The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-02-04
OUR GREATEST
MAN OF LETTERS
Continued from Page Four

,o purchase. Said paper Is my ac-
count. receipted. Occasionally he Is
absent. and the welcome news COM
ing 10 my ear, l mount my fiery boss
and gallop wildly TO tho store. enter
with something of h sang froid.
grace, abandon, and recherche nom
chalance with which Charles Yates
1shers ladies and gentlemen to their
seats in the opera house. and, nerv-
ously lingering my butcher knife,
the clerk. This plan always sue
leeds. This Is by way Of explana-
sion of this vast and unnecessary sta
jionery OF which this letter is COM
posed. am always In too big a
hurry 20 demur at kind and quality,
out when l get to town / will write
TO you on mall gilt-edged paper that
would suit even the fastidious and
discriminating taste OF a Logan.
When l get to the city, which will
30 shortly, I will send you some ac-
count of this country and its inmates.
You are right. I have almost for
gotten what a regular old. gum-chew-
.ng, ice-cream destroying. opera ticket
vortex, ivory clawing girl looks ike
last summer a very fair specimen Of
his kind ranged over about Fort
Smell, and i used to ride over twice
:. week on mail days and chew the
end of my riding whip while she
SlOOO Oh IN DIluSCs dIlO N1dLklcISO
np shells on the Sea Shore" and wore
shc Golden Slippers" But h has
Xamoosed, and my ideas on the sub
1oct are again growing dim.
If you see anybody about to start
10 Texas TO live, especially to this part,
II YOU will take your scalpyOuler and
sever the jugular vein. cut the
Iraehiopod artery and hamstring him,
after he knows what o have done
Cor him he will rise up and call you
blessed. This country is a silent but
eloquent refutation Of Bob I~ngersOlfs
theory: n man here gets prenaturely
insane, melancholy and unreliable
mis- boots, while in a good old lane
hhe Greensboro a mar can die, as
they do every day, with all the benefits
Of the clergy.
W. S. PORTER.
Throughout his boyhoOd days in
Greensboro, young Porter had always
cherished, as he put it, IAN intense
desire to BIO an artist" Only the other
day, u lady who knew him well in
those days told me OF his remarkable
talent as a c~artoOnist and caricatur-
jst. lis companions took great de-
light in his pictures of local charac-
sers and incidents. Although he
never became q professional cartoon
,st. u Porter early displayed in
his pictures that power of minute and
terse characterization SO patent in his
literary thumb-nail sketches of real
life. In Rolling Stones are reproduced
some very interesting drawings. Says
MIR. Steger: "A story is back OF them.
They were the illustrations to q boo
Joe Dixon, prospector INC fnveterate
fortune-seeker, came to Austin from
the Rockies in 1883, at the constant
sirging Of his old pal, Mr.. John Mad
doX. joe kept writing Mr.. Maddox
your fortunes In your pen, not youl
pick. Come to Austin and write ar
account OF your adventures It wa.
hard to WOO Dixon from he golt
that wasn't there. but finally Maddo,
wrote him that he must come an(
try the scheme. There's a boy her,
from North Carolina wrote Maddox
His name is Will Porter n he cal
Dixon ame The plan was that, af
Ger Author and Artist had done thei
work, Patron would step in, carry tn
manuscript to New York, bestow it OIL
y deserving publisher, and then re
turn TO await, with the other two, tn
avalanche OF royalties. This version
of the story comes from Mr.. Maddox
There were forty pictures in all an
they were very true to the life Of tn
Rockies in the seventies OF course
he young artist had nc Technique
no anything except what was native
Sut wait! AS the months went by
Dixon worked hard, but he began I
have doubt. Perhaps the book wa
no good. Perhaps John would onl
tose his money. He was a miner, nc
II writer. and he ought not to let job
10 10 II expense. The end Of TIL
!lnc OF thought was the Colorad
River for the manuscript and the hig
road for the author. The picture.
fortunately, were saved. Most c
Them Porter gave later to MIR,
atagelstein, Of San Angelo, Texas. NJ
Maddox, by the way, finding a not
from Joe that explained ALL hasten
cd TO the river and V a fe'
scraps OF the great book hat Ia
lodged against 4 sandbar. But ther
was no putting them togethe
again.
ON April 2s, 1894, there appeare
In Austin, Texas, volume /, numbs