The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-11
ALMA MATER AND old
CHUMS IN LATEST TALE
David Graham Phillips, Brilliant
Young Author,
Home.
IS SENATOR POLITICIAN
Classmate of Albert J. Beveridge---
Story of the Reporter
Who Won.
IS SENATOR POLITICIAN

by George, old man. I'm glad TO see
you," was the enthusiastic exclamation of
Senator Beverage. He grasped the hand
of tall, athletic young fellow who stood
at the desk of the Denison about 1890
o'clock last night 1t was meeting OF old
college chums. The senator happened to
drift into the hotel. and there was some
thing familiar about the features Of the
handsome young man who leisurely
rolling cigarette. The stranger was equal
ly delighted. and his fine. classic face light
ed I'D with pleasure.
The senator led the way to a coy settee,
and they sat down to talk over the old days
at De Paw. The stranger was David
Graham Phillips, one of the most popular
story writer's of the day. The story of The
Golden Fleece is one of the best known
tales from his pen. Mr.. Phillips is In
dianian-a Hoosier who has gone East and
made good" He was reared at Madison,
where his family is well known and promi-
nent, and was educated at De PAW. where
he a classmate of Senator Beveridge.
They were college chums, and the friend
ship formed during those days has never
waned.
The story entitled 1.-The Cost" now run
ming in the Saturday Evening Post, is from
the pen of David Graham Phillips, and a
flavor of romantic interest will be added
for Indiana readers when they know that
this talented young man had his alma
mater. De Paw University-or old Asbury,
as IL was known in his college days-in
mind when he wrote it. Really, now,
didn't you think of Senator Beveridge when
you introduced the character of Scar
borough? asked a young man of Mr..
Phillips last night. mot altogether re-
piled the author with an Elusive smile,
though, of course, there are some char
acteristics."
OUT ON VISIT.
Mr.. Phillips came out to Indiana to visit
his mother, who is at present residing in
Indianapolis. He has seen very little of
Indiana in the last twenty years. After
leaving De Pauw he went 10 Princeton
University, and was graduated from that
institution. Since then he has been a very
busy man. He recently returned from a
trip to Europe. and is preparing to go
back TO his literary work in New York.
His next work will be a novel of considera-
bic length. the central theme of which will
be easily recognized incidents of national
politics during the last decade.
There will be a woman in the book, -
said Mr.. Phillips, because 1 believe that
no really successful novel can be written
without introducing the feminine element.
Why, don't you know that whenever you
make a cross-section of life you find men
and women intermingled. 1t takes both
men and women to make life, and you can't
have novel without plenty of life in it,
Although Mr.. Phillips has been out of In
diana for a good many years he has not
| lost his interest In the State or its people
/ He talks very entertainingly of the clever
Hoosiers he has met in the East and
| abroad II met Booth Harrington in New
York recently" he said, land was greatly
| charmed with his personality l think he
| Is very clever young man, with great
| future. A stranger meeting Mr.. Harrington
readily discerns that he is a politician. He
seems fond OF politics. which is charac-
teristic that can be noticed in connection
with great many mOdern-day writer's
Personally like politics. and have kept
| pretty close cases on what is going on IN
Indiana. however, L am not a practical
politician; my interest is purely academic
and, therefore, more or less foolish BY
| that / mean that IL Is in a sense wasted
because absolutely without hope of re-
/ ward
SUCCESSFUL AS CORRESPONDENT.
Mr. Phillips. though young man. was
for several years one of the editors of the
! New York World. This paper sent him tc
London as its foreign correspondent, an6
he remained there year. During the days
| of the elder Dana he was one of the prize
reporters on the New York Sun. gaininl
considerable reputation as a writer of wha
are known among newspaper men as human
interest stories
Mr. Phillips's deep interest in his nativ,
State cropped out at frequent intervals dur
ing his conversation 81 am not at all sur
prised," he SAID, that Indiana has produced
lnre Is
the potent forces fn/the making of tn
| writer is a broad education, and nowher,
can more thorough schooling be found thar
occupies a position of peculiar advantag
among the States, in that il Is as one nigh
say, at the crossroads between the Nortl
colored imagination of the Southern man
properly poised by the cool. dispassionat
temperament of the North-a combination
that is bound to produce genius"
Mr.. Phillips is of the stanch friend
and defenders of Richard Harding Davis
a writer who has been the target for con
siderable sharp criticism "Mr. Davis ha
Mr.. Phillips, but / feel that this is al
appellation that is not deserved. On tn
contrary. he is a thoroughly fine fellow III
is unfortunte in having a manner that I
those who do not know him well seem
peculiar.
But who of us does not possess more O
less oddly OF manner? When | went I
New York, and, of course, knew scarcel
anybody and had no friends, Davis wa
very kind to me indeed, and his friendly in
terest was of great help to me, as can b
well imagined. One OF the interestin
things that L know about Davis was toll
me by young woman who translated som
of his stories into French. She made tn
discovery that Mr.. Davis, in writing hi
stories, uses vocabulary of less than on
thousand words-say from eight to min
hundred. This indicates the simplicity @
his style, and shows that the successfI
popular writer Is the one who can use lar
guage that will be comprehended b. every
body.
PROUD OF SCULPTURES.
I'VE Indianians have something to
! proud of besides our WRITER'S continue
. Mr.. Phillips. There I'm New York is
most charming young woman-a Mis-
Scudder, OF Terre Haute. She is sculptures
whose ability may readily be appreciate
when IL is known that fifteen of her work
have been purchased by the French gov
eminent and assigned to positions of prom
| inence in the Luxembourg. Then there
George Gray Barnard, son OF a Presby
terrain minister in Madison, my old HON,
He is a young man whose fame is bein
especially talked about al this time
Mr.. Phillips expects TO leave for Ne
York this afternoon. He will at once set