Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1918-05-05

, and making a failure of both. 1t
| took me good while 70 discover
that pigs and poetry won't mix
! when ] did tind it out / came TO
work for William Allen White,
writing stuff for the editorial page
Of tho Emporia Gazette. The Ca
zette always printed on ITS first page
nitem of local news with a border
| around il, called star head. One
day the city editor was shy OF the
necessary item and asked me to
write something to fiji that space
] wrote a little prose rhyme. advis
ing people to to church next da,
which was Sunday. The PROSE
rhyme attracted some attention, and
on Monday ! wrote another one. and
third on Tuesday. and so on, and
the st9r-head rhyme became fea-
ture OF the Gazette Thus origin
ated the prose poem.
81 was r,arried in 1898 TO Ella
Foss, at Wooster Ohio
An Appreciation.
That the beauties OF Walt Mason's
nature are appreciated nv more than
those wh simply, dy boay day. read
his prose pooms, is eXemplified by
the following description of the man
himself by Brock Pemberton. the
atrical critic of the New York Times.
Mir, Pembcrton is in a position to
known wherce5 he speaks, for he
las inte"vieWtd the poet.
~ th'ck-set pudgy man, dressed
chiefly in L pair OF blue serge
trousers ana a vest that might have
been mistaken at distance for
comic supplement-, sat pegging away
AT a typewriter in a room that little
more than held the bulges of his
ro;OGnd person. A perpetual halo
nf blue smoke. fed from a BULLDOG
pipe cast in tbe heroic mold OF the
man himself, hung about his head,
and now and then the fingers ceased
to poke the keys and fell in repoee
across the amplitude Of the owners
waistline or Garted through mass
OF black. slightly curly hair, whiie
deep-set, beady little black eyes with
dn incessant twinkle peered INTO
space over gold bowed specacles'
The man was Walt Mason. the room
his den in his home at Emporla.
Kan. and the day most any one In
the year. lie was grinding out one
of his prose poems. which week
later would he read and enjoyed ny
millions of-people in all parts OF the
country.
bGyOUu UeIHS dUlt " Wv
things he does, the fact that people
like TO have him do them, pleases
''The Fat One" as he calls himseH.
Since no was a boy IA years OLD ne
has written verse in all parts oil the
,ountrv with varying success. some
Of his early stuff is still III oIlN 20
ton. though long ago IL ceasgu ho
be credited to him. Ana wiz
never failed to make a loGai -,
alton that extended through
,tates wherever he went ana Na9
vIdely known among NEWSPAPER
men. II was not till he came TO En
,oria about eleven years ago 'ilat
40 struck his real gait and pegan 10
,rpoher his readers by the millions
sca rcelv a day passes but he receives
ettersy from all parts OF the CON
inent. The letters are from states
non and men famous in other walks
II life, and from men and women
n the crowd, and all brings the
me message--how the writer
,Inased with the daily prose-poem
md reads il the first thing upon
plclling up the paper, Someuiile'
he letters come from foreign coun--
tries or foreign papers are reeeiveo
something that has been
copied. And being only human,
"T'he Fat One" Is pleased ny
tbese, expressions of apprecIa-
lion and is encouraged to ieep UP
The gait A peculiar thing about
MANY of the letters is touch OF
intimacy, engendered no doubt by
the breezy tone Of the poems. which
many Of the letteSs to be ad-
dressed simply to Uncle Walt, En-
noria " or THAT Fat one. Emporia'