The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-25
HOW M. QUAD STARTED.
RECoLLECTIONs or OLD DAYS IN
DETROIT RELATED BY nom
ERT BARR.

| ERT BARR.
| First Meeting of the Hum0rist and
His EMPLOYER COuvuIsing Tale
of "A Funny Dog FiEht-The Author
of Mr.. and Mrs. BOwser at W DIRK
Marvellous Specials That interest
ed the whole Country-ThrfTling
story of Sleep walker Who Had
Been Convicted of MUrder-GOoa
Advice to a DJsgruntIed sheriff.
| New York, Feb. % When first knew
Charles b Lewis, who signs himself M.
| Quad-and is the creator of Mr.. and
| Mrs. Bowser, the various members of the
Lime KIN Club and the Arizona Kickers
editor" said Robert Barr the novelist,
| the other day, "he was writing about all
| these pecp.e of his brain for the Detroit
| Free Press and besides was contributing
| extensively to almost every department
| Of the payer from ne editorial page to
! the local columns. His work appeared in
| every issue, daily, sunday and weekly.
Some of 1t was humorous, some pathetic,
some picturesque, while some was Just
plain copy and there was a tremendous
lot of it..
Yet, despite the variety and volume 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 a
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 any
one else have ever known, and did not
like to be around the place at all when
the full force was at work. 1t was his
practice, therefore, to appear promptly
at noon, just as everybody else was go
ing to lunch. l was then new man on
the paper and my room was just across
the corridor frcm his. 1 soon learned that
M. Quads key would he heard turning in
the lock of his door Invariably on the
stroke of u; that for a solid hour after
that time he would work like a steam en-
CINE; that on the stroke of l he would be-
gin to prepare for departure and five
minutes later would shut up his room for
the day and go away.
Quad and myse.f became very good
friends after a bit, and for some reason
he didn't mind having me present when
he was at work. l admired him in
tensely then, as I do now, and l used to
go in and watch him put up the copy.
He had a daily department entitled Cur
rency' to make and this was always his
first task He would begin by glancing
hastily over han a dozen of his favorite
exchanges, occasionally cutting out some
thing that specially attracted him, and
then he would write the required number
n ma. h
Der just what his standard was, but he
never wrote more and he never wrote less.
save when, for some reason, one or more
para graphs had been dropped out of his
contributions Of the previous day. If the
standard was twelve and only eleven had
been printed, he would write only eleven.
IL the number was diminished the next
day by two, Oh the following day he
would write only nine. when the number
would dwindle too much, Mr. Quinby, the
editor, would Suggest a return to he otd
standard, and then Lewis would begin
all over again. After he had finished the
Currency copy, ne would turn out a
'Bowser,' or a Lime Kiln Club sketch or
perhaps a seemingly truthful account of
an amusing local incident
I'm 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
LuHHy lNlHS. KIdcH Oh IleSe Itie sketches
was cheerfully located on some we'll
known street or square or in some prom
inent building. and, though almost always
wholly Imaginary the stories were told
with such realism that 9he readers inva-
riably believed them. In consequence IT
was the general impression everywhere at
that time that more truly funny things
happened in Detroit than in all the rest
of the United States
0und'z IufrOduetfOn n Ouinhx-
"Mr. Lewis had been on the paper a long
| time when l joined the staff and was
known far and wide as the Detroit Free
| Press man. You have probably heard how
! he got his job. He a printer by trade,
working somewhere in the West, but not
| in Detroit one day he got a letter ask
| ing him to go to some place 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 pa
thos, humor and the picturesque We're hap
PLY combined, aud signed il M. quad
An EN- quad, as you may know, is q
bit of metal of a certain size used by
printers in spacing OUT a short line, and
Lewis signed as he did so that printers
who read his effort should know 1t was
the production of fellow craftsman. The
owner of the paper had sense enough to
nFlHl the SkeLtn ana IL was cODleu lar
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 Detroit
On the evening after his arrival a rather
queer looking chap lounged into the Of
flee and laid a roll of pencil written man
us5Fipt on the city editors desk.
" Account of a dog fight | saw to-day
said the stranger, and lounged out
1.-THE city editor read The manuscript,
and as he read he laughed till the tears
ran down his cheeks When Mr.. Quinby
read II in the paper next day he sent for
the city editor.
~ made a find last week said Mr.
Quinby, in a man who wrote up a steam
boat explosion for a country paper. and
sent for him, but he hasn't come. | guess
you've made another find in the man who
wrote that dog fight story. Who is hep
A." Haven't the least idea said the city
editor. Stranger came in last night, left
a. nm NV dask and Walkpd ont