Putnam patriot., 1919-12-12

| CAha Pt Oilt VI Lflt pes : had to do with his attempt to inter view the elder J. P. Morgan on tn, iatter's return from one of his trip to Europe.
 Morgan was busy, manifestly SO Other reporters noted the fact ans discreetly refrained from approachin, him. Not so Southworth. Duty wa. duty. He had prepared & form O, questions and he bearded the finan ciai hon. After answering one or tws questions, Mir. Morgan let go witt language more forceful than elegant I Not so fast, Mfr. Morgan" said Southworth, "remembef you are spekaing for publication.
 4 The sincerity and ingeniousness of the remark overcame Morgan's acer. bity.
 Well, I'll be damned" said Nor. gan. "Southworth. I'll give you five minutes"
 Another story illustrating the sub tie humor of the Skipper is told. A report came into the Ship News Bureau that two incoming liners had narrowly escaped collision while com ing through the Narrows.
 Why a ships biscuit could have been tossed from one to the other, remarked one of Southworth's fellow craftsmen. You had better ask the captain about it when you board the ship at her dock"
 On his return to the Bureau South worth said
 There must 5s some mistake in that story. saw the captain of the I- and he told me that it could not be true, because there was not ships biscuit on board"
 Not the least of the Shippers" ac- complishments was that of speech maker He was droll. As an after dinner talker he was always in de- mand. He possessed the subtle humor of Simeon Ford, with the die tion and command of language of a Depew. For years he was toast master at the annual dinners of the Ship News Reporters Association banquets At dinners given on board the great new steamships when they came into New York harbor on their maiden trips, the Skipper" was usually called upon to speak as the representative of the press.
 It was the pleasure of the writer to visit the Skipper" at his old Colonial inn at South Woodstock, Conn, not long after he was first stricken ill., Not far from the Shippers" home was the summer rendezvous of the Florence Fleming Moves School for Rythmic Dancing. It was pleasant summer afternoon and the Moves girls were out on the lawn going through their gyrations garbei for the mos, part in fiinSy chiffon The Skipper stopped his car. and for several min- utes watched the girls dance. Then turning abruptly to his guest, seated with Mrs. Southworth. he said:
 "You may tell the boys in the office when you return that I am not yet that i'll that I have lost interest in pretty girls"
 Aside from his professional calling there was the tender domestic side to the Skipper" His home life left nothing to be desired. In South Woodstock still stands Arnold's Inn the ancestral home of the South. worths. It is surrounded by a large farm tract, which in the latter days oi his life Skipper" Southworth work. ed. In it he had preserved the ances- tral antiques. A hundred years oI more ago it was post road inn. The original wooden signboard, marked "Arnold's Inn-1802" still hangs out side. It is cracked and partly shat tered by bullets fired by roysterer. who hundred years ago passed along the highway.
 Just inside latticed portico, of the main dining room, is the old bal of Arnold's Inn. This the Skipper religiously preserved. On the shelves back of the old quartered oak bar are old pewter ale mugs and oddly-fash- toned booths and pewter plate. Baci of this bar the Skipper" never step ped, except iR reverence. If per chance he had on his hat when he en, tered the house, he removed it wher he stepped behind the old bar. In its way it was a shrine Both his grand mother and his mother had behind that bar served ale and wine te travellers. Men who have made American history have quaffed ale over the old oak.
 Ihe Skipper" was man of wide reading, and was compendium of Connecticut history. Graduating from Brown university, he first took ur newspaper work with the Providence Journal. From there he came to the New York World early in 1890. He did general reporting for some