The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1915-04-01
WRITER FORETOLD
titanic DISASTER.
Morgan Robertson vividIy De-
sCribed Wreck Of the Titan.
MADE A DEEP IMPRESSION.

Many Anecdotes of Famous Author Of
Sea Stories-Began and Finished In
One Night His First Effort, 1.-THE De-
struction Of the Unfit" Writing on a
Washtub Until Dawn. -~
Morgan Robertson, one of the fore.
most writer's Of sea stories, who died
suddenly in his hotel room in Atlantic
City; proved that he was prophet as
we'll as a teller Of tales. In 1898 be
wrote "Futility," in which he wildly
described the wreck Of the Titan, the
largest and finest steamer ever con-
structed, the wreck being caused by an
iceberg in the vicinity Of the Titanic
catastrophe. When the Titanic went
down, just fifteen years after the book
had been written, the similarity of
names in the imaginary book and the
locality where the ship hit the iceberg
made profound impression. Mr.. Rob-
ertson followed the sea for many years
before he took up literature.
Illustrating the impossibility of one
man knowing all there is to know, Rob-
ertson told this story:
Il used to sail with skipper who
was a good seaman, but he was what
you might call all at sea when he was
on land. He was driving one day
along a country road in England when
he came to s1gnpost. An index finger
pointed in the direction from which the
skipper had come, and the Inscription
on it read, 'Selkirk, II miles,
"Now, Selkirk was the town for
which the skipper was bound. He did
not want to turn around, SO he climbed
the post, tore the sign loose and nailed
it to a post on the other side Of the
road, so the hand pointed in the direc-
ton he was going. Then he climbed
back into the buggy and drove on"
"I admire q liar" Robertson used to
say, "even when his presentations
strain my credulity. A friend Of mine,
who objects to efforts to pry into his
personal affairs, recently limped into
my workshop.
What's the matter with your foot?
I asked, more to be polite than because
cared what was the trouble.
Then he gained my everlasting ad
miration by a display Of nerve and
mendacity l never saw equaled. An
eel stepped on it, he said.''
Gets Clippings on "Ghosts."
Robertson used to delight in telling
this story:
"Sometime ago I gave an order to a
concern which furnished newspaper
clippings, telling the manager that
wanted ghost stories. I undertook to
explain that what / wanted was fiction
that dealt with spirits and spooks, and
the clipping man said he understood
and would fix me all right.
I'm few days began receiving
clippings about ghosts. One of the
slips was taken from a country paper
in Pennsylvania and it said that a
rival sheet had given up the ghost
Another clipping, taken from a Louis
Vile paper, was a pert paragraph from
some other paper regarding Bryan and
the Democracy, over which was the
caption, Hamlet Without the Ghost
"Another clipping referred to the pro-
duction Of Ibsen's Ghost In London,
while the fourth was an editorial para
graph from North Carolina paper in
which political convention was re-
ferred to as ghost dance never
realized before that there were SO
many kinds Of ghosts"
In 1896 while he was in New York a
friend handed Robertson one Of Rud-
yard Kipling's sea stories and told him
to read it. He did and that night he
began and finished his first short story,
writing on washtub until dawn. He
called it 1.-The Destruction of the IN
fit" After a long delay it was accept
ed by magazine which paid $25 for it.
During the year that followed Mr..
Robertson wrote and sold about TWEEN
ty short stories Of the sea. Since then
not year and perhaps not a month
passed in which one or more Of his
sea pieces did not appear.