The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-16

strong and white. The whole expression
OF his face is one TO invite confidence.
one Of his greatest helps when he was
doing city assignments en- the Chicago
News His figure is thin, but wiry, and
ne looks TO be in perfect physical CON
Success is sweet to any man. but to
George AIDE believe IL is much. more of a
pleasure TO know that he is the most pop
uiar newspaper men in Chicago than II
would be TO be known as the greatest No
man ever met him but loved him, and
down an Indiana they think he Is little
greater than the president OF the United
States After his opera, The Sultan OF
Suiu. had been running for month 10
AIDES old home for one performance. The
whole town took a holiday TO celebrate.
The stores closed, bands played. there
were professions speeches and a general
celebration, which lasted nearly three
days.
Ade was almost unhappy over it, for he
is modest TO an unusual degree, and
would prefer te talk of some other fel-
lows work than his own. The writer has
seen him blush like 4 girl graduate when
eompiimented upon the excellence OF some
OF his work So il is that Mr.. AIDE is not
an easy man TO interview-about hinsef-
But whatever be says must have some
merit among the many thousands who
read his-work and admire the man.
Mr. AIDES slang is wholly lacking in
ornt2hty ana IS lapgh-eompsiling in ITS
breezy lmpudence. Slang he regards as
vital expression of the mental and ma
teriaI condition of society. just as an an
thropologfst would regard the manner Of
! people. This sober statement is sustained
by the insight into human nature and
motives waich Mr. AIDE at all times dis
I plays His usual note, however, IS OF
| good-natured raillery, as one realizes the
! bitterness of things. but whose heart is
touched by il all. as he himself smiles
and compels you TO smile.
Like all effective humorists. George AIDE
| at bottom IS serious young man. Too
wen he knows what a sad comedy life
J Is, ana yet II IS due TO his quick INSTRUCT
| i've sympathy that he brfghtens II with
1 smiles, makes 1t flash with good-natured
sarcasm and presents its lessons 10 all IN
hOmely garb. When he wrote his first
fable in slang he had not the slightest
conception that the expressive word chill
dren of the race track. the prize ring, the
/ gaming table, and, lastly, the stage,
would lead him to a permanent place
among the humorists of the day. So IL
was when he wrote The Sultan OF Sulu, "
| 1t succeeded in spite of him, and now he
I Is under contract TO write for the stage
for the next live years, at terms which
/ would have seemed fabulous to him thir-
1 teen years ago, when, as a gangly sort Of
youth, he went from Indiana to Chicago
I and became reporter on the Chicago
/ Daily News, at which time Eugene Field
illuminated the editorial page with his
/ consultations
Mr.. AIDES development as a treasury Of
/ slang was gradual and subtle process,
| and in eSta blishing the genesis he viii
probably recall that William Cornell. a
/ veteran police reporter, who had a hand
Chieago's seamy side, was a man of in
! finite resource in turning out expressive
verbal grotesques.
AIDE was human dry plate. Every
/ thing that came within his focus was
mentally kodaked and no detail was too
| small TO escape him. He was probably
reporters that ever labored in that city of
| hard-worked newspaper men. Ills own
| personality was in all that he did And
that is the quality, that counts for more
| than mere fancy writing. He embodied
| ideas and fancies thai in turn aroused
| others in the reader. He was at all
times the student. His pale, slender face
I and his nervous hands denoted it. But
when he smiled his look of preoccupatiOn
gave way to an expression of keen wit
and appreciation that had in 1t some
| thing of the eXhilaration of a tonic
They have some curious weather in
Chicago and il furnishes a subject which
| is full OF wonder TO the outsider. George
AIDES first story that showed" was on
| the weather. 1t was brief, but had in il
| a snap ard originality that astounded the
weather weary sharDS in the office. So
much for fresh, sympathetic imagina-
| ton. united to a natural sense of hf--aor.
i Even then. Mr. AIDES friends deelare. be
! was scheduled and due TO arrive IN
| shape" Which, indeed, no has done.
/ AIDE was born in 1856, in the little town
of kentland, Ind, where his father owned
/ the village bank. He was graduated from
| the village school and then took the
course at Purdue university at Lafayette.
graduating in 1855, and then went uD te
Chicago and went on the city reportorial
staff OF the News. That this was good
school for budding literary genius, the
list of celebrities of today who are grad
yates from its staff proves most con-
/ clusiveiy. Eugene Field, Finley Peter
Dunno Cdr. Dooley). Frank Nanderlip
formerly assistant secretary OF the treas
ury and now vice president of the City
bank of New York; John McGuteheoI
and many more are among them