The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-09-02
GOOD WRITING ABOUT NOTHING.
The Young Reporter Invents an In
terview With Satan Which Seems
Fabulous.

| [From the New York Times.1
| The reporter quilted the room. which is
not larger than a pocket handkerchief
but the windows of which open on antique
gardens. His entrance into the park was
saluted by a veritable explosion of ioy
among the birds, the leaves, the japanese
ducks and the swans. 1t pleased him be.
cause he knew that they were disinter-
ested and would not expect him TO des-
| cribe their dress or the charm of their
conversation.
They were glad to see so handsome a
young man, and perhaps they said to
themselves-they are so naive-that the
Great Sculptor, after He had modelled the
angels, nnding that there was a little clay
Ieft IN the studio, was moved by love OF
order to mould a man with an angelic
taee.
A dramatic critic was attracting the
squirrels with pecanS and walnuts but
the reporter did not need anything but his
presence to be attractive Suddenly he
reeolleeted that he had seen spot among
me trees which Lei; was, delightfully."- scarlet
colored. He liked red. and never missed
an occasion to look at it. He followed
the spot without asking himself what its
cause might be. He is not at all similar
to the personages of the psychologist nov
elists who are never ccItent with being
happy or sad, but always want to know
why.
ophers do, he followed the spot Thus he
walked to the top of the observatory.
why try TIC understand anything? The
spot was simply she red gown of Miss
Edith, daughter of a wealthy banker who
owns village in Chenango county, but
of what use would it have been to the re-
porter to know this?
He lighted a cigarette. Then came to
him a stranger who asked for a light and
the disagreeable manner of this unknown
person painfully affected the reporter.
Thin. in a suit of homespun, checked with
lines. wide and colored as those of a flag;
his face was marked with wrinkles that
Iesembled those of the boundary lines of
Ia map. His hair was golden and silky.
and his teeth were small and white. He
seemed disccrdant, an abominable fault
to a reporter.
Still the latter rendered the cigarette,
but the stranger had no sooner lighted his
cigar than it was in ashes, and the same
thing occurred with a dozen successive
cigars. They were reduced to ashes in
half a second. The stranger gave no sign
of surprise-nor the reporter 1t must be
said, for reporters are surprised only
when nothing surprising happens. The
stranger introduced himself.
''F am" he said, "a gridiron maker, "
He added with resigned sadness. Grid
irons are always useful"
The reporter bowed without trying to
express a respectful consideration which
he did not feel. He knew very well that
the pretended gridiron maker was Satan
himself, and suspected at once that he
had come to New York for some scientific
experiment 1t even annoyed him a little
to think that it was not an item of news,
this appearance of Satan in a dress which
was not known to demonologists He
knew instinctively that anything ne might
write on the subject would form part of
the big bundle of perpetually standing
proofs of matter marked deferred, in
letters tall and thick, that is seldom pub
|lished He wished he had not met the
gridiron maker, but the latter said:
81 read your reports on the A. 2. A.,
and 1 have no hesitation in expressing
the expert opinion that you are the
greatest reporter of the century,
II wish l believed you said the re-
porter, .I would then arrogate to myself
the right to wear a red gown, although
I am not a cardinal, and would thus re-
al1ze the most elevated dream of ambi-
ton that / can imagine
''Pshawr exclaimed the gridiron man.
..From here you may see the city bathed