The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1913-11-27
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Celebrity


stx months On the Dafly Emulator
and Only small details, handed out
like cold potatoest That is hard on
an, ambitious young woman. My hear
beat high when the managing editor
called me into his private office.
Hive you much Of the detective IN
you?g be asked, looking at me keenly.
aMg heart went higher still. felt II
thumR my. palate. ] put as much effert
! on my reply as on a halt-column arti'
Gle. TRY mel l said, reasoning that
anybody who. blue pencils as he does
would prefer a laconic answer.
you know Woodrow Wardham has
left town, and nobody knows his
whereabouts" / assented.
q want you to dig him up and give
him a page with photographs in the
Sunday paper"
"What ciews?" / asked.
"Youll find them. You don't need
to be reminded that 1t isn't precisely
as II he were a regular criminal"
mot exactly"
"No, but still he hasn't any right to
drop out OF sight this way. When a
man is as noted. as he is, the public
expects to know everything. and yet
ii isn't advisable to trail him by ex.
actly the same methods that would
be used Il he were an embezzler,"
AZ agree with YOU" l said, With
mental reservations.
"Use your own methods, but find
him. Els absence is deucedly incon'
venient. We want the first interview
on his novel, 'Tarsus Of M%etatarsus.'
Mr.. Derry told me later that Elmer
Mount Of the Morning Tmitator had
been sent cut otter Wardham,
Hes a novelist with a. Soul, Is
Wardham," continued! Derry. which
ever ofayouo finds him first will be
| treated royalty and the next will get
courtesy but no story. He used to be
on a newspaper himself. You've met
him"
AT the Brohton reception" l re-
turned.
"He never forgets anybody. Sue
cess to your search"
The servants at the house refused
to say where Wardham vas. Then !
bought d steamer rug and got Derry
to take II to the house and tell the
maid he thought it belonged to Ward
ham. You see she was almost certain
to reply In n or two ways. And she
did"
"No, his rug is here inlthe house."
So l returned my purchase to the
store end sang, mot gone abroad"
And after that good detective work,
my brother-in-law, who Is with the
Driver Realty Company, toldme Ward
ham would be in town on the first and
aagln on the tenth to attend to some
real estate business. Then l felt sure
he was in the state:
Il sat down with a map, and Begin
ming with the southern towns, put a
line through every place where /
thought he was not. Big hotels, the
popular places, even the Imitator peo-
pie might have found him there.
Presently my map looked as If 1t
were covered with a drawing Of &
torn mosquito-net., This was getting
interesting. I appreciated the subtle
compliment OF the editors detail more
and more. 1t was possible, Of course,
that Wardham was in the northern
Coast Range. He vas not with tho
Sierra Club, l knew. AS he is neither
hunter nor horseback rider, he was
probably not far from the railroad.
l had not read Chesterton's MAN
Who Was Thursday" for nothing, so I
looked for my man where no n
would think of hiding. I'll look for
him in tho village where everybody
is a celebrity" I exclaimed.
Now a reporter on the Imitator
would never think Of looking for him
at. Carmel. l reasoned It out another
way and got the same result; a thief
hides among other thieves; when a
celebrity wants to hide, why should
be, not mingle his fame with the
celebrity glow? I boughta ticket to.
Carmel.
You know Carmel, a village where;
everybody who isn't a novelist Is a
painter, and everybody who isn't a
painter is a poet, and every mothers
son Of them is an artistlin the broad
sense. Water and oil doesn't. refer
there to the Peoples Company or
Coaling stock. Nobody eats canvas.
back for fear of mutilating the canvas.
II you want to do anybody a kindness
you offer to read proof for his next
book, and expect him to mention it
in the preface.
When l left the train for the stage
the celebrities seek retirement three
miles from the station-there was not
a celebrity aboard. Evidently / JUST
missed one, for the stage driver put an
artists patnt-box under the seat with
the remark, "a painterfeller from
the city told me not to forget this.
Said he was going pencll.sketching
around here and would come out on q
later stage"
The box was initiated E. NJ. I
could not think Of any well-known'