The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-25
.DOBl[Y AS An EDITOR
He Inaugurates An Up to Date Mag
azine.
"THE GREEN GIRAFFE"
EXPLAINS TO MRS. DoBLEY Or
IGIN OF THE TITLE.
The Later Views the News Venture
With Considerable Interest, But
Is Unable to Thoroughly Appre-
ciate and Understand Some of the
Magazines Contributions.
tChicago Inter OCEAN,

81 find the life of an editor very in
teresting,'' said Mr. Dobley at his newly
/ inaugurated late breakfast, land l
shall never fail to be thankful that /
cast off the loathsome trammels of the
hardware business to soar in the
vaulted skies of literature
II thought only angels and birds
scared said Mrs. Dobley, putting
cream in the coffee. She was really
very much astonished at the manner in
which her liege lord had launched him
self into literature. For some three
weeks now he had been proprietor and
editor of the Green Giraffe, a magazine
devoted to art and high-class literature.
1t was an expensive affair, printed on
thick paper, with ragged edges and
wide margins, and had a cover one
could see a block off on a dark night,
so brilliant was the covering.
You are becoming an unconscious
| humorist, my dear" said Mr.. Dobley,
taking the top off an egg gracefully,
''as BELTS the wife of a literary man.
An angel, in the language of the up
fto-date, is a backer-a person who puts
money into art for arts sake, and also
with dim idea that it will return in
time manifold And sometimes an
angel is also a bird"
ut is all so interesting to me, John, -
said Mrs. Dobley, land 1 am so anx-
| ious to learn all about it. Yet it seems
little bit beyond me. There is the
cover; that girl with the purple hair
eating green grapes, and the week be-
fore it looked like an advertisement
for hair restorer, that awfully purple
man with green whiskers. 1 confess
cannot understand it,
Last week we had Dom Paul, I be-
lieve," said Mr.. Dobley thoughtfully,
land the girl eating grapes is Harvest,
1 think. Most of these things are SYM
bolical 1 believe"
We'll, 1 sat up half the night think
ing about that GIRL said Mrs. Dobley
land / could not make it out. Then
there was poem on the first page that
dazed me. 1t sounded magnificent
when enc read it out loud, but what it
meant was a mystery. 1 should have
taken it for puzzle, but 1 know you
don't have puzzles in the Giraffe"
You refer now TO that magnificent
thing by Swampleigh. My dear, we
must be vague in literature if we wish
to escape the charge of being old
fashioned. Swampleigh never makes
mistake. Take the name of the maya
zine. He suggested it. He told me how
it occurred to him one night. He had
retired late andafallen into a. light
slumber. Suddenly he awoke. At the
foot of his bed figure seemed to shape
itself in sort of mist, and he knew
that it was an Inspiration. First, he
thought it was a camel then its neck
stretched upward, and Swampleigh
heard himself murmur, The Green
Giraffe The very thing, He knew he
had name that would make a big SEN
sation.' - ES
Swampleigh Knows the Meaning.
But what does it mean?''
Perhaps Swampleigh is the only man
who has thorough knowledge of what
the title means. 1t means everything
and it means moth ng. Ey erybody
wants to know what is In a magazine
with such a name. Once he buys it
we have him. It's like a double back
action coal scuttle that Freshington
invented last year. People saw the
name in the catalogues and went wild
until they bought some. 1t simply was
a coal hod that couldn't tip backward;
that was ALL
rs Mr.. Swampleigh on the staff?"
"Swampleigh is on the staff, but I
fear very much that we shall lose him.
You see, he has always had dyspepsia,
and this has kept him morbid and
cynical in his ideas. He hates every
thing. Now, somebody suggested his
trying hot water as a cure, and he's
getting better and more cheerful every
day. He will lose all his value to us
when he becomes well again. You see,
nowadays healthy-minded folk who
don't know what it is to be pessimistic,
like to read that sort of thing. l think
it makes EN- feel happy"
1T must be very odd should think"
said Mrs. Dobley. But you find it in
teresting at all events, and you don't
have to work so hard. Then it must be
charming to meet all the poets and
writers, to commune with such gifted
minds-not through cold print as others
have to--but soul to soul as it were
Really, Honora, you are acquiring a
distinctly literary style in your CONVEX
sation. The uplifting influence of the
Green Giraffe can already be traced in
your talk"
But they are very charming, are
they not?"
'Er-perhaps charming is not exactly
the word. They are intensely interest
ing-and surprising. A few are, per-
hapS, a tride cratic. l never know
when 1 reach the Green Giraffe office
what may happen before the day is
over. 1t is life of constant surprises.
Sometimes ii is a glorious poem-some-
times a remarkable sketch-sometimes
a fight
"a fight?y ~
Yes, over bills. you know. Mistakes
will happen. We pay cent a word for
our prose and the boy who counts the
words guesses at it sometimes, and
this. gives the writer an idea that we
are trying to defraud him. Why, we
had rumpus the other afternoon in
the Office about s cents ON a magnificent
article, Arts Eternal Future The
man wouldn't listen to reason and
wanted the entire machinery of the
office to apply itself to counting the
words in that article"
'sWho won?''
THE cashier He usually wins. He
runs compound words together. and
that is where the misunderstanding
arises. But the sidelights that one con-
stantly gets on the inner personality
OF the artist-of the brush and of the
pen-it is delightful!''
How lovely, Can you explain it to
me?'
Well, there is a certain nudity of
soul-an absolute frankness that marks
the character OF the genius Here is an
instance. Dauber. you know. is one
of our best men in black and white
work. He does those Veddere5aue
things that have all sorts of hidden
Destiny Without an Explanation.
Il recollect," said Mrs. Dobley
Now that picture last week
called Destiny. / couldn't make that
out. Destiny was standing on the cres-
cent of the moon reaching for a star
At first thought there must be some
thing to explain it, but 1 hunted every
page and there wasn't a thing. Now,
what does it really mean?"
My dear, you must ask Dauber