Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-08-26
"GATH."
A Graphic Pen Picture OF the Well
Known Popular Journalist.


naUe u great lnany eueLuiCo' '
more, Gath doesn't always mind what
he says. OF course, he doesn't tell
downright whoppers, you know, but
some of his truths have an India rub
Der attachment, for the sake Of con-
v~enience, that is exceptionally aggra-
waiting at times. Not long ago Gath
went after Joe Howard with some state
ments about the latter's private rela-
lions, which were not strictly governed
by the facts of the case. In response TO
this, a friend of Towards interviewed
Gath according to the rules OF b Bos-
ton prize ring. In other words, Gdth
was knocked out in one round. "A
sarcastic Journalist said to nae that
night, Townsend won't fight. DE
belongs to the ambulance corps OF
joulnalism-goes around with a Geneva
cross under his arm, picking up the
wounded" Nevertheless, Townsend Is
An AttraeIiYe Cuss. |
He writes more matter than any n |
man in America, and more of it is prob
ably called untrue. But his work has
the merit of unflsgging interest at ali
times, and it helps the circulation OF
the paper he writes for. l suppose no
individual journalist in America is so
much copied as Townsend, and few ii
any men get such good prices for their
work. At the time Of the Chicago con-
vention, for instance, he wrote page |
after page for the Cincinnati Enquirer
and sold the same material to the Chi. |
csgo Tribune. Each paper paid him
80 a column, and he used to run as
high as nine or ter columns a day. OF
course, he did not do all the actual
writing himself. He had three or four
stenograpaers, and he has learned the
difficult task of debating with rapidity
and at the same time putting character
into his work thus accomplished. Few
newspaper men who dictate give their
predictions the same air of indiyidu.
atty which Is possessed by the stuff
they turn out from the points OF their
personal pens. It is only when a man
is q better talker than writer that he is
.at,le to carry his individuality into die.
tation. Townsend, however, has got it
down fine. One other thing about him is
His Memory.
which is Of a most extraordinary de-
ScriptiOn in regard to its tenacity. He
is acquainted with pretty much every
body in the United States, and / never
knew him to forget either a face or the
name of q man al all prominent in pol
itics or other branches of life, If he had
once come in contact with him. In
Chicago Townsend used to drift around
the hotel Hobbies and the outside edges
OF the Convention, stopping for a mo-
ment and chatting with everybody he
met who was familiar to him, or *
changing q word here and there with
people he knew only by reputation. He
never took a note that | saw during the
entire time, but he would sit down
every now and then with his short
hand men and load them up one after
the other with the material gathered
during the day. He wrote but little
with his own hand, but the matter he
turned out was certainly of a spicy and
interesting character.
Beyond all this power OF memOry and
facility Of expression Townsend has q
very sympathetic method of doing
what he is about. In n room ia tue
house he has the walls lined with scrap
books, which are indeXed thoroughly.
IF a man suddenly into promi-
neuce, or anything happens to draw
him before the public, Townsend takes
down
The Book Which II IndeNed
with the letter beginning this mans
name, and finds all he has accumulated
there concerning him. AS he reads
every newspaper that Ome along, and
clips out all personal matters, or mat
ters bearing upon persons, he has dra Sn
together a tremendous amount OF in
formation about everybody who has
been IN the papers at all since he began
this sort Of thing. l suppose his scrap
book system is the most complete thing |
at its kind in America, or in the world.
When he reads over his book, he sit~
down aud telegraphs all he can find, or
invent, that makes good reading. He
seems to have taking the clipping no. |
ton from Charles Reade, who is we'll |
known 10 have conducted operations in
this line ever since he was q yOuugster.
Reade, however, does not go in for per- |
soual information, of course, he is not
IN journalism. Reade's scheme is to cut
out from the papers every interesting
Iucifent he eau lind, and every one OF
those curious complications of human
life which he came across every few
days in the reading Of every large Jour-
uaI, wherever published. Reade also
keeps Il complete list Of the newspaper |
reports Of great crimes as the basis Of q |
novel, and out OF il he can draw q plot |
U!great vigor and depth.
Townsend is
AStout Man.
ofmedium height, with ford complex
ion, and a quiet manner. He usually |
wears q Prince Albert coat, dark NOUS
tache and gray eyes. His nose turns
slightly downward at the end, and his
hair is brown. 1t is a singular thing
that q man who can talk so well to
shorthand writers makes so bad a
speech after dinner. But au after
dinner speech, when you come to think
of il, is shout the hardest thing on earth
to do in 3 satisfactory manner. Town
send usually gets around it by making
two or three introductory remarks, |
winding up with saying that he cannot
at this time fix his mind upon any par
ticulal thread, but that instead of max
ipg a speech he will, if his hearers con-
sent. recite y few verses of his own COM. |
position. He then gives them Little
Grisette-a rhymed story OF the sort OF
life in Paris which everybody reads
about and nobody gets a look at. The
little grisette / Jaw In Paris had big feet
and big hands, and were abnormally |
addicted to the use of intOxicsnts. IL
the students in the Latin quarter like
that sort of thing they can nave it, so
far as any civilized human being IL
concerned. However, Mr.. Townsend's
poem is full of life and very we'll written,
but il Is too ideal to be at all realistic. |
He recites it very well bet ween puts at
his ~aher-dinner cigar. 1t is a good
scheme TO have something Of this kind
always on tap, and to hsvea proprietary
interest in il that will keep anybody
else from collaring its idea.
o,nn,nAI u.NNlNn At unNE