Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-10
"NOVELISTIO JOURNALISM"
The Views of the Most Gifted TO.
nlancer of the Press.

Louisville Courler-JOurna1.
Mr. Joseph Mulhattan is in town, and q
Courier-Journal reporter who talked to him
last night found him as good as ever.
Eyes, sir, have started a new branch
in journalism; something that is an innova
ton and success. l call it novelistic Jour
nalism. Dickens and Thackeray wrote q
novel in a volume and considered them
selves fortunate when 100000 people read
it in five years Iwrite novel of a thousand
words that is read by more than 600, OJ0
people ten hours after it has left my hand
Why, what could be more attractive to a
literary man? Nobody is hurt by my little
novels; nobOdy's morals are interrupted, and
all are entertained and sometimes instructed
l have selected ell sorts Of subjects for these
stories; many of them have travelled over
the world and have BEEN wondered at in
twenty nations. l am Just 80 years old
and am famous. There is not 4 man in this
country who can read and write and who has
read the newspapers that doesn't know Of
ice 1LUlhattan. I have fooled every paper
Of prominence in the United States, amd
some Of my scientific stories have been dis
cusscd by the learned societies of Europa
when did you begin your career OF men
dacity!" interrupted the reporter
Il have been writing my novels for ten
years now. I started on The Pittsbjrg
Leader and fooled them for three or four
years. | wrote stories of marvellous oil
wells, of romantic highway robberies and
things of that kind. then got to sending my
novels to other prominent journals
started the story of John Wilkes Booth being
seen in several places and wrote so circum-
Stantially that many believed it. l started,
us joke, the report that President Lincoln's
bones would be exhibited at the Centennial
The press of the country took it up, and for
weeks it was a national question. | don't
know how many of these stories | wrote in the
east. The biggest thing wrote in this part
of the country was the Big Ciifty fight,
where drummer wrestled with two high
waymen on u bridge and finally threw them
over. My cave story at Glasgow Junction
went all over the world; you doubtless re-
member that. I found cave there larger
than Monmouth Cave, with navigabe riv-
ers, mummies :, 900 years old AID a hundred
other things. The Leitchlield story about
the finding Of masonic embleuls that had
been buried for thousands Of years, showing
u prehistoric race of masonS, caused great
excitement. l am prOuder Of my Glasgow
Inore invention and more Imagination"
What was the basis of such u marvellous
Lies"
lyon mean such well-imaginel novel"
interrupted Mr. Mulhattan, with u smile.
"Why. there is never any foundation to my
stories Therein lies my power. Almost any
body could write a story with the foundation
to build on; it requires genius to construct
novel without any foundation in fact what
ever, to evolve it al out Of your own head as
q spider draws the web from its own body |
wrote that thing about the finding of n cave
at Gailatin, where the jewels and gold of the
James brothers were found. When Frank
James read it. lie turned 10 Il ja;ler and sad:
III bet that story WIS written by Joe ,Iul-
hattan'n
"W hat has been your success in TcxaSr'
Every fine. 1 suppose you read my ne
teor story. The Fort Worth Gazette received
the-day after it was published ! Il kilograms
from all parts of the world; some were from
st. Petersburg; some FROM London; some
from Edinburgh When | visited Fort Worth
afterward they gave me a fine banquet. The
Texans enjoyed my novels immensely. Some
OF my stories have never been contradicted,
especially that one about the finding OF five
skeletons under a tree where the people had
all been killed by lightning. They are talk
ing Of running me for congress down there.
Tom Ochitree, who used to be- friendly with
me before, hardly speaks to me now He
says tho meteor story laid him cold. He will
never amount to anything again as Il liar"
That last balloon story which Is going the
rounds of a man hanging by two fingers
while he was dragged four miles reads like
you wrote it"
mo" replied the jules Verne Of American
newspapers, with sigh of regret at such
good lie having escaped him; II didn't write
it, but whoever did was good one Icouldn't
have done the work better myself"