The Washington herald., 1915-06-06
Herbert Corey, Stage Driver,
Cowboy, Sheep Herder.
and Newspaper Core
spondent, Was Destined
for Ministry, but the Wild
Stretches of the West
Called Him.

This IL the story Of cowpuncher. II
is also the story Of stage driver. Like
wise it il the story of a sheep herder.
But mostly 1t Is the story Of q very
human. very interesting newspaper writer
who is now a war correspondent. battling
his way through the crimson lines Of san
culinary censors which form n Gordon
around the blood stained fields Of the Old
World
In short. it is the story Of Herbert
Corey. the Anecdote Man.
He might prefer to be known as Corey
the War Correspondent, or Corey the
Novelist-if he ever writes the novel
which he has been nurturing for a score
of years-but q truthful biographer must
assign him his proper and proud place
that Of the Anecdote Man.
To write an anecdote properly is 8
mans job-be sure Of that. There aren't
q dozen real anecdote men-men who can
tell pithy story pithlly-who can reach
a climax without circumnavigating the
dictionarial globe-in all America.
And at the head of that list is Herbert
Corey. There can be no question about
that. Publishers agree to it with a unan-
unity that leaves no room for the most
flmy doubt.
Premier Anecdote Man.
SO excellent an authority as Irwin Cobb
long ago pronounced Herbert Corey the
premier anecdote man of the United
States. and any one who has followed
the Corey pen activities must, II he be
judicial, concur in the Cobb opinion.
Corey can take the casual remark of
a chance acquaintance and work it up
into the funniest anecdote imaginable
Or he can listen to the tale Of WOE of a
New York panhandler and produce from
1t yarn so full Of pathos that the ag-
gregate. of tears shed over it by the
readers of the various papers he serves
would fill the Croton Reservoir.
But that is a bit ahead of the story.
Mr.. Corey is one of the few American
newspaper writers who nave come rap
idly to the front as a war correspondent
There are others. to be sure, who have
achieved their places in the sun. but no
one Of them has done better work or
attracted more approving mods from the
American public than Corey.
He has made three trips to Europe
within period Of eight months-one
before the war started. when, fortunate
ly for him, he covered the same terri
tory that he has been called upon to
cover since hostilities began, and the
devastation wrought by the contending
armies furnished a contrast to the smil-
ing lands he saw upon the occasion Of
his first visit.
Europ" Clothed and Naked.
He has seen Europe clothed and Eu-
rope naked. and 1t has enabled him to
paint word pictures that simply fascinate
-gruesome and appalling though they
be.
Corey is an interesting personality. He
is not New Yorker. He couldn't ac-
Quire the GOODNESS of the East mr. the
conventionality of the Atlantic seaboard
cities il he lived to be as old as the
pyramids.
He admits himself that he isn't gated
for New York" And yet he has lived
In that city for some ten years
Some forty-odd years ago Herbert Co
rey was born in Toledo. Ohio. His father
WAS a minister. The son was destined
for that holy vocation.
But the young Corey couldn't see it.
Herbert preferred rabbit hunting and
fishing on the Sabbath.
The family removed TO Delaware, Ohio
while Herbert was still In knickerbock-
ers-if they wore knickerbockers in those
Ohio days-and the young man got his
education In the public schools Of that
village.
To the utter dismay of all those in
terested in the uplift of this slipping
soul. Herbert applied for and obtained
a job as reporter on the local paper.
One eventful day he failed to return to
Delaware on time, and the editor Of the
paper fired him. I
Being of a bouyant disposition, young
Corey took the first freight train for the
West. where. he says. he thought the
rabbit hunting might be better than It
was around Delaware.
Without any definite idea Of where he |
was going he knocked about. doing odd