The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-05-31

BOSTON, May 30-The numbei
OF practical newspaper men who have
broken into literature through tht
medium of the novel almost passe:
enumeration. One OF the latest tc
see piece of his fiction between Gov
ers is Edwin George Pinkham OF the
Kansas City Star, whose first book
"Fate's a Fiddler, is about to be
produced by Boston publishing
house. Mr. Pinkham's career has
been so typical Of that of a large
class of workers on American news
papers that some notes on it dictated
bv him to his publishers can hardly
fail TO be amusing. He says OF HIM
self:
'T did my first newspaper work IN
Springfield, Mo-, when ! was four
teen or fifteen. hung around a
newspaper Office there doing what
ever they would let me. set type,
worked the press, folded the papers.
They didn't ask me to do these things
but they took no active means OF pre-
venting me. AT first, | believe, the
editor did warn me gruffly to keep
out. suspecting doubtless that ! was
staying away from school. That
didn't disturb me greatly however,
because when he came down stairs
| went up anyway, and when he went
up came down. So long as we
didn't meet the fiction was maintain
ed that | wasn't there. But one day
he forgot and asked me to pull a
proof for him, and that settled it-l
was there officially.
"He was an indolent man. was my
editor, and | learned to take advan'
tage Of him. One day ! wrote
story when he was out and left it on
his desk. When he came back ! ex-
planned that it had been left by tall
stoop shouldered man who said his
name was Brown. 1t was printed.
Mr.. Brown became regular contri-
butor after that-always calling when
the editor was out. | have said that
my editor was indolent, perhaps ne
was shrewd too, because pretty soon
he was letting Brown do most OF the
work. | remember that he used to
get quite peevish if he failed TO drop
in on his accustomed day and leave
some copy,-called him shirker and
things like that. Thus Brown early
learned how thorny is the path OF the
scribe.
"Our paper was called The Peo-
ple'sVoice. Whether the people |
didn't recognize their voice when |
they heard it or just didn't care, the
event was that they showed no great
to listen to it and it grad
ually became smaller and stiller and
finally ceased. | drifted around
through the South and West, work
ing in printing offices mostly. did
not know the trade but / was use
full cub I believe, and as l never
asked for any pay you can imagine
that I had no difficulty in finding an
stont to sleep on"
Mr.. Pinkham is % years old and
a native of Lynn, Mass. When he
was two years old the family moved
West. Of this period and Of his
early struggles he says:
1T was always guiding principle
N our family (and | have adhered to
t strictly that when we became so
poor that we couldn's possibly exist
where we were that we should spend
4 small fortune moving as far away
rom there as possible / think we
earned this secret from Ben Frank
in's book The Road to Wealth. |
nay be mistaken about the author,
out let it pass. Thus | have been
East and West and South, newspaper
nan for a time and then something
Else, newspaper man again and then
something else, and now newspaper
nan again for time"
Mr.. Pinkham was engaged in bust
less in Providence, R. /. for several
years and was latter connected with
/ press bureau in Worcester, Mass.
For the past year he has been staff
writer on the Kansas City Star.
CONSERVING THE LAND.