News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-01-20
EASY MONEY STORIES
BY REDFiELD INGALLS,.

crook came Tor came Dack) INTO the
literary field a few years ago, and
Rallies and his brilliant brothers be-
gan to vie with Sherlock Holmes and
his in the favor of the public, the Up
to-Date Magazine, of which l was a
subeditor, was one of the first to real.
ize his importance.
We were lucky in securing Mont.
gomery Tuckahoe Purse-'M T..
Purse" his friends called him-as a
regular contributor.
His famous hero, Easy Money Pat
terson, soon became the big feature
of our every edition.
Month after month the Up-to-Date
ran his adventures, and then, without
the least warning Monty Purse disap-
peared and the stories ceased in the
middle of a series.
We jumped into the breach with o
new line of features; but we missed
him.
We all missed him. Monty was one
of the best fellows I've ever met He
was really modest, to begin with.
Then he was as nearly as possible
the opposite of his hero; the soul OF
honor, generous to a fault, as trust
ing, unsuspicious, and ingenious as an
o. Henry rube, irresponsible as a
child-and always broke.
He simply couldn't keep money;
didn't seem to know its value. Many's
the time he came to me to make a
touch of few dollars to tide him over
the month, though he might have got
his check from us the week before on
the strength of his next story, which
he would write in day or so-"Just
as soon as | nail the idea, old man"
And he never failed to pay up as
punctiliously as though his life de-
pended on it.
The boys all liked him in conse-
quence, and there was no mockery i'll
the IN. T. Purse" 1t was himself.
He was alone in the world, so we
did what we could to keep an eye on
him. But he never got into any real
trouble
! And, to cap it all, he had genius.
"Why don't you write something for
the big monthlies?" I've asked him.
"You can surely get away with it,
because I'm not sure of my
ground" he'd insist. They want
stories about Europe and society, or
the West, or the East, or the North,
or the South, or the Fiji islands. l
don't know those places and people.
In the face of Kipling's dictum that
Accuracy is the touchstone of all art
] wouldn't dare write about 'em. It's |
easy enough to make up plots for |
those Patterson stories"
But Monty disappeared!
1t dawned on me one day that he |
hadn't been around for a couple of |
weeks to be tided over. Nobody else |
had seen him, / found, and when the |
third week went by without sign of !
him, started to investigate at hint !
from the editor in chief. His next !
tale was long overdue.
At his lodging house in West Four
teenth street the landlady told me,
with genuine regret, that he had left |
suddenly nearly a month before, with
out word as to where he was going.
And there the hunt ended.
Without hiring private detectives,
we could do nothing until he chose to |
send US word.
A day or two later he did, but 1t |
didn't help much. got picture post
card from him, dated at Cairo, Egypt.
Having the time of my life,' it
said. Sorry I couldn't get around
to say good-by. Will write" But he
never wrote. 1 was considerably sur
pfised and inclined to be angry with
him. Where had he got the funds to
travel?
Six months went by
For four of them we ran the Pat
terson stories, as usual; then the sup
ply gave out. The chronicles of the
brilliant master-rogue were not in the
for August.
Hardly had the September number
reached the newsstand when a storm
of protest began.
Readers all over the country wrote
ldNCIlOuSJ VI dSsSl iVl-
tiers, wanting to know why we had
failed twice in succession to print the
-Easy-Money" stories.
Looks as though we were going
to lose some subscribers" said the ed
tier in chief, and with that to think
about went out to lunch.
In Fifth avenue, not a block from
the Office, l ran square into the van
ished author.
Monty Purse!" l cried. Where
under heaven have you been2"
why, blessed if it isn't Sponable!"
he exclaimed heartily, squeezing my
hand in strong, brown fingers. Gee,
I'm glad to see you! Isn't this old
hamlet a Joy and delight of the heart
and a comforter of Affections? Come
and have a drink. I've forgotten what
a cocktail tastes like"
AS we turned through the crowd I
e;1a5 bi,,, nao pou