The Washington times., 1914-01-17
lES SATURDAY DRAMATIC FEATURE PAGE
ExPolitician, Turned Author, Tells
Why He Did 1t.
By JULIA MURDOCH.

~,EE could talk for sixty minutes
with Judge Harris Dickson,
~ and at the end Of that time
could come away with sixty new
ideas in ones head, so rapidly do new
subjects force themselves to the surface
when "Old Reliable's" creator once
starts. The man whose proud claim Is
that IS, 10000 copies OF his "Oid Reliable
stories have been printed Is In wash
ington, putting the finishing touches to
the play he has made out Of the stories
Of which that rascally but altogether
delightful dusky character, Zack, is the
dominating motif.
II la being produced By Col, Henry
w. Savage. I'm the Columbia Thea-er,
this week, with, Willis p. Sweatman in
the title role. s 81
He was eating his breakfast when I
was announced, a breakfast which had
begun with half q cantaloupe. Now
cantaloupes in January, as close stu
dents into the causes and effects Cf the
cost of living can testify, are not,
strictly speaking. q poor mans diet. /
had heard that Judge Dfckson's salary
as Judge of the circuit court OF Nissls-
sippi was so a month. and somehow 1
couldn't reconcile that salary 10 a, cor
cantaloupes for breakfast -----.
However, after he had told me more
about himself and what he had done
along literary lines, the question sort
Of answered itself.
He and / sat there and talked for an
hour on politics, the tango, play writ
jng and play critics, suffrage, the
Mexican situation, and other turbulent
and timely topics of the times. until the
waiter came and cleared away the
breakfast things, and IL was time for
Judge Dickson to take up the program
he had mapped out for the day.
Politics? I'm done with political
,life,' he answered, when suggested
this topic. II have served the city Of
Vicksburg for $50 a month for three
years as a matter Of patriotism, and /
have found that holding public office
is a thankless job. Political life Is
disappointment, so far as getting any
thing out of it is concerned
Wouldn't Hold Any Office
In Gift of the People.
1 don't know of any Office IN the
gift Of the people, from constable to-
United States Senator, that I would
take as a gift or which gives back
what a man put into It. Thank Heaven,
I'm out OF politics forever and ever
amenr'
Then he told me that he intends 10
devote himself to literary pursuits,
though he admitted that he had never
his political work as serious
part OF his career. He was forced into
It, and Is glad he is out OF It Tor good
Judge Dickson confessed that he has
always had what he terms "the writing
bug" and that he had written acres and
acres of short stories and special articles
on matters that concern his beloved
South and her institutions He prefers
to stin retain his home in Vicksburg,
where he is in the heart Of things he
loves and writes about He declared
that he hoped the time would never
come when the traditions and tnstitu-
tions of the South would be forgotten
when men would fail to stand uncovered
in the presence of women, when they
would allow women to stand up In the
street cars, when men would fail TO hgft
Tor their women II necessity arose, and
when the old time chivalry which is the
heritage of the South, should be de-
stroyed by the invasion Of the COM
mercial spirit
"Old Reliable" through whose ad-
ventures Judge Dickson has been intro
duced to almost. every man, woman, and
Was not inspired by any particular per
son, his sponsor told me, but is a COM
posite of every shiftless old colored man
Judge Dickson knows. His first two or
three stories Just happened he told
progress by their own momentum.
Many of the incidents in the '-Old Re-
llable'' stories really happened, and
around Vicksburg knew all
ABOUT them. Judge Dickson has done
author has done-he has treated the
colored man just as he is, not as a
grotesque character.
THE colored race" he explained, con-
tains a distinct and peculiar type, As
yet undeveloped, and not very far re-