The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-03-21

haring headline that extended across
three columns. A full length ''charae-
| ter cartoon of the colonel surrounded
by thumb nafl' impressions of his
face and bodily pose at various inter
esting moments of his talk of the pre-
ceding day surrounded the larger por-
trait
Colonel Strickland began reading
of the article. A smile crept upon his
face. Slowly his eyes went down the
! printed page. The smile broadened.
| Soon it became a chuckle. Later, alb
sorbed in the reading, the candidates.
shoulders shook as he read. Finally,
with one big fist pinning the newspa-
per to the table in front of him, Colo
mel Bill Strickland leaned back in his
chair and roared with laughter.
Lord have mercy on US, Thurs!' he
gagped. TITS the best and truest thing
/ ever saw in my life. They've got
you finished of to the queens taste"
az don't know nothiR' about the
| queens taste, sub" spoke Colonel Tod
| hunter grtmly, 'fbut know one thing
almighty well I'm agoin' to dust that
newspaper mans Jacket for him the
next time he comes in reach O. me.
Great name above, sub, tn amt no
man can handle Colonel Thurs T. Tod
hunter like that and not get it well
taken out Of his hide, suh.''
Again Colonel Strickland shouted
with laughter. you old fool?' he sput-
tered. THAT newspaper man knows
you better than you know yourself.
It's wonderful, ThursG He's made a
character study of you that's nothing
more or less than a miracle, my
| friend
| It was the truth. Colonel Todhunter
| had come under the vision of a master
fully giftedtAewspaper expert in '<char-
acter values" The young fellow with
whom he had chatted so freely and at
such ease an the preceding afternoon
had temperamental1y absorbed" him
body and soul Then he had gone to
| his newspaper desk and written a de-
scriptive interview that was sheerly
the colonel himself in the flesh. It was
a feat of psychological wizardry. The
man achieving it seemed to have put
aside his own being for the moment
and taken on that of Colonel Todhun-
| ter instead. As result of this exercise
of the strangest of literary powers
Colonel Todhunter himself, the typical
! figure of a Missouri Democrat of the
old school, talked in his proper person,
a living, breathing, almost palpable en-
tity, from the printed page.
And the keenly humorous, apprecia-
| tive and well nigh loving quality that
signalized the writer's performance of
! his task was finely REINFORCED by the
work of the cartoonist. The sketches
themselves were ifehke, bringing out
the colonePs- every salient characters
| tic in facial expression, bodily pose and
| gesture.
But this amazing projection of him
| self in printers ink on the publicity
| screen" of a newspapers front page
appalled, Colonel Todhunter. He shrank
from it, shocked, with all a country
mans dismay at sudden prominence
before the world.
Its all right for you, Bill; you can
afford to laughI'' he said Indignantly.
But I'm the one that's hold1n' the
| bag, sub! It's me that's put on that
there internal circus poster like the
wild man O. Borneo, not you. And I'll
be shot full O holes if it amt me that's
agoin' to hold them there two young
rascals to an accountin' for it, you
mark my words, suhr'
Colonel Strickland wiped the tears
| from his eyes.
you're all wrong, Thurs-hoRest,
you arer' he protested. '"There amt
| line in that story that don't speak good
| of you, and what you say there is as
sound as a dollar. It's you talking, to
| the life, old fellow, and you're talking
| for me, and every word you say helps
| US more than a column of ordinary
newspaper stuff. I wouldn't take ST.
| 600 for it, right now!'
II for 10 cd eli bf IoSSST1
| that, suhr' holly replied Colonel Tod
hunter. "And didn't. L warn you
didn't tell you beforehand that they'd
shorely size me up as a country jake
| from the very begfnnin' and that I'd
bungle you all up here in st. Louis,
! sub? Didn't 1 say that as sure as I
came to these here city headquarters
o. your'n I'd play the very old blue
blazes and Sam Hill fore got through,
sub? Yes, suh-and I'm a-headin'
straight back for Nineveh this very
day, suhi''
mo. you ain't-not by a Jugful!' re
torted Colonel Strickland, manfully
striving to straighten his face into
gravity. ''No, sir. You'll speak at the
coliseum this very night, just as we've
planned, Thurs, and I'll tell you an
other thing. You'll speak to the big
gest and most enthusiastic audience
the coliseum ever held, or else 1 don't
know the signs of a mans popularity
when see 'em, sir!'
Colonel Bill Strickland prophesied
truly. The coliseum was packed to the
AAaE