Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-11-23


an hilarious biography of his old friend |
George AIDE to Appleton's Magazine for |
November He illustrates it himself. |
OF AIDES early life he says: "Mr. AIDE,
or George. as he was then called, !
was born on February 9, 1866, at |
Kent!and. Ind. and is thirty-nine years |
old. not counting the two years in the |
patent -medicine business. Kentland is |
a little town of a thousand people. 1t !
lies in the heart Of the corn belt, where |
the highest hill is hardly ten feet above |
datum in the Kent 1rrigating Ditch. !
The first years of his life were spent |
in KCnt,and with occasional trips to
Morocco Gndiana) and Delphi Gn- !
diani.) In the daytime he demonstrate |
cd his unfitness for an agricultural ca
reer, and in the evening he sat with the |
local savants in front of Pat Keefe's |
grocery store helping settle affairs of
state. Nj. Kcefe. Jack Ryan, Will
Kent. and Mr.. 1Iarnish the genial |
photographer, were among the speak !
ers at those evening debates. Occa-
sionailv Rluford Light. Blu for short, |
Bill Hartsock and Dry Six would hap
pen along to give new angles to the
viewpoint Of the subject under dis
cussion Thus Mr. AIDE passed
through bovEood and prepared for col
lege. PesSi.niSts around Kcntland
predicted that he would grow up and
edit the local Paper. He graduated
from High school and was sent to
Purdue University at Lafayette. He
entered the freshman class in 1883. At
that time he was a tall, slender boy
with face as refined as a girls and as
clear cut as the proverbial cameo that
figures in the heart-interest literature
OF the later Victorian period His
hair was very dark but not black
Since then there have appeared streaks
of gray, the large one on the right
side coming from The Bad Samaritan
and the one on the left from Mr.. Saw
age. After graduation, he went back
to Kentland to corroborate his belief
that he was not cut out for a future in
the old home town. Literature-as
typiiied by job on a local newspaper.
and Law-as embodied in an oppor-
tunity to study with prominent firm
in Lafayette, were each reckoning to
him. He selected the Law Why
has never been explained. He nodded
over Blackstone for six weeks and then
took job as city editor on a newly
established Republican organ in La
f&yette. The organ played its swan
song after brief existence, and he
switched to an afternoon daily that
held out a golden promise of six per
week, rain OR shine Here he worked
hard for some time. constantly con-
fron,ed by the grim fact that the bare
cost Of living was overlapping his sal
| airy. If he had continued in that posi-
| ton, he would now be nearly SAC, 900 in
debt. He quit journalism at six per
| and embarked in a patent medicine
business, where he did the literary and
press work of remedy guaranteed to
cure the tobacco habit if you followed
directions. The first direction was to
! cease the use of tobacco. His chief
work was to edit testimonials and act
as PRESS agent for people who had been
cured Of the dread habit. 1t was a
pleasant sight to see the youthful au-
thor. with his feet on a table, writing
of the invaluable benefits conferred on
humanity by the tobacco cure, for he
smoked necessarily to stimulate his
Imagination. In 1890 AIDE want to
Chicago armed with the following
equipment: A wonderful memory, an
X-ray insight into motives and men.
highly developed power of keen OBJ
servation and the benefit of four years
of literary work in college and three
years in professional fields"
Edward Penfield, the author Of
Holland Sketches" has travelled ex-
tensively through the different
countries of Europe, and wherever ne
has gone has taken his sketch book
and pencil with him. The result of his
travels in Holland is the book HOLLAND
Sketches" beautifully illustrated by
the author with pictures Of the country
and the quaint people who live there.
COllinS's highest rate of pay was Il
little over II cents q word and
Anthony TroIlope though he drew $15.-
900 or more for each Of half a dozen
novels, touched his hghwater mark at
the same relatively modest figure Scott
received 100000 for his Life of Bona
partc": Lord BeacOnsfield $4,000 for
'Endymion': MacauIay's "History of
England brought him 100000 in
single check. and Froude was $4,000
better off for writing "Oceana." Gold
smiths Vicar of Wakeficld'' brought
him just $500; his English grammer
s25 and his "Traveller" sos. Johnson
sold his Lives of the Poets" at the
rate Of seven words for two cents:
paradise Lost and "Hamlet' fetched
*25 apiece: Dryden wrote 10000 i'm
mortal lines at little over half
penny word, and all Gray's muse ever
put into his pocket was $2OO-Phila-
delpha Press.
It * unfortunate that the title Of
"tamr and TRAIL Stewart Edward
Whites now book. conflicts with Camp
and Trail" an important book by Isabel
FIornihrook, on the Lothrop Lee &
Shepherd co.'s list. Miss Hornibrook's
book, which is a story of the Maine
woods, and which makes a strong point
of kindness to animals and learning
their habits and taking their lives only
when necessary, has too much vitality
| TO suffer permanent injury in it's sales.
but an author may be pardoned nat
ural irritation when learning that
orders intended for her work have been
|