Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-01-31
M. QUAD" AT 20 STILL
"A PROLIFIC HUMORIST'


free Press office. From the lot / picked
out = poem written by a woman in
MarNland. as the best. ana. rather than
nave her get the idea that the offer MAS
Il rake. | took 81 nut of my own pocket
sent it To her. With u note stating
mat IL Was the prize awarded by the
Lime Kiln club.
AS for MIR. Bowscr. l have to con-
Tess that the character is QUILT up
largely ON myself.
The MAY ! got the idea for him WAS
when ! got up one morning. dressed
hurriedly. and Went to the office. /
had put on a brand new shirt. one that
! mad thought would fit me very we'll,
nut Ii almost sawed my ears off all
day.
When | got home 1 told my wife
that it was no sort of "a shirt at all.
1T looks all right said she.
.!'ut is isn't l persisted.
at me intently.
The shirts all right she remarked.
IRE trouble is that You have put it on
over your nishtshirt.
That gave me the idea for MIR.
BowScr.
None of my characters has caused
people tn write me so many letters AS
Bowser has. Over and over again l
have received letters reading something
like this:
"'Dear Sir: | want to- know if YOU
ever came up tn this town and drew
YOUR character of MIR. Rowser from me.
ask YOU this because everybody in
town SAYS ynu did
Many of the letter writer's are wom-
en-. In one OF the stories | told how
Mr.. F;owser arrived home one night
niled With enthusiasm and told Mrs.
bowsel' how he was going to buy thou
sands OF chickens. have them lay tens
OF thousands of eggs. and make hun
dreds OF thousands of dollars. Mrs.
Bowser listened politely. and then
asked where BCwser was going to get
the money for the puIchase-a little
detail he had overlooked completely.
Well. l received Il delighted letter
from "A woman. who told me that her
husband had been OF the point of Civ
ing up his regular business and devot-
ing himself entirely to chicken farming
on the Bowser scale. Just as all hope
for him had been given up. she said.
she ram across the Bowser story about
the chicken experiment. showed it to
him and rescued him.
Another woman wrote to say that
the same story. applied at the right
minute. hAd saved her husband from a
horrible end as Il Wholesale grower of
strawberries.
lIic WIVES MIllS 10 me. IpIsllS1nS
certain lsowser stories i'm which Mrs.
BnwSer hauls her husband ovcr the
Goals, and 1e,markinS.
] Nha she says applies first rate to
my husband. Keep it up. Give it to
MIN again. Its good for him..
"Another character of mine which
started in quite a small way and be-
came a regular WAS The Arizona
Kicker.
I'm getting up II lot of short humor-
Gus paragraphs in the Free Press !
started one with the words. The last
issue of The Arizona Kicker SAYS
That eemed to nah a hit. There
We're comments on The Arizona Kicker.
and requests tn know more about the
| paper.
SO l made Il regular feature of it
and of it's editor. the proprietor of the
only editorial graveyard in the world
He uses the graveyard. you know. for
burNing those people who come To his
office to object to the paptT and don't
pull their gums quick enough. The lat
est adNiccs from the gra veyard We're
thai il contained % handsome head
stones.
do YOU iSnow something? have re-
turned as many as 26 ST bills sent 10
me b. people who wished To subscribe
to The Kicker. believing it Il real pa
| per"
The old joker clauckled to himself for
Il while.
I'm tell YOU something else about The
Kicker" he resumed. "Once the gov
clnnr of Arizona said i'm Il speech that
the idea given of Arizona i'm The Kicker
stories Was Keeping the territory out of
statehood. What do you him of that -
So tho talk ran on. With 'inside in
formation" as TO the creation of many
another of the m. Quad" characters
Old Pap Pinkham. the Perkins Family.
tho Grand Promoter. Colonel Bunker
and the rest of the old guard.
Nor has Mr.. Lewis inventive faculty
tagged With age.
"Onc of my characters. Checkers the
Hobo. is onl. two months old" he in
formed the interviewer proudly.
"Cns. of my creations" he said when
pressed for further "reminiscences was
actually drawn pretty accurately from
a real living person. mean Mrs. Doll
by. in Mrs. Dolby's Talks
The original was AN aunt of mine.
She was Il hysterical. fearful. sorrowful
sort of aunt. She would wake up i'm the
morning, &c about her work singing. APP
parentlE as happy as a lark, and sud-
denly get :: terrible fit of sadness with !
out any warming whatever. 50 that my
uncle. having left her in the house per-
fectly happy, would return to find her
stretched out on the floor i'm a fit. or
else standing ON a chair With a rope
around her neck. or something equally
cheerful. Finally that sort of thins got
so common that my uncle learned not
to mind it. He would come home at
night and looll around for my aunt. No
sign of her. But instead of getting
worried. my uncle would sit down.
light his pipe and start to read the
paper.
After q While my aunt. who an hour
or so before had given way to an awful
fiji of despair and crawled underline bed
to die. would crawl out again and sit
beside him. He would act as if he had
thought she was there all along-just
go on smoking and reading.