Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-28
A FAKE INTERVIEW

Charles Dillingham;. the theatrical man
ager OF many enterprises. who was in
washington early in the week to have
look at the Nethersois premiere. used to
be. q newspaper man and mighty hus-
Ting one He himself admits that he was
occasionally prone to hustle too much-to
be too enterprising in tine fixing up OF
news and such like. He told story
about some fixing up that cost him his JOB
on a Chicago newspaper that employed
him.
1.-THE death Of Jerry Simpson reminds me
OF it," Mr.. Dillingham; said. simpson
wasn't concerned in 1t. but another Kansas
man was, and great Kansan, at that
ingalls,.
II was the hotel reporter for Chicago
newspaper at the time-st was back In "
It was my business to circle around
among the Chicago hotels and pick up In
terviews with the eminent ones VINO orllteo
along.
ingalls, got in one day and put up at
the old Grand Pacific Hotel ingalls, was
always good for slapping good batch OF
COPY. and I decided, as soon as heard
that he was in town, that he'd do Tor my
days work. 1t looked pretty soft TO me.
I wanted to get to ball game that AFTER
noon. But figured that it would be the
easiest thing In the world for me to trot
down to the Grand Pacific after returning
from the ball game and having dinner, see
ingalls, and get the right Kind OF talk
out of him, joggle it off on the typewriter,
and turn it in as a days work, thus get
ting day off out of 1t. too.
but It didn't work, that cosy little
scheme. I went out to the bail game all
right and had dinner after the game, but
when I got down to the-Grand Pacific Ho-
tel, prepared to gently persuade the ex-
senator to exude lot of wise and witty
saws and sayings, l found that he'd gone
out and nobody around the Grand Pacific
Hotel had the slightest idea where he'd
gone or when he'd get back. And SO, there
I was, up against It, l knew that all OF
the other hotel reporters on the Chicago
papers had seen ingalls, as soon as he got
in and that they'd have interviews with
him in their papers in the morning.
had none, and I'd be scooped, dshed left
outside the breastworks, to be stormed at
by the city editor and probably fired.
'"That wouldn't do. So. after waiting
for an hour or so for Mr.. Ingalls, to turn
up. and waiting unsuccessfully. just sat
down and wrote a two-column talk with
him. / made 1t a bully, sparkling inter-
view, and I can't see, down to the present
moment of time, what allied it. The ex-
senator, at about that time, was in the
habit of speaking satirically of himself as
a statesman out of job and. In writing
my interview, 1 dwelt quite lovingly upon
the remarks which I made him make on
that topic-and maybe sort o%overplayed
my hand in that respect.
Anyhow, ingalls, didn't like that inter-
view with him which 1 hadn't had, but
which was printed, double-leaded, under
a bank head, on the first page of my
paper on the following morning.
Didn't like it little bit, did ingalls,.
Fact is, he appeared at the office of my
paper a little after the hour Of noon and
had talk with my managing editor that
was quite warm and vociferous, and when
I got down to the Office things were mar
row-chilled around there.
Charley Chaplin, who was then my city
editor, had been delegated by the manag-
ing editor to fire me. Charley fired me all
right. He wasn't a bad kind of a fellow,
Chaplin. and here's how he fired me-
Say, he said, you're in bad over that
fake interview with ingalls,. The old man
says It's down the elevator shaft for you.
But I'll tell you what: Just take couple
of days off, and walk around taking 1t
easy. and then stink back, and We'll see.
See?
II walked around the block for a couple
Of days according to Chapins sugges ton,
and then l skunk back, also according to
instructions from the same source, and my
name got on the pay roll surreptitously,
and the next time the managing editor ran
across me in the hallway he'd forgot all
about the ingalls, matter, for he was a
busy man.
Il remained on that paper until I quit
Chicago. about year later. but I didn
write any more interviews with people that
I hadn't seen"