and to declare that 1 wa: the coming writer of the are. “One day he came in and said ‘Qpe here Joe—there is a yony fel 'ow here who eame from North Cor vira with Dick Hall, named Wi Porter, who can draw like blozes I beheve he wculd be the very o hook. Diek Ha!ll ovns a shee yreh ont not very far from here, and Porter is workiny for bkim Now, von micht ro out there and take the book along and tell him iret what von want, and let him have a crack at it.’ “1t looted like a pretty good idea to me for it seemed to me that a nian vwhn had seen something of the 1ifo micht better be able to modes of suiclde more painful and in | g-nw the pietures. which tha qoony is longeér drnwn! out than by this drug. eide at this time with the Demo- | cratic party in fnll possession of every department of the government and the blecninre of our new tarift law about to ro'l over the country ke a tide of molten on'd, is more than we can understand; but there may be a (esnerate Nennblican here and there refuses to be com- forted, and . r the sa%e of such un. fortunates wo sai<e thig bi-chloride of mercury \.arriuz, vho Why any | eiln-t gane man shonld want to commit sni- ! 1ive o “t fonnd Porter to be a yonne, otlow, with breodin® . evpical Tor his vears, and deep, taeile pen, later to he turned g Instead of picture 3 drawin - A4 dicones tha stary wit) Va daviima ! nismt J the \ § ¢ ot \ ) s, they 1 t ¥ % ol Nowr a vnet ehans 1 for throp wo the illustrations, and ks Por- "Uucde Jo27 Diziya asd O Henry l‘ Porrpr ¢} friends of that period, the story m‘l Maddox returned to Tex. | book. I felt dull, dispirited, un- | happy. “Austin lies along the lovely o . p—_p i about the place \We slept to- siack. I be- Lie boy s and 1 roan:e and talsed tosctier, sethier in a rude litue hie came much iutercsted in wus a taciturn tel. low, with a peculiur little hiss; wilen amused, instcad of the boy- ish laush one might have expected, and he could give tiie queerest caus- de turn to speech, gzetting oif epi- rams like little sharp bullets, ev- ry once in a while, and always un- =xpectedly. “One night Mrs. Hall said to me: ‘Do you know that that quiet boy is v wonderful writer lle slips in ere every now and then wnd reads to me stories as fine as any Rider Jdaggard cver wrote.’ “Mrs. Hall was a highly culti- vated woman and her words deeply impresged me. After I had gained Will’'s confidence he let 1ie read a i i‘ew of his stories, and 1 found them | personuiity. lie very fine, ! { “*Will! 1 said to him one (Iuw} { “why dont you il writing for the n j ad o confid dectroyed his » them, | “‘Well, at any rate, T said, * ;}'()l!l' hand at newspaper work.’ { he conkdn't gee it, and went on writ- inz and destroying. { | ‘At last he got a position in land oflice and later, when that po- sition failed him he secored a job as a ‘soda water jerker' in a drug store on Pecan street. Soda water ‘jerking’ was, too much for Will and the next thing I heard of him Ihv had gotten into the newspaper v game-—but that was after I left! Austin. And when I left I did not stand on the order of my going. “Ior six months 1 had been work- ing on the book. As July ap proached, and with it the comple-| tion of the book and the trip to New York to the publishers, I be- gan to get nervous. 11 pack the book in my lmnk.'[ said John, ‘along with the illus a-y | tions and we'll leave tomorrow for New York via Galveston and when | you come back, old fellow, you'll Im! famous. I'm g()in;p: to have this book brought out in great style— | the very best, and you are going to be known far and wide as the great- (‘arbonate discoverer that ever came over the Rockies.’ “1 sat with my head in my hands and thought about it. That book was dear to me. Sometimes I thought it was a great book, a kumorous book, a book full of human nature. And again I thought that book was a great hoax and I looked upon my- self as a gigantic fraud. The book would cost John hundreds of dollars, What right had I to let him throw away his money on a book that 1| felt was foredoomed to failure? John loved me and I loved John with a great love. “I started up the street at last with the manusecript of ‘Carbnnate Days' carcfully wrapped up, to de. liver it to him, feeling like a thief in the night. I was tired with the grinding work I had put into the est curving banks of the Colorado river. I looked down into the placid waters and almost wished that I lay under their cool covering. “I had spent months over a bookl that I now considered worthless. A book that my dearest friend was go- ing to squander a small fortune on | 1 bringing, still-born, into the world. “l made a motion to pitch the manuscript into the water, and then [ remembered that there were oth- ors, who did not love me, who be- lieved that I could write—men who rnew well the writiny game—and 1 hesitated. Seribner's attracted by lecerintive letters I had sent to 2 Wansas City paper, had asked for the name of the writer, and had later written me, requesting me to ‘end them some sketches. Dut 1 had been too busy with ‘Carbonate Days' to attend to it. “l drew the bulky packa~e back, and then I remembered that the trip was less than six hours off. IPor the train to Galveston left about five in the merning and it was then nearly midnicht. “I hesitated no lonver. I opened the packace, and deliberately tore '! the story into frazments, chapter by chaoter. Then I threw it into the placid waters of the Colorado river, and turring my back on the Maddox home, retraced my steps to Austin. “l wrote a letter to John telling him the awful truth and then, in the vernacular of the west—1I pulled my freleht, | I didn't séé Johti d=atn for five Put I was told that he made at riverside rinz when he got my him the story With ahich he had intended to make me famons was floating on the bosom of the Colorado river. | *Ile ot out a searching party and ; they put off in a boat early in the morring and found the defunct ‘Car. bonate Days' lodged up against a | voare note telling ¢ trations Josh Billings scys: “When a feller offers you something for nothing-—-don’< wait---yell for a cop.’ If you havs us ssne ycur meas- ure to ED, V. PRICE & ‘€. Merchant Tailors Chicago you pay f.r that m satisection VWV A4 R0 825580 =« H | P TRY] » sand bar., It ! John, with the back home, jamme his trunk and took tl for New York. lle employed an ¢ pert to try to patch it to:cther they spent weeks over the task, death by drowninz had been com- plete. And John Maddox went ack to Texas with his faith in nature shaken and his belief in me mangled human | beyond recosnition. “n Jut John Aladdox had preserved, without knowing it, something more precious, and this 1B ] work of O. Henry—the forty il dnawvn fons Al bays.” I had handed them him some time before 1 fi story and he had them caretully put away in his trunk. “John has never quite forgiveu | | me that bad turn. | “As for Will Porter—I never saw him after he became 0. Ienry. “A short time after I left Austin | I was editing a country llv\\'spn[uvl'l' 4 in Texas. I used to notice, wmlut looking over the exchanges, a col- | 1 umn to a column and a half of work in the Houstin Post, called ‘Post. seripts.” One day I spoke of it in terms of praise and one of the men in the office sald: ‘That is the work of a young fellow named Will Por. ter, who has been on the Post a short time. “I Immediately went to I'fms!hn! to look Will up. I went into the business office and asked the man- ager where I could find him. “‘That is just what the m!i!nri | would like to know,” returned the | j business manager, ‘He hasn't| shown up here for three dave.’ ! *“The next time T heard of him 1\ was in Central America. It i then, doubtless, that he pathercd ' unconsciously, much of the materj for the stories that later made him the greatest short story writer of was i ! | ! | | 1 | i | i i i § first struck his paj¢, maintained until 1. the arms of his mog), who had always belieyeg ius, and whose fuait} No. 666 This is a prescription pre for MALARIA or cuflf;": Five or six doses will brea ) 1 if taken then as a tonic the o, Y return. It acts on the ! li | Calomel and does not m;,?; Immnnm [Wssry | | hig WS juy PIANO FOR sarg —_— For sale cheap for cash, g exchange for vacant lot, g oy ball piano. See Asa Brantly WANTED—A pozit man in store, offic dress B., care T.! FOR RENT—d4_room Lime and 4b) Lohr, 304 Ora | | | | . | GIRL | ) | SRRy i One plow, two ¢ i adjustible, and o: ’ regh Willer MRAJ 56 800eoth lanr 2 the lot. Also one galvanized ong pump, finest ever put intoa well, new (never cost $12.50; $8 cach cors it Also some choice H sordidness and the glamour the grapefruit buds, 1 to o yan At et et 25¢, 50¢ 75¢ and $1 each wide vision of life that even | Call during day at ¢ k, as we rcamed ,or played’ 8 that he yme to be the writer of all s heloved, who walked the ts of New York, to see in' 1oin the far west he had caught ! West Main St. and botu R 'p. m. at 806 S. Florida e | Por it was in the west that he land, Fla. AFew Fancy Good Kippered Herring 5Y Plum Pudding 35¢ Boned Chicken 35¢ Dill Pickles perdozen 20c¢’ Heinz Mince Meat 36¢ “ Apple Butter 15¢ '* Sliced Pineapple GOc Imported *ardines 15 and 25¢ s Mushrooms SCc 4 Cod Roe 28¢ Lyles Golden Sy rup 25¢ Crab Meat 2 25¢ W.P. PILLANS £ “Florlda Avenue Grocer” +Pure Food Store” Phone €3 days. in prices. 8 “GLT WISE" FENCE---FENCE.-.FENCE ?‘r to r:duce our stock we will make a specia! low price on all FENCING for the next thirty Do not overlook this opportunity to buv Fepcing at a very low price for CASH Contest closes September 15¢h, gkelggd f}g{niture & Hardware - J P AN VY