The age-herald., 1899-03-30
"MR. D0OLEYo
 IN REAL LIFE

Ine 1OunBeT III Ine CTltlc.
 Finley Peter Dunne (Adr. Dooley) Is the object of no little soIicitous interest on the part of editors and publishers these days. but Pete Dunne has been person of no little interest to Chicago newspaperdom these many years-though he's but young man yet, even as we reckon young celebrities. He has '.been on' nearly t not quite every paper in Chicago, and done every kind of newspaper work from police reporting up to political 'leaders,' from sporting ''write-ups'' to the manifold and various duties of managing editor which latter office he now holds with the Chicago Journal. an evening paper. He was always good at story" and years ago, when 1t was his delightful assignment to go out to the baseball grounds and make a report of the game, Dunne would turn in racy bit of humor, instead of conventional am- plification of the score. and that he was ale lowed to do this and to continue to do this is proof sufficient that 1t was good stuff so good that even the baseball cranks rel- ished Dunne's dramatic elaboration of some comic incident or feature even to the sighting of the battles details We'll in those days newspaper men, especially those on the Tribune, did good deal of rally ing in the saloon of one James McGarry. It was next door to the Tribune office, and "the boys" considered 1t a part of the newspaper premises. Many bit of copy was frantically scribbied off on McGarry's bar and what mine host did not know, or believe he knew, of prominent men and prominent events was not worth knowing. He was a philosophizer, which may not be the same thing as philosopher, but passes for the same thing with many persons, and his rich, rolling brogue, his deliberate man. ner and his willingness to deliver his opin- ions for the benefit of his patrons, made him the hero of many funny story in newspaper row. It was when Jay Gould died, and McGarry read the account of his funeral, that Pete Dunne happened to be by when the oracle delivered himself of re- marks so deliciously humorous that MT, Dunne, on returning to his desk in the Post city room, and finding himself possessed of little leisure, wrote out the Irishman's ob- servat.ons, and, rather amused with the result, turned in the 'stufr," which was &C., cepted and published forthwith. The sub stltution of an N for a C in the name of Mr. Dunnes philosopher made but a tnln disguise, so unInistakaDie was the portrait of McGarry, and of course the boys twitted nm about 1t. Meanwhile the McNarry sto- ry hao met with interested readers and MT. Dunne, being a thoroughly capable inter- viewer, found it possible to write another without the necessity of bothering the ir- rltateo original for a fresh deliverance of opinion. The more "f1ctit.ous the papers became, the more irate became Mc1arry, until, discretion being the better part of Vaior, and the editor having been appealed to by the offended saloon-keeper, MT. Ounne cnanged the name of his philosopher to MT. Dooley," and proceeded without debt of any sort to MT. McGarry,
 When the war broke out there came a rich crop of topics, and when Mr. Dooley's
 cousin George took Manila, and Mr. Dooley expressed his opinion of "same.' the little "squibs" of a busy reporter and editorial writer jumped forth with from a local celebrity to a widespread fame, and more than one papers the country over
 copied or reprinted the Dewey story, and Dewey himself sent the author word that ne enjoyed 1t most of all that had been written about him. From thence the Dooley war articles have been far from the least famous of the time more than of his other regular copy" that he did not even preserve the papers containing them ana when publishers began to make of- fers to him for the book rights of "Mr.
 S>>~~ -tN AAH"si'y NOiiSShtSQ " cOilSCI the little papers as best he could, it was an admirer of Mr. Dooleys, unknown to MT. Dooleys author, but known to some of his friends, who came forward wirh a complete file, or nearly complete, and made the book possible. It has been a pronounced success from more than one point of view, and pub- fishers are making fiattering offers to MT. Dunne looking toward more ambitious por- trayal of lrish-American life. MT. Dunne's wit is inevitable; it is his birthright. The Irish people he knows we'll, though he has never been in 'ould Ireland" The dialect of MT. Dooley, it may interest some 10 know is the dialect of County Roscommon, and natives of that county have enthusi- astically approved its accuracy.