The Washington herald., 1918-05-04

New 1Ork, may i'll lne Snaue ol
o. Henry was present at the Twilight
Club evening in his honor this week
It must have departed to the world
Of spirit nightly pleased. It was a
great outpouring of affection for the
great writer by those who were priv
ilebed to know him we'll His friends
and confidantes sat at the banquet
board and among the distinguished
guests was his daughter. Mrs. Oscar
Cesare, wife of the cartoonist.
Rare tales were told of o. Henry's
fine character. William Johnston, as
sociate editor of the World, who
purchased some 800 stories from o.
Henry revealed his kindly love for the
world and its people. There was a
night when o. Henry attended a din
ner down in Washington square. One
of the guests was a frayed looking
little actress who had come out of the
West to do big things and had failed.
She ate the meal ravenously and
some chided her about it-as il It
were a thing to Joke about. o.
Henry made his excuses early and
left. Some time later a driver of a
carriage came and handed the young
actress an envelope. She opened it
and 1t contained $50 and instructions
to go to a certain house in Brooklyn
where she would be taken care Of
temporarily or at least until she
found employment
The girl, fed up on tales OF White
Way wolves who trap their prey,
grew suspicious. She told others
about the letter and the invitation.
They told her to go ahead. You
will never see o. Henry again. He
will not even telephone you" they
said. And It was true she never saw
or heard from him again. 1t was the
way o. Henry did things.
o. Henry was more often broke
than otherwise-but he always man
aged to scrape up something for the
prodigious borrowers who trailed him
as a shining mark. Among his close
friends was Arthur Somers Roche.
now writer OF best sellers, but in o.
Henry's days knew the pangs of
poverty. One time he went to the
great writer to borrow s..
I haven't got it now" said O.
Henry. but a magazine editor is
coming over from Philadelphia today.
NAPSSS " HOOh iitA-h NAi'
gills for an advance. 'Come around
later" Roche did-there was an en-
velope with $25 enclosed. q Henry
could not stand to see others suffer.
He would rather suffer himself and
he did frequently to aid his friends.
He despised what is called in this
age -four flushing" A man TO he
friend of o. Henry must have been
without affectation.
Irwin Cobb told the story before
he left for the other side. He has
friend who purchased a big estate
down on the north shore of Long
Island. On the place were several
natural springs with excellent drink
ing water. However, the new pur-
chaser wanted to be sure of their
chemical properties and so he secured
samples and sent them to a we'll
known chemist in New York. lima gine
his CONSERVATION several weeks later.
when the chemist replied as follows:
My dear sir: I regret to inform
you, but you have Bright's disease
Friends back home who receive
postal cards with the inscription:
Cher Ami: Am having a great temps.
Wish you were here. Adios." need
not be worried. Nothing is happening
to them in New York-they are
merely the victims Of the new hos
pitality now dispensed by New York
hotels. One has opened community
classes for guests where they may
learn to speak French. The idea came
as the result of the many visitors to
Gotham who are on their way to
France and who want to pick up
enough words to get along in Paris.
All OF which Is remindful of Frank
Tiuney. who was asked IL he speaked
Yiddish and he replied: mot much
Just enough to get around New
'York 10