Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1919-05-02
Walt Mason, Famous Prose Poet
Misfit Until Middle Age.

has no terrors for him. But Walt was not
always thus. At the age of forty-five-
he is now fifty-six-he was a misfit and
down and out He says so himself. In
The American Magazine he tells of his
earnest but almost hopeless struggle to
make living in various lines of endeavor
until he reached middle age. Then he
found himself, or rather. William Allen
White, well-known publisher of the En-
poria (Kan) Gazette, found him. II had
lived half alcentury before discovered that
could do one thing well enough to make
life success" says Mr.. Mason. Then
another man discovered it for me. had
talent for riming and never valued it,
He proceeds:
AS boy worked in a wooden. mill in
Canada, and hated the work bitterly. l
was convinced that people should quit
wearing clothes, so that woolen-mills might
be abolished Later worked for year or
more in hardware-store. Every new job
always looked charming until got into it.
Being imaginative. | had visions of rapid
rise to a partnership. would marry the
beautiful daughter of the chief partner and
live happy ever after, with vassals and
serfs at my side. But the dreams always
fzzled out soon. found the hardware
business bore. Instead of selling silver
ware to stately danes, was kept busy
carrying kegs of nails upstairs.
In my breathing spells wrote poetry
and sent it to the local paper. The editor
stopt me one day and told me, in kind.
fatherly way, that in time might make a
passable writer if would learn to spell
and try to cultivate cordial relations with
the English grammar. He pointed out that
such expressions as Il seen" and 81 have
went" and Il hadn't ought" are not en-
dorsed by the great masters of literature.
From time immemorial and up until
quite recently an idea has prevailed that
one failing at everything else could always
make success on the farm. A boy in
town proving total failure at everything
he has tried has invariably been hired out
to farmer. 1t was quite natural, there
fore, that Walt Mason should 90 to work
for bucolic uncle. But he liked 1t no
better than the woolen-mill or the hard
ware-store. There were cows to milk"
he says. land beans to hoe all day. found
it impossible to carry fan and parasol
when hoeing beans, and the heat annoyed
me greatly" So Walt quit the farm and
tried his luck as a pedleN of which expe-
rience he says
In Charleston, Illinois, loaded large grip
with novelties" including plush photo
graph-frames, magnificent albums, and
many things no sane people could have
any use for, and visited the homes of the
proletariat, trying to make sales. The
women were polite, as a rule, and invited
me in, and gossiped freely about the wealth
er and the crops, but they wisely drew the
line at buying any of my wares. One day,
after | had walked about ninety miles
carrying my grip, which weighed three
hundred pounds, the city marshal told me
if he saw me peddling around any more
he'd cast me into loathsome dungeon.
Agents had become such a nuisance that
the town council had just framed an ordi-
nance casting them into outer darkness.
I've always had friendly feeling for that
officer for giving me timely warning in
stead of leading me to the moldy straw.
The future prose poet then drifted to St.
Louis, reaching that city dead broke, as
usual" Here he obtained work kicking
job press in printing-ofice. In this place
he received his first real money for verse,
the manager of tobacco company paying
him two dollars for revamping some osten-
sible poetry used in an advertisement.
From the printing office the transition was
quite easy and natural to newspaper work.
The first journal Mason worked for, how
ever. gave up the ghost after brief career.
II managed to hook on to several small
papers after that" he observes, adding
lueubriously. but they all died" Then he
became book-agent with results which
he described in his cheerful manner:
secured sample copy of valuable
work entitled Manual of Social Forms.
1t described all the finer curves of etiquette.
1t told how to eat soft-bOiled eggs without
getting them on your whiskers. and how
to back out of the throne-room, when pre-
sented at court, without falling over the
furniture. ascribe my queenly grace of
movement and majestic port to my pro-
found study of this admirable volume.
went up to Frank Ransom's office, Mr..
Ransom was--and probably is-a distin-
guished lawyer of Omaha, and | had been
introduced to him once when was well
clothed and prosperous, and remembered
him as genial man. So | selected him
as my first victim. found him seated at
desk, and when he looked up and saw
me with book about the size of billiard
table, he reared up to height of eighteen
10 he n
give me Just thirty seconds to reach the
foot of the stairway. made it in twenty
eight. He told me afterward that he didn't
recognize me; but the result probably
would have been the same if he had. for
he contest to shuddering dread of book
agents.
The agricultural bug. as already sug-
gested, has an nsidious way of getting in
its work where failures in every other line
are concerned, now inspired Walt Mason
with renewed yearning for the simple life
on the farm. He confesses that when he
is on the farm he detests every form of
work connected with it. but when he is
engaged in other work he hears the barn
yard calling. calling him. During the
reign OF Grover Cleveland, he says. II
yielded to this urgent call once more. and
established myself at Beatrice, Nebraska.
where bought suburban home, and
rented fifteen acres of land. and mixed up
newspaper work and agriculture.
In connection with his farming opera
tons at this place he became interested in
dairying. being convinced that in it he had
discovered his true sphere. He says:
Cows in those days were reasonably
cheap. and | managed to buy nine or ten
of them, and got stung in several instances.
The man who goes shopping for cows should
be able to judge the goods. People who
sell cows have small regard for the truth.
as a rule, and their affidavits are worthless.
bought large black COW from a man
who had held many offices Of trust and
honor When started to lead the animal
away he and his wife both wept. and said
it was like parting from a beloved aunt.