The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-19

France 1t is said by Will Paynes Ef1aL
 .seourtesy, frock coats and badges of the Iegion of Honor seem to be uni versaI in higher French ficiaIdom.p During the uprising of the comnun- ists in 1871 the palace and offices of the Legion of Honor were burned, to-day th@ order is denounced as snobbish and aristocratIc.
 Samuel G. Blythe.
 Perhaps the best known working newspaper man as distinguished from plutocratic prcprietorson this
 side of the Atlantic is Samuel George
 Blythe. stam writer for the Saturday
 Evening Post. Certainly no other correspondent in Washington posses ses so much inside information about
 the sGreat and the Near Great Tn
 the republics capital, and when it comes to putting his assortment of
 serious and Frivolous Facts on pa
 per. why. it is generally admitted that Saha'I is ssthere with the bells
 on Hundreds Of eminent states
 men have been made miserable by
 Mir. Blythess good -natured sat tire and
 jointed jibes and hundreds of others
 have been all puffed up by his praise.
 Nor are MT Blythess activities con
 1ned to Washington, for he has
 travelled all over the world up and
 down in 1t in his pursuit of news,
 and he can and does write enter
 tafningly, and usually accurately.
 Of all nations from Abyssinia alpha
 betically dowl@ to Zanzibar
 MT. Blythe has been playing the newspa per gamer for over a quarter Of century He was born forty-six
 years ago to-day, May 19,' 1868, at eseo State Normal School. and was |still minor when he became re- porter and a married man. At 2 5 he was managing editor Of the Buff faIo Express and he was still on the sunny side of thirty when he occu- the Buffalo Courier and Enquirer In cidentaIIy, Mark Twain was once a member of the editorial staff of the Express MT. Blythe left Buffalo to enter the ma gazine field as managing editor of the Cosmopolitan. but soon
 ton correspondent of the New York world. For seven years h repre-
 sented Mir. Plilitzer's great newspaper
 at the capital Since 1907 he has
 written for the Saturday Evening Post and has played no small part
 lication Mir. Blythe has found time
 to write several books. including a
 political novel. and a most informing
 volume on The Making of News
 DaDGE Blythe offers some sage advice to
 those with Journalistic ambitions.
 rLearning to write is hard work. '' he says. It takes years to per feet the good writing mechanic. do not care how much imagination how much facility .of expression, a
 man may have, he wastes seventy five per cent of it unless he bas learned his trade. After he has learned 1t. is when his ina sination. his facility of expression. his assort-
 ment of ideas, come in and make him not only a good writer. but a great writer
 Of present day newspapermen. MT. Blythe says:
 .aThe old days of the frowsy. aI- legged bohemian, drunken reporter and editor have passed. The present Iday reporter is an honorable, self res pecting. clean man, working honor ably and cIean1y. In my opin- ion, newspaper work offers better op- Iportunities, aside from the accumula- result getting labor than any other business or profession a young man may choose Since T secured my first place, twenty five years ago. tho 1 standards of the men in it and also of the newspapers have imueasur- MT Blythe has been riding on the water wagon for over three years, and In an article in the Saturday Ey- ening Post he explained how he had beat The Old Game. He explains 1 that he was never a sot nor sotIee. and that all the drinks he took were for convivial purposes solely De- Iclaring that he had mo desire to im- press my convictions on the subject lof drinking iquor on any person whatever,s, MT. Blythe went right ahead and wrote one of the best tenn 1 perance tracts ever published-best l because 1t was not d tract, but only a relation of the experiences of one who had played sThe Old Game.s' Festival of St. Dunsfan.