The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1910-06-07
BEGAN LITERARY LIFE
| ON TEXAS NEWSPAPER
From Cowboy on Range He
Became Reporter and Later
Magazine Writer

/
| who died here last Sunday, was one
uf the most populas story writer's
America has ever produced
He las suffered for several years
ilom complication Of diseases, OF \
! which cirrhosis of the live. was the
most dangerous factor. His physi-
clan, Or. Charles Russell Hancock.
realized when he Sent Porter to the
Hospital on Friday last that there was
practically no hope Of his recovery. /
Or Hancock performed an operation
satu day, inserting drainage tube,
/ nut the dof tor had no hope chat any
permanent benefit would result,
For the past eight years lew con-
tvibutors tc the magazines have been
more welcomed by publishers and pub
lie than was O. Henry.
He was one Of the masters Of short /
story writing in this country, possess.
ing gift OF fine humor as well rs an
ability for dramatic narration. All
thought he could write tale in ire
proachable English, he was one of the
few who could make slang really fun
ny. He had, too, a knack OF coming
slang words and slang phrases that
suck in the mind and became q part
of our lighter language. He was es-
seEtially humorist.
It was while he was IN New Orleans |
somo ten years ago that he adopted
the name of 20. Henry" nom de
p,ume which seemed, somehow, to III |
his works perfectly In later years
there were comparatively few people
Who knew what his real pam was
Took Literary Alias
A IN New Orleans he had sent stacks
Iof manuscripts TO unappreciatlye edi-
tors, and when they were returned,
rs they nearly always were, he put
rew stamps on the envelopes and
sent them on their travels again. But
be decided one day that he ought to
select q literary alias He said TO
trend.
I'm going to send out some stuff,
and | think ought to have a new
name. Help me to pick out one
His friends suggested that he get
newspaper and run over the first list
Of notables he came TO In the society
columns They got paper and came
acioss the account Of a fashionable
ball. Ills eye lit in the name OF
Henry"
That's good enough for me- he
eaid. "Now | want first name. !
want something short none of your
taece syllabIed names for me
Why don't YOU use a single initial?
Gaid his friend
"Ail right said Porter "'rhe let
/, tor o Is about the easiest letter writ
! ten, so % II Is"
2 Cowboy And Reporter
. He was born forty-three years age
/ IN Greensborough, N. c. Several ol
his ancestors had been governors ol
HE state. His health was delicate
. when he was boy, and that was one
lOf the reasons he lever went TO col
] lege lie went TO Toxas while he was
o siill in his teens and spent two years
!. ard 4 half on cattle ranch.
( But he got tired of the cattle busl
ress and made up his mind that h'
wanted either to write Or draw. Writ
; Ing seemed easier TO begin and h'
got job at SIS week on the Houst
on POST. Within two weeks his salar!
vas Jumped to $50 and in another tw,
weeks il became $2J II impressed
Linn then as munificeut when th'
editor said one day:
Porter, within five yearsc yon'll b
earning SlO0 week on New Yorl
newspaper, and he made up his mln'
that he was really cut ont to be
writer.
Bought Brann's Iconoclast
lie hadn't special preparation.
common school education and consif
!, able reading of the classics fror
ria thirteenth to his nineteenth yea
vas the education with which h
started.
! While he was on the Houston Pos
Tram had been publishing the Icon,
ciast az Houston and failed. Porte
bought the whole plant, name and al
for $3.50 and started a ten-page weel
Is story paper. He wrote most OF "a
stories himself and did all Of the
lastrating. Brann wrote from wac
4 asking Ii he could get back the tlt
"iconoclastn Porter, as he sal
didn't think much of 1t, 50 he hands
II back and renamed his paper "Tl
Telling Stcne." He kept II going 4
another year and then sold out.
In Spanish America
With friend he visited Centr
America, where he got the materi
Ior some OF his most amusing sfoiis
stories which bad TO do with the m
adventures OF Yankees mar0oned
ine Central American republics.
iiiea 10 raise bananas, hnt II to'
100 long 10. them TO grow so he dri
cd back to Texas and got job In
drug Store. drawing soda water. T'
weeks Of that satisfied nim. aud