The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-25

I l
Is who signs himself NJ. Quad and is
the creator of Mr. and Mrs. Bowse-,
the various members of the Lime Kiln
Club and the Arizona Kicker's' edi-
tor" said Robert Barr, the novelist,
the other day, he was writing about
all these people of his brain for the
/ Detroit Free Press and besides was
contributing extensively to almost ev-
ery department of the paper, from the
I editorial page to the local columns.
1 His work. appeared in every issue, daily,
| Sunday and weekly. Some Of it was
/ humorous some pathetic, some pictur-
! esdue. while some was just plain
! COPY and. there was tremendous lot
OF it.
yet. despite the variety and vol
/ urne of his work, Lewis used TO spend
/ less time in the office than any other
man on the paper. Each member of
/ the staff had room to himself ana
so could work in perfect seclusiOn If
| he were sensitive to the presence Of
/ others. NJ. Quad was more sensitive
! in this respect than almost anyone else
] I have ever known, and did not like
to be around the place at all when the
/ fuII force was at work. It was his
/ practice. therefore, to appear promptly
at noon, Just as everybody else was
going TO lunch. ! was then a new man
on the paper and my room was just
/ across the corridor from his. / soon
/ learned that NJ. Quad's key would be
heard turning in the lock of his door
invariably on the stroke of 70: that for
solid hour after that time he would
work like a steam engine: that on the
stroke of 1 he would begin to prepare
for departure and five minutes later
would shut uD his room for the day
and go away.
Quad and myself became very good
friends after a bit, and for some rea-
son he didn't mind having me present
when he was at work. l admired him
intensely then, as 1 do now, and 1 used
to go in and watch him put UP the
COPY. He had a daily department en-
titled Currency TO make, and this was
always his first task. He would begin
by glancing hastily over half dozen
of his favorite exchanges, occasionally
cutting out something that specially at
tracted him. and then he would write
the required number of Currency
paragraphs. I don't remember just
what his standard was, but he never
wrote more and never wrote leSS-saVe
when, for some reason. one or more
paragraphs had been dropped out of
eleven had been printed, he would write
If the standard was twelve and only
eleven. If the number was diminished
the next day or two on the follow
ing day he would write only nine. When
the number would dwindle too much,
Mr. Quinby. the editor would suggest
a return to the old standard and then
Lewis would begin all over again. After
he had finished the Currency copy
he would turn out a 'BOWser, or a
Lime Kiln Club sketch or perhaps a
seemingly truthful local incident
In those old days the Free Press
fairly bristled with little single heads
two or three sticks in length telling
how some stranger or citizen had said
or done some funny thing. Each Of
these little sketches was cheerfully 10
Gated on some well known street or
square or in some prominent building
and, though almost always wholly i'm
aginary, the stories were told with such
realism that the readers invariably be
lieved them. In consequence il was the
general impression everywhere at that
time that more truly funny things hap
pened in Detroit than in all the rest Of
the United States.
Introduction of Mr.. Quinby.
Mr.. Lewis had been on the paper a
long time when I Joined the staff, and
was known far and wide as the De
troit Free Press man. You have prob
ably heard how he got his job. He was
a printer by trade, working somewhere
in the west, but not in Detroit. One
day he got a letter asking him to go
sOmeplaCe south and set type on a
paper there He went by steamboat
and the boat blew up. He was laid
up for some time, but on arriving at
his new place of employment he set
up an account Of the accident, in which
DathOs, humor and the picturesque
were happily combined, and signed it
NJ Quad An EN- quad, as you may
know. is a bit of metal of a certain
size used by printers in spacing out a
short line, and Lewis signed as ne did
so that printers who read his effort
should know it was the production Of
a fellow craftsman. The owner of the
paper had sense enough to print the
sketch and it was copied far and wide
Mr. Quinby of the Free Press was
among those who gave it circulation.
He also wrote to Lewis and asked him
to Join the editorial staff of the paper
Lewis didn't answer the letter, but
pulled up stakes and fastened to De-
troit. On the evening after his arrival
a rather queer looking chap lOunged
into the office and laid a roll Of pencil
written manuscript on the city editors
desk
Account of a dog fight I saw to-
day. said the stranger, and lOunged
out.
The city editor read the manuscript,
and as he read he laughed till the
tears ran down his cheeks. When Mr.
Ouinby read it in the paper next day
he sent for the city editor.
" I made a find last week said Mr.
Quinby, in a man who wrote up a
steamboat explosion for a country
paper, and I sent for him, but he hasn't
come. l guess you've made another
find in the man who wrote that dog
fight story Who is hep
" Haven't the least idea said the
CITY editor Stranger came in last
night, left it on my desk and walked
out
Send him to me when he comes in
again. said Mr.. Quinby.
Next night the stranger appeared
with another story.