The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-03-08
VICTOR AS He IS
TO FELLOW WORKER

the editor the person with some hobby to
exploit in ink, the politician and the
spring poet. He has a ready if not
willing ear for all OF them. He hears
their claims or complaints and gets along
well with them because he is candid If
poetry is bad and practically all poetry
that comes to a newspaper Office is bad,
he will say SO. He generally applies
balm of some kind TO The poets wounded
heart which satisfies him. Women will
never learn the logic of a newspaper.
They Will bring all kinds OF clippings to
have them reprinted and can't under
stand why the Youths Companion will
publish them and the Eagle won't. With
them Victor has a fierce time. He viii
argue with them until one would think
they were at the point of exchanging
blows and when he has argued enough
! he generally yields and then the woman
goes away doubIy happy in the belief that
she scored a double victory in getting the
piece printed and in what is more to her,
getting the best of the argument.
Human sympathy is wonderful thing.
Probably there is no metropolitan paper
in America which prints obituaries for
everybody. free. but the Eagle. Victor
holds that birth and death are the biggest
events in the chain of a human career.
1t is his policy, and he holds to it
strictly with a must that a bereaved
family must have the right TO express
their SORROWS and their hopes through the
Eagle. 1t makes no difference who the
people are. The humblest negro women
in town, if her husband dies. can use the
columns of the Eagle to tell the public his
goodness in life. The sorrows Of = negro
woman or of any other person in humble
life are held by him TO be as genuine as
, the sorrows of those in exalted social sta
ton. The card of thanks always gets
in and the baby notice is sure to be there.
AS a story teller mostly personal ex-
periences, Victor is at home. He has
wonderful memory of events although 1t
is not as strong as to names and faces,
as good politician ought to have. He
can tell a story better than he can write
it and that is an unusual trait in news
paper man of his ability; and it is Ger
tainly a compliment to his storytelling
powers 1 have known him to sit on
stool in the print shop on Sunday morning
after the paper had gone 10 press and en-
terrain fifteen or twenty men for as high
as four hours al sitting. / don't know
that 1 have ever heard him tell the same
story twice. He is poetic in his fancies,
although he has never written verse
unless he has done it in secret, which he
probably did in his youth.
He is considerably inclined to venerate
institutions and to cling to custom. Al
though he has no denominational prefer
ence, so far as l know, he is staunch
believer in the influence of religion and
will argue to the last ditch with one who
opposes it, He would fight to maintain
grounding day, April FOOLS day, the
Fourth of July and Christmas. At Christ
mas time he will forever be boy,
+ whether he goes to Congress or the Presi-
dents chair. lie usually gets great
many Christmas presents and gives more
than he can afford, but he has holy
horror of giving or receiving anything
that is useful He would rather get a
ffty-cent chrome than $50 overcoat.
The late Noble Prentiss, while work.
ing for John y. Martin in the Atchison
Champion, several years ago took no
ton one time to save money and started
a bank account He kept putting money
into the bank for nearly a year. One day
he ran short of money and it is told for
actual truth that he had to ask Governor
Martin how to get it out. He was prob
ably fifty years of age at the time apd
1oj oh Victor isn't
quite that bad. He knows how to put
money into a bank and how to draw
it out. but he doesn't know any more
about how his account stands, so long
as it is on the right side of the ledger.
than a citizen of Timbuctoo. robDer
could catch him any hour of the day or
night between January and October and
not be able 10 find more than two bits
in his pocket
Mostly everybody believes that he is
a college bred man. He isn't. All his
education was gotten in a ward school
in Wichita He was a scholar at fourteen
and before he was ten years of age he
was juggling with the English language
and constructing paradoXes, epigrams and
things. His vocabulary is almost equal
to the dictionary. He gets this by in
heritance. for probably no editor west
Of the Mississippi knows more words of
the English language than his father
Victor likes excitement He is always
at the window when a brass band or the
fire department is passing. He would
rather have seen Mont Peelee blows its
head of than set a certificate of election
to the United States Senate He has a
passion TO see the forces Of nature at
work and has said many times that he
would like TO be IN a cyclone If he could
live 10 write it up. He is fond Of politi-
cal excitement but does not like to be
the central figure in it. The more COM
plicated il is the more he likes it. be-
cause he loves To unravei the schemes
Of men and can see deep into the e1tan-
elements Of political combinations II
is an intricate machine whose workings
he fails T. understand. II is the news
PAPER instinct and not the political in
stinct that is back Of him
His friendships are peculiar Late at
night once the telephone bell rang and
was called for do not know whether
Victor had gore 70 bed or not. but IL was
very late. Mentioning the name OF
certain man To ne he said: IL anything
should happen TO me I Want YOU 20 all
WAYS be his friend The man had done
him a service and he conceived the pos
sif,;li+y- - s,le5en desfh before he could