Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-03
MAX1HMSEN, WARWICK

How Max Ihinsen does enjoy this War
wick job he's had for the past FIVE or six
years. remarked a New York newspaper
man. alluding to the crafty manager of the
William Randolph Hearst political fortunes.
1T isn't work for Max at all; just fooling
around. He's out of bed sometimes for TWEEN
ty-four hours at a stretch, but he doesn't
mind that end of 1t a little bit, and calls it
just frivoling. He has spent most of his
life working for morning newspapers. so
that the mere stunt Of trying to make his
boss a governor of the state Of New York
or a President of the United States isn't
any work at all for him. He's been up
against real work, and this thing is only
recreation comparatively. He says SO him.
self. and he ought to know. hadn't he?
Max Ihmsen has had this Warwick job
for more than five years now. and he's sure
getting fat on it. When Max first came
down here to Washington as a correspond
ent of the New York paper owned by Mr..
Hearst he was just a solid, chunky. well
simply p-h-a-t, fat; the nearest thing to
Sir John Falstaff without the makeup that
know of, and all of the adipose put on
while Max gallivanted around the country,
building up his boss fences and arranging
for the big nudge on the political situation
that Mr.. Hearst now possesses.
when things sort O. simmer down politi-
cally, Max goes back to his desk as city
editor of his boss New York newspaper,
and when he shows up at that desk how the
boys in the city room do buckle on their
hustling and sprinting harness and stop
fooling! When Max is city editor and you're
working for his department, you've got
to show him. You've got to be there with
the plans and specifications and the biue
prints. He knows all of the old gags and
kinks in connection with the system known
as soldering the boss. and what he
does not see through his pair of CHEEKY blue
lamps you could stick on the end Of the
baton of the leader of gnat orchestra.
I've worked under Max. and am acquaint-
ed with the mellifluous sound of his cheer
full laughter and pleasant Quip and quirk as
he te..S you, along toward l o'clock of
violent winters morning, that there's ship
ashore somewhere off Coney Island, and that
he wants you to run down there as quick
as you and get the story, and make
some pictures of the poor wretches clinging
to the masts Of the doomed ship, and get
the names Of the skipper and crew and the
survivors,, and be sure and make early
copy of it-about 4,5OO wordsll do-and let
EN- have it for the first edition. That's
Max. Give Max results and you're there.
Try to breeze by without showing him the
goods and you're about as much or live
one with him as the fossil of an oyster dug
up 9S7 fathoms below the sandstone stratum
somewhere in the Little Big Horn country
of Wyoming.
But Ihmsen has devoted himself mostly
to being a sort of deep, dark, mysterious
Italian opera conspirator in the realm OF
politics for the past half decade or so, and
1t is not often that he takes hold of the
city desk in New York and shakes things
up. He's a born organizer. When he was
a very young newspaper reporter around
Pittsburg he got into the habit of organic
ing. Max's method of organizing in Pitts
burg was to organize all of the fellows
above him into the street. Max organized
whole lot of city editors out of their jobs
around Pittsburg. and organized himself
into their bilets. When he got tired of doing
PitfShurc Sn't hiP enough for him
and he went to New York and fooled
around in the theatrical business for a
while, always. Of course, on the managerial
and press-agent side. From that he joined
his fortunes with those of Mr.. Hearst.
'Ihmsen is a man Of genuine ability, and
he has the gift of silence down to fine
art. He's the CHEEKY boy with the big mitt
and the fine cordial handshake, and the
ready jest and instant reply, but as soon
as the subject switches around to the sub
ject of what Max may do or might be doing,
he shrivels up like those folding cacti of
Arizona, and you've got as much chance to
pump him you have to get that Green
ough statue of Washington on Capitol Hill
to tell you what it thinks of the cold SPELL
out all about you within three minutes
after he's met you, but he's there with the
most delightful side-tracking persifiage
when you try to get him to unfold scrap
or two of information as to how the land
lies with regard to himself or the man he's
working for-if you want to call it working.
IF Mr. Hearst is elected governor of New
York it isn't the least unlikely that Max
Ihmsen will be coming down here to Wash
ington directly a representative in Con-
gress. He could hold down one of those
New York seats and still hang onto his job
as Mr. Hearst's political guide. philosopher
and friend, and that's what's in the cards,
/ understand After that, if the legislature
of New York ever gets of the right COM
plexion. Max might even want one of those
sena torial jobs, and If he keeps on boosting
his boss along to the high places and Gre
ates a permanent Hearst organization in
New York there's reason why Max
shouldn't have anything he bankers for.
Max is pretty comfy right now, however
thank you. and whatever plans he may have
in the back of his large head covered with
| the curly yellow hair aren't being unfolded
from chimney-top positions But you want
to watch out for Ihmsen, that's all. If he
isn't one of the biggest political factors in
New York and in the whole United States
within the next few years I'm a bad proph-
| ct, and political prophecy is where l shine"