The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-08-17

indexed with the letter beginning this mans
nane, and finds all he has accumulated there
concerning him AS he:.rsads every newspaper
that comes along, and clips out all
personal matters, or matters bearing upon
persons, he has drawn together . tremendous
amount OF information about everybody who
has been in the papers at all since he began
this sort OF thing. Isuppose his scrap book
system ia the most complete thing Of its kind
in America, or in the world When he reads
over his book. he sits down and telographs all
ne can ind, or invent, that makes good read
ing. He seems to have taken the clippI ing
notion from Charles Reade, who is well-known
to have conducted operations on this line ever
sinoe ne was . youngster. Reade, however, does
not go In for personal information, Of course,
because he is not in journalism. Reade's
scheme Is to cut out from the papers every in
terestlng Incident he can tnd. and every one
OF those curious complications Of human
lie which he came across every few days in
the reading OF every large journal, wherever
published. Reade also keeps a complete list
OF the newspaper reports OF great crimes He
Will take one OF these crimes as the basis Of E
novel, and out OF it he can draw q plot of great
vigor and depth.
Townsend is a stout man. Of medium height,
with ford complexion, and a quiet manner.
He usually waArs a Prince Albert coat, dark
trousers. and . plug hat He has a dark
monstache aud gray eyes. His nose turns
slightly downwards at the end, and his hair
q ulaI tlllls tuut u 1ldli
who can talk so we'll to shorthand writer's
makes 80 bad a speech after dinner. But an
after-dinner speech, when you come to think
OF it, is about the hardest thing on
earth to do in a satisfactory man
ner. Townsend usually gets around it
by making two or three introductory remarks,
winding up with saying that he cannot ct this
tune nix his mind upon any particular thread,
put thai instead of making a speech he will, if
his hearers consent, recite a few verses Of his
rwn# nnnor En kt,n- -,-Nr ~ 1,k&1n
Grisette-a rhymed story of the sort Of life in
Paris which everybody reads aboutand nobody
gets a look at The little g~risettes l saw in
Paris had big feet and big hands,
aud were abnormally addicted to the use Of in
to1icants. If the students in the Latin quarter
like that sort of thing they Gun have it, go far
as any civilized human being is concerned.
However, Mr.. Townsend's poem is full of life
and very well written, but it is too ideal to be
at all realistic. He recitos it very well, between
scheme to have something of this kind always
on tap, and to have o proprietary interest in it
that will keep anybody else from ~collaring it's
idea.
GENTLE JOE HOWARD
While l am about it, l might as well tell you
something OF the other actors III this little
Howard-Townsend episode. 1t has always
struck me, by the by, as rather curious that
journalists do not fight ~oftener. No class of
men on earth say bitterer things about each
other, and none feel 80 badly when they are
attacked. I suppose Joe Howard has fired off
as many tough epigrams at different peo-
pie in America as anybody. Howard
was the boss editor of the New York
Star, att The beginning of that papers career.
He made things pretty livoly around Printing
House square while he was down there. The
first thing done by Howard to attract general
attention WAS the framing Of the bogus proc
lanation, puporting to have been signed by
Abraham Lincoln, for which Joe was sent
down the harbor and kept in irons for a long
time. That WAS during the war. Even
under these trying circumstances he was full
Of good nature and generosity. Come other
chap, who was arrested at the same time and
went down with Joe, didn't have q penny to
his name. Howardf found in the bottom of one
you ye n' oo siSa' hsve '0 pat o t i in s = goo eese
quill, a 500 greenback, which, with
the wise foresight of that kind Of
journalism to which he is addicted, he had put
there out Of reach, This he produced, and
ball and chair around, he 'swhacked up" with
his companion, not because he had known
him, or had been q friend of his, but simply
because he was . fellow prisoner in the same
hot water he himself was laundering through.
ible writers in America; although he has writ
ton until the hair is all of his head, and
although he can remember back SO far that
everybody who has only been in
journalism a simple matter of half
century or So. looks upon
one Of the most energetic and Woodworking
men in the profession, and he earns a lot of
money. When he left the Star he went to the
Herald, where his salary was liked at $3.50 a
week. He sends tho Philadelphia Press a
letter for every Sunday, which pays him 800.
It is a pretty tart letter, but it brings readers
to the Press Office, and that settles its value in
the publishers eyes, Eyery now and then, too,
l notice some work over his signature In the
Boston Herald and Chicago News. I don't
know what other papers he writes sfor, but he
does some work for commercial houses in
New York. Altogether his income runs from
$1,000 to $4,000 a year. Howard is one
Of the gentlest aud incest chaps in
know. I am not acquainted with a
single man in journalism. barring Townsend,
who feels resentment enough against Joe
Howard to give him a rub OF serious import in
a newspaper. He had lots of enemies at the
time he ran the Star in the interest of Bill
Tweed and that clique. But by his genuine
good humor and unfaltering clinginR to all
those who have been friends OF his, Joseph
has lived down every particle Of ill-naturo
there ever was against him. He works in q
ages to turn out interesting material all the
time. There is about as much system to him
as there is to a dynamite bomb. He bursts out
into an article and spreads over pretty much
the entire surrounding territory, but he sell
doms shows any violent hostility for ANYBODY.
him value to a paper like the Herald
where his position is Of that semi-editorial
type which allows him q good deal of swing.
Whenever any big thing occurs anywhere IN
ing the last presidential contest he had charge
OF the campaign. He came out of it smiling,
confronted, full of friends and afhuent, He
knows every trick and rope of journalism, and
he pulls them all with equal success.
don't know how old Joe Howard is, and I
he is. He has q round. benevolent face, with
a gray mous'achc, and a patch of goatee on
his under lip, about the size of a dwarfed
mushroom. He has pleasant gray eyes,
through gold bowed glasses. His he.d
shines like the top Of the Massachusetts, state
house, and hair is equally visible on both
globes. Usually he wears a white, soft felt hat,
which is the only remnant Of his ambition to
step into the shoes of the late Thurlow Weed.
; Around his neck he has o long gold chain,
which leaves You divided in opinion as tc
| whether he is o circus man or the press agent
of o railroad company. He is addicted 10 low
vests, and on The middle of his shirt from
there is o gold cross, with a diamond in the
center. he has a genial and comforting man
ner, and will invite you to drink more times II
q minute than any other man in Americs. HI
is just the same man he was twenty years ago
i'll every particular that I can see
He will never grow old. When hi
time comes he will quietly blow away. wlthou
aging o day, or growing venerable worth
darn. Between you and mel say it secretly
mind you'll believe Joe Howard has found tn
eternal spring Of Ponce do Leon. The othe
day l was up at High Bridge, on the Harlem
river, when | saw him contemplating a slidin,
elevator which was carrying people up tn
high bank from the waters edge in swsrms.
atm tho capitalist of that affair."" said, Joseph
1T costs $50 q week to run it, and We are takini
800 q day. Lets take Pommery. You can get.
ciam-bake at the top, and a glass of beer at th
bottom" LEANDER RICHARDSON. I
IN SUMMER TIME.