The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-14

While flanked by a hundred old hens,
Eighteen of them cackling at once
And even if all take the floor,
While the chairwoman screams like
hawk,
Still, still you must follow the trend,
Though the trend be a tangle of talk.
And when you sit down at your desk
To write up long interview,
On one side the typewriter clicks
And your poor head is dictated through
BY the great star who never can write
But bawls in a regular flow,
And you grind while they click and they
clack
Whether you love it or no.
Or grabbing each sheet while you write,
A boy takes it up to the room
OF the night man, whose job is to feed
the great typographical LOOM
AS you scrawl thunders break up above;
Their roarings your tired ears rend,
And clenching your fingers you cry,
How the deuce did that last sentence
end?"
Wise men read the paper and say,
He split his infnitive there.
And the wrong tense he used in this
place
Such rhetoric-isn't it queer?"
It ought to be perfect, of course,
$ And never by any chance mushed-
Smooth of phrase, clear of thought and
well-turned,
This literature of the rushed.
(From Songs of the Press, by Bailey
Willard, of San Franciscol =!
THE LAWSON HISTORY OF THE
AMERICAS CUP A RECORD OF
FIFTY YEARS.-By Winfield NJ
Thompson and Thomas w. Lawson.
Thomas w. Lawson. of Boston, stock
operator, copper king and millionaire
yachtsman, has made his bow to the
public as an author and publisher. His
first book, a history of the Americas
cup, is now being issued in a private
edition of 5000 copies, that are said TO
have cost a fortune.
Mr.. Lawson not only is the proprie-
tor of the book, but gives it his name,
it being called THE Lawson History Of
the Americas Cup"
The history is serious in character,
and is intended as a reference work, to
fill a want in the record of international
yachting, sport in which there is a
dearth of reliable literature.
While Mr.. Lawson states he has aim
cd to make his history an authority on
the subject with which it deals, and
that in order the public may have ac-
cess to reliable record of the sport of
international yachting, he will present
a copy of each of the important public
libraries in this country, and to every
yacht in the world, he admits that these
purposes were coupled with another
which actuated him to publish the work
in the form and manner that he does.
Mr.. Lawson is, above all, a fighter,
and he always fights for principles, as
he sees them. Yaehtsmen, and the pub
lie generally, will recall that a year ago
he crossed swords with the New York
Yacht Club over a question of ethics in
the defence of the Americas cup. Mr..
Lawson built a yacht of the cup-defence
class, which he called the independence,
and purposed sailing her in the trial
races for the selection of vessel to de-
fend the cup. He claimed any American
who could produce a boat worthy the
honor had~the right to defend the cup.
The New York Yacht Club claimed no
vessel not enrolled in its fleet and quail
flied to fly its flag could take part in the
Guns defence.
The club barred Mr.. Lawson's yacht,
and after a time the discussion which
ragged over the matter was dropped.
Mr. Lawson broke up his vessel, hav-
ing no further use for her. put her
bronze plates on the scrap heap, or
made souvenir mugs from them, and for
a year nothing has been heard from Mr..
Lawson in yachting.
Tie now reappears in the yachting field
through his privately printed history,
as full of fight on the subject of the
Americas cup as when he first threw
down the gauntlet to the New York Yacht
club. He still maintains that he or any
American has a right to defend the
America cup, and he maintains it in a
book of more than 400 pages, thus show
ing himself TO be the very king of pam
phleteers.
In putting out his book Mr.. Lawson
has followed his usual custom of law
ish expenditure. Absolutely no thought
of financial return has entered into the
project for every copy of the book is
to be given away, and not a cent of
the thousands of dollars the book cost
Will come back. With 425 pages and SO
full pages of illustrations added, the
book is such that a publisher could not
sell it at less than $50 a volume, if he
expected a living profit from his sales.
Its size is 1874 inches long by ~ inches
wide and 27s inches thick.
The dedication of the book is as fol-
lows:
To SPORTSMEN.-M MEN,
MEN OF GENTLE MIND AND SIM
PIE HEART, BRAVE MEN. FAIR
MEN; TO MEN WHO SAY TO THE
WEAK MAY 10" AND TO THE
STRONG Il WILL!'-TO MEN TO
WHOM SHAM is DISHONOR AND
TRUTH A GUIDING STAR: TO MEN
WHO LOOK UPON THE SEA. THE
PLAIN, THE FOREST. THE NOUN
TAIN. THE RISING AND SETTING
sun, AND THE IMMUTABLE,
HEAVENS WITH DEEP SENSE
OF THEIR OWN LITTLENESS IN