Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-20

II. =. Kelly III \
If the late o. Henry, 6f' Sydney Por.
ter, were writing this he would be-
wall the effect that any man should be
denounced" by such pen name as o.
Henry. To use one of his own express
sions, o. Horny is good deal of a
nomenclatural tin can to tie to the tail
of ones self respect" Furthermore,
his admirers constantly meet people
who have him confused with George
V. Hobart, who used to write under
the name of John Henry. To compare
the two Is to do something deplorable.
When Henry, or Porter. died the
other day the literary world lost more
than the opportunity to read new o.
Henry stories in the monthly maga-
zines. 1t would have been interesting
for the world of letters to know just
what place In the literature of all time
this remarkable writer would have won
for himself If he could have lived out
the long life his work entitled him TO.
So far his work had not only bubbled
but kept right on bubbllng-there's a
difference There was no indication
that he would ever write himself out
or let down. Everything he turned out
was as original and unexpected as any
thing he had done previously. Just
how long he could have kept up his
accelerated pace and where he finally
would have landed can of course be
only matter of conjecture. Many
literary authorities, including Mark
Twain, gave him equal rank with De
Maupassant and Poe, as a master of
the short story. Still others go further
and question If either De Maupassant
or Poe had as many attributes that
meant mastery of the short story as
o. Henry possessed. Certainly he ex-
celled them as to sense of humor and
his humor was of an absolutely original
brand. Nobody that has ever lived has
told things in just the way that o.
Henry did. Much of his humor, too,
was founded on observation of human
nature, which Is perhaps the highest
form of humor. o. Henry never de-
pended on puns of misspelled words to
make his readers smile. In addition to
all this, he had a fine insight into dra-
matte narrative, and moreover, could
draw pathos as we'll as humor. And
he had the rare art of mixing the two
without dulling the effect of either.
Harry Thurston Peck of Columbia
university Is an o. Henry admirer, who
thinks that his work is destined to
reach oblivion, on the ground that
much of it is too dependent on knowl-
edge of present-day affairs and of
modern slang. With reference to much
of o. Henrys writings this may apply,
but he has written scores of stories that
many will insist should be more appre-
ciated a generation or two from now
than they are today-for it seems
doubtful If anybody else will write any
thing as good in that time. AS a mat
ter of fact, o. Henry didn't use such a
great deal of slang. 1t wasn't slang so
often as regular English words in unex-
pected places.
1t is doubtful If any modern writer,
not excepting George AIDE, was as keen
a student of human nature, its inner
workings and is petty foibles as O.
Henry. When he first came to New
York in 1902 he would wander about at
all hours of the night, in all sorts OF
out ut-of-the-way places, talking" as
he remarked not long ago, ito anybody
who would converse with me. l never
found anybody that L couldn't learn
something from. He had some eX-
perience that 1 had not, and If l could
get him to tell 1t 1 profited.. But l
knew better than ever to flash note
book, for the man would then turn
into either a sphinx or Hall Caine."
Like many other geniuses, o. Henry
was a peculiar person. For one thinS,
he had little financial responsibility.
Although his revenue from his stories
and book royalties during the last four
or five years must have been tremen-
dous, yet he was always in financial
straits. He would go to a magazine
editor and promise to write a story for
him If the editor would pay him in ad-
vance whatever sum they could agree
upon. Then when the story was fin
ished he would have spent the advance
money, and he would sell the story to
some other magazine in order to get
money to meet further obligations. In
this way he had accumulated many
debts that proved upon his mind. In