The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-16
From a Reporter on a Little Indi-.
ana Newspaper to a Writer Of.
Fables and Plays in a Few
Years The Story Of the First
Plunge into Notoriety His
Life Today on His Indiana
Farm How He Stands Pros
perity His Views on His Work.
James O'Donnell Bennett, in Chicago
Record H erald.

James o'Donnell Bennett, in Chicago
Record Herald.
George sane Ade prepared for magazine ZINE
about the time the first series of
"Fables in Slang'' was beginning to
make him national character he re-
corded the fact that in 1852 his father
established at Morocco, Ind, an in
stitution which he named "the Bank
Morocco had population of 397. What
it was in 1852 may be inferred; it also
was fifty miles from railroad, and an
Indiana horsetrader, who had made
some deals in Lafayette and had some
notes to cash, hunted four. days for it.
Having recorded the name Of the bank,
George AIDE appended one Of the best
It was: eff T have any sense of humor
| it is inherited. - 49,.
Last Tuesday evening, when the audi
ence at the Studebaker was repeating
after the third act of "The College
Widow the almost delirous demonstra-
ton of enthusiasm that had marked the
opening night, the playwright, who sat
was asked what his father thought OF
this dramatic proposition and all the
fame and profit that has accompanied
it. The banker 8 son gave one OF those a9
curious twisted grins Of his, shifted
himself along the stair rail ana sa l1:; u.
Il che thinks I'm a. burglar. :: -,
Then he told a story: about that ia;
vorite son Of the West Side, Lefty
1Fitzgerald, known on the American
STAGE as "Eddie Foy.o
"When Eddie,' he said, twas in the
dawn Of his extravaganza popularity
with David Henderson at the Chicago
opera house he asked his mother t, to
/ b.
was earning $500 a week and she ought
' to learn how it was done. The mothe,
sat thru the performance one evening
and if as much as the ghost of smile n!
: appeared on her face during EDDIE
!, share in: the show it WASH It conspicu
Gus enough to make it's way IRON ron ne ne
Il stage. After the peri rmances he me me-
her and said: "Well, mother, what az
you think Of my worka''' ,.,e
VShe dropped her voice, to half
whisper: Eddie, you get $500 weel
for doing that9'
N1That' $ what I get.
lowell, Eddie, you fool >em as IONS
ii think the family feels something
the same way about my plays
nSometimes my mother comes across
interviews with me in the papers. Usual
" the ones she sees begin: met MI
kde in the cafe Of the Holland Hous
a. he was slipping "Sultan Of Sulu ,
cocktail Then she worries. Fathe
y thinks my play, reyaltiees4ares the fruit 1:
8 Of larceny; mother wonders, lin. TAX
/ mo to drink; meanwhile I am on M
farm a few miles from the old home
going to bed at 9 O'Clock and gettln
IN at 6 in the morning to dictate ney
+ work to stenographer and revise wha
h he has nut into shape. ~
George AIDE did not flash upon tn
vision of Chicago; he wormed his wa
into it's affections with his gentle, unot
trusive drollery. In June, 1890, h
came here from Lafayette, Ind He wa
then Pa years old and did not look i
He had entered Purdue university i
1883 and graduated in 1887. The thre
wears Intervening between 1887 and tn
beginning of his Chicago career wei
spent IN reporting on a Lafayette pape
and in exploiting a patent cure for II
tobacco habit. George AIDE sti
with the assistance Of a ban
, of darby singers to draw the crowd, /
- accumulated vast amount Of inform
- ton about people. This he is still u
4 ing. It helps to pay his very modera
tobacco bills.
He went on the Chicago Record as
reporter at $15 week, and he soon b
gan to make himself felt as new ms
Who could handle an intensely conv,e
tional incident Of city life in a singula
IL ~, fresh, droll way; His story Ct +, i
" did not begin: :. = -. 80 At II. g 'clcok "a
e night flames were seen Issuing from; !. T