Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-02-21
Mr.. Irwin and His Jap Valet.

VV7 RllRCE lRWINS chief claim to fame his
w authorship of the letters OF the Japanese boy,
" Hashmura Togo, which have convuised his
pa'er face readers for years rTin will long be remem
bcred for adding this distinct and delicious novelty
Americas library Of wit
No form of humor delightful than the dialect
form. but 1t Is absolutely the difficult handle.
But what F. P. Dunno the Irish, George
Hobart with the German T a. DAILY with the Italian.
William Orummond with the Canadian French, Wallace
Irwin has done win the Jspanese and has done
no one ever even attempted TO DO.
Before he created Togo ne got for himself in
the humorous and permissible use Of slang remem-
irwin has proven himself very versatile purveyor of
each month in Good Housekeeping Magazine.
The writer dropped in TO MIR. irwin the other day,
and heard fe" new ones
other morning said Mr. Irwin, when he paused and
g" he SAID ea oa "s story to- YAK ma
zine Is very funny Mr.. Ewing Everybody talk about
EN-: got little brother. He reads, too
81 told hi" was very glad he appreciated my efforts
at character deIineaton lot Of kind of stuff.
they like youwre talk like they do English. They
eSy and too tell you very
"Of course It was all right for Ziro put In
interests right through to the last ditch weS on 10 t
my esss and patted myself the back time.
e then handed over ti this one ~" '0""'
h Eo, VII, please can y0u make for me raise payT
sion Of the prehistoric climate story which may pos
sIby hit you less ri play the part Of
~ was walking down Of the main streeta one
morning when noticed some gigantic pumpkins dis
played IN dairy lunch window paused to admire
them, and they Impressed forciby their mas.
sive proportions that said aloud, Some pumpklns!'
"A guy near me took exception to my Statement,
They're not punkns,' he said, They're grapefruit
"of course my wonder scared How earth can
they grow grapefruit of that size out here, any
where ese?' asked him.
climate -"
"i walked along. walked along with me. Turn.
Ing corn eorner we came upon man who looked to be
fee. long the guy with me how dogs could grow
They're not big he sald they're only pups. They'll
grow three times as big as that. Then they
pull up trees
"Thats the way we do things out here, he on,
I'VE struck country road, and set back a bit on
beautiful lawn was a large house, and the porch
beautiful woman who looked about forty but this fea
said she was 1O7 She surrounded by thirty
children That's the most marvellous family
Some climate, said No. you boob he yelled, That's
the orphan asylum
al was fired from Stanford University for stealing
chickens. was broke and had to do something not
cat With forty cents in my pocket legged It to Frisco
and secuted around for job on paper there. Nobody
was taking anybody on, especially if they had had
experience.
"It seemed to me just then that the most valuable
asset could have had would have been newspaper
perience. So resolved to get some. even If it only
amounted to hanging around office watching
others or sitting in the press to that the wheels
went around all right.
There was just paper town that wasn't making
any money, and they about to close their shop
They couldn't any decent their good
men had left them asked the editor for Job. He
he couldn't pay me anything. So told him I'd work
for nothing.
"He let me run about half column of bum verses
every day used to sign the stuff. and they'd call
the boy poet Kid Byron, Young Shelley, or whatever
came first to mind They tried to make reporter
out OF me, but was the worst that the ever
SEEM ia go to an assignment and back write
everything but the news
sut my verses got Job with pay, for Ashton Ste.
yens sent for me and had attached to the Examiner
One night the city editor sent Chinatown
to see what was doing. They insisted that ought to