The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-10-06

Every now and then we come across
= man who knew VIII Porter before
he became o. Henry. and knew him
better than anybody else knew him.
But there Is man who lives In
Florida, and to whom the wide reaches
Of the Ear west are like the very
breath OF his nostrils, who not only
knew Will Porter better than anybody
else knew him, but who wrote a book
which Will Porter illustrated. A book
that would bring it's weight In gold
now, but which has gone to the limbo
Of lost opportunities. =
When / saw that editors were
searching for data about o. Henry,
and saw enormously stated that he
had illustrated a book, Big Foot Wal
lace, long ago in Austin, Texas, It
brought back to my mind a story that
Uncle Joe" Dixon, who lives In Flor
ida and loves Texas, told to me in
April, 1911
Uncle Joe" Dixon is known to all
the Florida press as Uncle joe" Just
why he is Uncle Joe to this big fam
fly Of newspaper men and women it
would be hard to say. Maybe it is
his kindly smile. Or II may be his
far-reaching sympathy, his tender sen
timent, his wonderful, perpetual kind
Illness Anyhow, he Is Uncle Joe" to
the Fourth Estate, and Uncle Joe he
win remain until he crosses the border
, and clasps hands with o. Henry on
THE other side of the Great Divide.
"tIpcle joe Is not modern. He
looks upon a typewriter as a work of
the devil. He scorns to use a tele-
phone. And he never has quite got
ten used to seeing his editorials split
In the middle with a line something
like this: wypolsdj esklegmrn
krndfhjgxmlodprhg His vocabulary is
like perennial flower garden of de-
lightful phrases and beautiful English.
He can handle any subject under the
sun with ease, grace and assurance.
and the newspaper men of Florida are
SO proud of him that they have no
room for jealousy for this wonderful
man who spent years in gold-seeking,
and yet looks upon gold as dross. and
thinks more of poem expressing a
tender bit of sentiment, a. flower In a
crannied wall. the smile of a child or
the prayers Of woman, than of all
the gold ever hidden in the Rockies.
When I wrote him line and told
were searching for data OF o. Henry,
end reminded him of anecdotes he had
told me, he was even then preparing
ida paper to the plains of Texas. where
each year he goes, when the old lure
calls him from out the past.
He paused in his flight to ten me a
story interesting, even had it not tho
added value of having been closely as
ISOLATED with one of the geniuses of
his time.
Years before went to Colorado
he said, John Maddox-now one of
the most influential men of Texas
and myself had been intimate friends
in Texas. which state was my home
In 1877 he and I learned of the gold
excitement in the Black Hills of Da-
kota and had started for that region
and were stranded in Chicago, where
y wore fleeced like lambs by the Chi
eago Board of Trade, when we tried
a, little flyer in the wheat market.
Maddox returned to Texas, where he
made a fortune in the land business,
but / stopped in Kansas City, got into
the newspaper work and made that
my home. II was from there 1 went
to LeadvilIe in 1879 and spent several
years in the Rockies prospecting for
gold and silver.
"One day Maddox wrote to me, after
] had been in the Rockies for some
time, and said: Joe, your carbonates
lie az the bottom of an ink we'll. Come
back and put down the pick for the
pen. and you'll make a fortune. A man
who can see what you can see in the
common things of life, and can write
of them as you can write of them.
can create a gold mine of his own.
Come back to Austin and write a
book. will stake you for six months
or longer, and you write of your life
In the Rockies. as you can write Of
1t. and your fortune is made"
IT hesitated, but John kept writing
to me, so III 1888 I went.
John owned a lovely home in the
suburbs OF Austin and so there I set
tied in the lap of luxury to write the
book that was to make me famous.
Take time, all you want said
John. and win have the book IL
mstrated and published In the very