Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-05

bending Calvanistic austerity about him.
even then. a quality which became more
pronounced with his growth. maturity
and success as novelist. | am intend
ing to say here that he was a young man
who took himself with intense serious
ness, and there never was anything even
mtigatingly fiippant about him. / be
lieved then, and believe now, that he had
not even the symptoms of a sense of hui
NOR about him. He was a good reporter.
albeit he had little or no nose for news;
and he leaned heavily. in that respect
upon the reporters with whom he GOV
cred assignments. His specially was in
putting the news in good, readable and
picturesque form when he got hold OF 1t.
He was fresh from college at that time.
and ] think he had no great opinion Of
men who were not. like himself. collie
gians. | do not say that this was his idea.
! merely say that | think SO. If he did
entertain any such notion. he assuredly
must have been compelled to reshape his
ideas in that respect. for working on his
paper the Sun, at that time and as a
reporter. too, was the late Jersey
Chamberlain, perhaps the greatest re
porter and best all-around newspaper
writer this country ever produced, and
Jersey had never gained anything but
the commoneSt sort of a school edllca-
ton. Also on the Sun in Phillips time
was Julian Ralph veritable marvel as
an all-around newspaper man. famed in
newspaper annals. and Ralph wasn't
college man by whole lot
x
think. too, that at the outset of his
reportoral career Phillips underjudged
generally the ability of the reporters with
whom he came in contact in New York.
Very soon, however, he had to alter bis
ideas in this respect, too When he found
Insignificant looking. notwithstanding re-
porters running rings around him in
newsgetting and in scooping him on his
own assignments-naturall enough, see
ing that Phillips was a new man at the
trade-there is no other conclusion for 1t
except that he must have been obliged to
change his notions in respect of the me.s
working at his craft in New York.
/ suppose that even at that time Phil
lips was the best-dreSsed best-groOmed
newspaper man in all New York. He
was perfectly tailored as young man.
Later on he developed indosyncrasies in
dress which attracted attention to his tall.
gaunt figure. lie was a good-lookng
Indianian with somewhat too wide
mouth and a constant expression of too
great sternness, but he looked classy and
fine all the time, nevertheless.
From the beginning of my acquaintance
ship with him | observed that there was
something oddly bitter about his views of
life, it being more odd considering his youth
and necessarily limited experience, for he
was only about twenty-three years old
at that time. He took dark view OF the
world: the universe appeared to be out of
Joint for him, and he would specify 50
many things that needed correction o.
amendment that one was tempted to
throw up ones hands and ask him for q
suspension of judgment.
y X
IL was noticeable, too, even so early as
that period, that Phillips had what might
be called great disdain for women folk.
He viewed them as the fiippantest mag
inSblc creatures. This view OF the SEX
increased as everybody who has read his
novels knows, to positive bitterness as he
increased in years ] was not In thu least
surprised when his novels holding up the
.'fgEty American women to scorn first
began TO make their appearance: for 1
had become familiar with his views iii
this respect long years before. ! do not,
of course. know anything to what his
more private view in this respect may
have been. except that he remained n
bachelor and that every novel he pub
llShed grew more 1enunciatUry of certain
kinds of American folk: >and the kinds
became more comprehensive all the time.
Indeed. his last novel so teenled with
bitterness in respect of women folk that
the challenge he thus issued was taken up
by the women writer's of New York, and
they bomba rded him heavily for quite IL
long time after the book was published.
They took his assertions about women
apart piece by piece and threw the
Seart4llght of their irony upon every
piece: and when this process was at an
novelist did not appear to have much leg
room upon which to stand.
Toward the middle of his success as a
noSelis' Philips withdrew almost alto