The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-28
mEMORIES OF R. LAFFAN
wILLxAM DEAN HOWELLs TALKS or THE PUDLIsHER-
Hew stesy wrsttea fer Grswn-UDs Struck . YsunGster--lseeelIec-
 tions sf Leng AeQuatntanee-
 sh1p-vieiass Pesa.

taons q Leng Aesualatanee-
 ship-vieie's Pesn.
 Among those who. were countsd among the intimate friends Of William N. LAfFan. who died recently. few had come in contact with The suns pro pristor both socially and in business way more often tran William Dean HoweIis In the last twenty or more years, the two had met often here and abroad. says The New York Post.
 And yet" explained MT. Howsiis to. day. eve saw little sf each other, not withstandins that we were old friends In the last nve years, don't remem- Der having met Laifan once. You know how 1t is. here in New York You have many friends whom you would like to see often. but they are busy and you are busy. and somehow you meet. them only by chance st some dinner or club gathering.
 Tt was that way with Laffan- I first met him at q dinner of the Tile Club In Boston many yeevs gro. You must have heard of the Tile Club--thone art fists who paint on tiles, bIjng the tiles to their club dinners. pass them around and thsn---weil. I doA't know what be- comes of tho tiles after that Laffan was there, and sat next to him. was delighted with his personality from the first.
 .'Laffan, as remember 1t. had writ ten an amusing descriation of an out ing of the Tile Club up the Hudson on canal boat. The story. was full oi keen humor. and. strangely enough. Il was . great favorite with my boy. On leaving homo to attend the dinner. told my son---then only little fellow --that was going to meet Mir. Laffan,
 "swhat, going to meet Mr. Lafan? he said. The man who wrote that book r To him 1t seemed about the greatest thing anybody could do--to meet Mir. Laffan.
 A Dinner Anecesse.
 "so. when I did meet Laifan, told him what an admirer he had In my son. don't suppose Laffan had ever Clubs trip up the Hudson would be the kind of thing to appeal to children, and my announcement brought forth roars of laughter from members of the club.
 they cried. and slapped him on the back.
 .The next time met him wss some years later, In London. He was over there as agent for Harper's, and. as remember 1t. he vas homasick. II usually does take . man some tirnc co get used to London and like 1t. Laf- fan had been there only a short while and he hadn't hccome acclirnated, so to speak. He told me this at dinner given by James R. Osgood. which was attended by q lot of Americans and one Engiishman. AIma-Tader1a. who was a Dutchman. Bret Harte was there. and Henry James. and T. B. Ala rich, and lot of others--I can't begir to remember them all.
 'Laffan, as said. was feeling home sick then, but the next time saw him. year later in New York, he told me he wished he were back in London. He had stayed there just long enough to home.
 Tt had long been the ambition of Mir. Dana to run series of American stories in his newspaper, and was one of the men he asked to write for him. That was some fifteen years ago, and when I finished the work took 1t to Laffan, with the remark that I hoped he would accept 1t. Of course. 1t had been more or less arranged before hand that the story would probably go .hssesshs D. ,sg ! Hss iaa H'fs4 4Slt an'sr77 S.oh. rapiisd LafYan. as [ handed over the manuscript. 1t is accepted ail right. whether we eyer use 1t or not. If I don't happen to like it, I'll put if in the safe and, keep 1t there
 "By which II take 1t, that he meant he'd stick to his bargain. whether the story suited him or not Laffan had 3 sort of sub -acid wit, you know. It was one of the chief characteristics ol the man. He was big man, and haa a peculiar. way of wearing his hair straight up. like hairebrush. on top ! of hls head. isassss lssfsf
 .T saw him often, in summer and late fall. down at Long Beach. in the days when the old hotel stood there, Laffan and F. Hopkinson Smith and Bruce Price had big plans for develop ing Long Beach into something like what am told 1t Is today. sLaffan and a fewsoftus who liked the shore were always the last people std leave the place In the fall. I can remember staying until the hotel closed for the year and the last of the old stand-bys would make for the city. carrying their belongings with them."
 His Name in E0ugene Field's Poem.
 The death of Mir. I.aftan recalled the poem which Eugene Field wrote many years ago: "Mr. Dana of the New York Sun" In It Mir. Laffan.s nssne appears. The poem. 1t will be remembered. deals with a peripatetic littsrateur who showed up out n Denver In
 the spring of '6l,
 A man who'd worked with Dana on
 The Moo York Sun.
 On the strength of this. they en- gagged the man Jas q reporter In Dem yer. He did not shine: he never brought an item iu" and eventually disappeared. Mir. Dana arrived soon after and failed to remember the man who had worked with him on the Woo York Sun. He said:
 Whoppers was a man he'd
 never heerd about
 But he mought have carried papers on
 the Jersey City route;
 And then he recollccted hcarin' MT.
 Lafran say That he'd fired man named Whop-
 pers fur bein drunk one day: But further information or statistics
 he had nonet
 Uv the man who'd worked with Dana
 on the Noo york Sun.
 Obituary notices mentioned Mr. Laffan's aloofness, from the stanfs of