The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-05-23
GEORGE o. PRENTICE.
Incidents In the Career OF the Renowned
Humorist.

Incidents In the Career OF the Renowned
Humorist.
There is sort of general idea that
Prentice was "a bad man with gum"
a duelist, and all that sort of thing.
Nothing could be more erroneous, The
fact is he never fought duel, but was
sometimes, from the nature of his bust
ness, forced to personal and sudden
rencounters. He was frequently chal-
lenged, but always made fun of mes
sages. Once he wrote his challenger
that it only took one fool to send
challenge, while it took two to fight,
and he didn't wish to be classed in the
category. On another occasion he ac-
cepted the challenge, and having the
choice of weapons, insisted that each
man should be armed with a straw and
cask of whisky, and that each should
suck with his straw from his own cask
until one fell and that one should be
considered vanquished and the others
honor satisfied.
Prentice was an exceedingly candid
man, as the following anecdotes will
show: NOnce Win S, Hays, the famous
song-writer, in conversation with him.
said Il suppose, Mr.. Prentice, you
have seen my last songp" With u sly
and quizzical look at the minstrel, he
replied; "Well, hope so, Bill"
| Coming out of a public building one
day, where there were double doors
which swung in and out, young man,
who was coming in, pushed against the
left-hand side of the door in which to
enter, while Mr.. Prentice was pushing
against the other side of the door, try
ing ia make his exit. The result was
u ridioulously awkward halt Finally,
when the two had managed to get the
door open, Mr.. Prentice said to the
stranger: ''My young friend in maxi
ing your way through the world, il you
will only keep to the right you will
never run against anybody but fool,
and you needn't apologize to him.
Somebody stole the unabridged die
tionary once from the editorial room of
the journal, and Mr. Prentice, having
occasion TO use that valuable tome, dis
covered the loss. Forthwith he ordered
that another copy OF the book be pur-
chased Mt once. For said he ''no
one but shameless egotist would at
tempt to edit newspaper without a
dictionary"
Mr.. Prentce's hat was one of his &C.
centricities He always had il more
than half full of bits of paper not larger
than postal stamp, on each of which
he had written word or two, in the
way of memoranda. Besides, he car
rled his pocket-knife, pencils, scissors,
spectacles and portem onnaie in it, and
sometimes, in an absent-minded way,
he would put well-mastieated chew
of tobacco into it instead of throwing
the cud away.
Many persons from abroad used to
call on Mr. Prentice when they were in
Louisville, as though he was one Of tho
curiosities OF the CITY, or just for tho
purpose of being able to say that they
had talked with such great man, and
this was peculiarly annoying to him, as
he was inclined to be retiring and
really never thought of comprehending
his own fame. On one occasion an old
friend called on the editor and brought
with him callow young man from
some underlined locality IN the rural
districts. This youth was particularly
curious, and actually asked Mr.. Prem
tice to say something funny.
The ludicrous remark was smoothed
over as quickly ms possible by
the gentleman who brought the
young man in, and shortly there
after some liquid refreshments
were ordered to be brought up to
!, the sanctum Mr.. Prentice had chosen
q mint-julep, and when it came he held
it up and asked the gentleman why
that drink was like his young friend9
OF course the young man, feeling flat
tered by the attention, was eager to
know, and begged for the answer to
tho conundrum. Finally, turning to
the gentleman, Mr.. Prentice said with
pleasant smile: "This Is green
horn!"
, Once Mr.. Prentice met an acquaint-
ance on the street who was very much
intoxicated, and he declared to the wit
I that he was all hunkidori" "What
do you mean by hunkidorip" said Mr..
p. II mean, SIR" said The inebriate
"that / am pretty drunk. - "Well,'
said Mr.. Prentice, ''if hunkidori means
/ pretty drunk, / think you are hunh
! dori" In 1868 Hon. Henry Waiter
: son became editor and part owner o
the Journal, and Mr.. Prentice, who haC
> grown quito feeble, did very 1ittl'
work. In the course of six month";
, the journal was consolidated with TIL
; Courier and became what is known a
. the Cotr'ier-JouraaL. About yea
I after, Mr.. Prentice died at the resi-
: dence of his son, Colonel Clarenc
Prentice, few miles below Louisville
" on the Ohio River.
~ He was powerful editor, and wa
= the most brilliant Photographer OF tn
II age-indeed, the first one of any note
n His wit was bright and sparkling, hi
IL satire keen, his eloquence grand, hi
II poetry beautiful, his logic unanswei
q able. A deep thinker, a profoun
f. reasoner; genial, hopeful, human, ant
ia therefore. sometimes erring. he had tn
no no best of friends, the bitterest enemies
nj and he was, all in all, great an
in gifted mana genius.-W I. Vtssche
a. IN Denuer Opinion.
to Roller skates were patented in 1856
Vi but never became popular until fe
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