Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-08-15
DTLIINEHA:M'S BEAT.
ssPasquale Bellinl' Kindly Gave Out
Red Hot Interview.

Red Hot Interview.
every time read cable items in
the papers with regard to the failing
health of the venerable pontiff,'' said
a correspondent of the Washington
Post, II am reminded Of the whopper-
inc fake which was perpetrated in
Chicago newspaper about a dozen
years ago, with Leo XIII as the CEN
trail figure of the story, by Charley
Dillingham;, then a highly imaginative
newspaper man. but now one Of the
best known and most prosperous of
New York theatrical managers.
Charley was at that time the hotel
reporter of one of the leading Chicago
newspapers He was q rafting good
gatherer of interviews with distin-
guished and notable guests at the no
tells, but once in while the notabii-
ties didn't turn up, and then Charley
had to frame up stuff to keep his cor
ner of the paper from undergoing
slump which might have occasioned
the suspicion in the mind of his edi-
kor that Dillingham; was soldering
on his job So, some of the extraor-
binary interviews that Dillingham;
published with eminent personages'
who never existed on earth or in the
water beneath the earth, while they
made good reading enough, were
weird, Just weird.
Zone sizzling July day Charley
secured around all of the Chicago ho-
tells on his regular beat, from the
Grand Pacific to the Auditorium,
without springing single, solitary
talk out Of anybody. There simply
were no prominent people at the ho-
tells, and that was all there was
about it. Charley was all het up and
tired and Disguised. but he had to
make good in the copy line.
Well, here goes said he to him,
self, with set teeth. when he reached
the Hotel Richelieu, on the lake front.
then managed by the late Cardinal
Bemis. Then Charley picked up
pen and registered on the hotel regis
fer. while the cardinal looked on,
amused, the name of 'Signor Pasquale
BeIlini. Roma, Italia That made it
good in case anybody should take the
pains to stop by the RHchelieu to see
if any such individual really had his
name on the roster of the hosiery.
.'Then Charley sat down in the no.
tel waiting room and wrote as hard as
he knew how for about an hour ana
a half. He wrote of an interview
with the nonresident tSignor Pasquale
Rellini.' of Rome, whose name he had
inscribed on, the hotel register. he set
forth the hact that Signor Pasqua1e
RelJinj was one of the leading mem-
beers of the Italian house Of depuues,
who he added, to, get the eminent
person out Of town, was in Chcago
at the Richelieu yesterday on his way
to New York, for which place ne star
ted after a brief stay in Chicago, ON
tour of the world"
'sThen Dillingham; put some strange
words into the moufh of his fictitious
Roman statesman of eminence. he
made that statesman state THAT It was
being seriously contemplated at the
vatican to remove the site of the holy
see from Rome to Berne, in SW1tzer-
land on account of the political en-
harra ssments in which the Varlcan
found itself in such close proximity 70
the temporal power of Italy anu SO OH.
Tho tsinteryiew'' made the ltahan
gentleman state THAT Leo XIII Was
strongly inclined toward the move ana
that it was highly probable TnaI pe-
fore the end of that year the molly see
would be established in the Alps anu
all vesaRges Of IL removed from the
Tfber.
ssT guess that ought to hold 'efn for
!. J,.;ef reriod.'' Dillingham; said 10
himself when he had finished the IN
+orviexzn and then he turned it In at
1,Hs office and knocked off work TOT
fhe tay. The copy reader gaspea
when he got held of the great saafl l.
and carried it to the CITY edattoT' sWno =
Lot ont a little gasp Of his own ana
hiked the copy into the room or Inc
mana ging editor, who turned It over 10
the e6fitor-in-c chief.
"Weu, that Interview was printeo
trfuIe-headed in the first two COLUMNS
Of the Chicago newspaper on the loi-
lowing morning, and 1t mace lug
sensation. 1T was dabled all over Eu-
rome that same night, and mace ts
appearance i'm all Of the 1mportant
FH1ropean newspapers simultaneously
with it's appearance IN Tue
Chicago sheet. 1t FORMED the
subject of the Closest va
versatfonsfi in the chancellor1es OF bu-
rome on the day that IT was puoilsneu'
After a couple of days, however, d
number of cable dispatches reacneu
this country to the general TENOR that
there was no such individual as olgnoI
| Pasouale Bellinf enrolled as mempea !,
of the italian house OF depuIles, anu
That. in fact, nobody in Rome had ever
heard Of such person. The persons
in authority on Charley's paper
showed him these denying cablegrams.
"Gt was chile-con-carne stun rignt
off the bat, all right, Diillnghah' tneS
said to him, but how ABOUT theSe ue
nialsT
"tWell, if you don't believe that he
stopped at the Ridhelieu' all you've gos
to do is to run down there and see his
name on the register was Charley, s
solemn reply, and they had to accept
that as letting him out. The name of
signor Pasquales. Bellini was on the
RicheHeu register in good, black ink,
| and Cardinal Bemis was as good as
| gold when it came to holding has peace
On such occasions, and Dillingham; got
away with his sensational summer
| days frame-up."