New-York tribune., 1919-08-06
Books
By Haywood Broun
1T IS difficult for us to tell how aecur.,

1T is difficult for to tell how a~cr~~.,
Philip Gibbs has pictured Fleet Strs., :,
his novel "The Street of Adven,r..s
(Dutton), for, externally at least thar. :
little resemblance to Park Row We c;,. 3.
instance, description of the city roor. :.
1.-THE Star" as Francis Luttrell found :, -
his first day:
at was large room, with a nurnbs, -
desks divided by glass partitions and VIII,
large table in the centre. At the far end =,
the room was fire burning brightly in -.
crate, and in front of it were TWO mon ..s
q girl, the men in swing chairs with ,h.;-
legs stretched out, the girl on the floor :.
the pillows of black silk skirt, arranp;n.
chestnuts on the first bar Of the gratep
There isn't any CRATE ia our city room and
we have roasting parties. There bav.
been days in mid-July when it might b.r.
been possible to fry eggs on the skyliph, n*
our city room, but we don't remember .b..
anybody ever tried it. Nor is cur memo-,
stirred to any local "reminiscences bv ~.
description of 1.-THE Star" Office Just befo-.
press time, when "silence reigned in the roor,
except for the scratching of pens" Prob.
ably there not more than half doz.n
pens in all Park Row and four Of them az.
on "The Evening Post"
We find the difference in spirit not 50
great. There is great deal about the fer.
rife strain of newspaper work and how
brutal city editor will drive a finely tenn.
pered reporter until he has had the best q,
his brains and then toss him aside like
withered violet.
Fleet Street." says Gibbs who tells III.
story partly in the first person, would kill
you in year-it is very cruel, very callous
to the sufferings of mems souls and bodies" <
Again, the heroine, who is a press woman.
complains: eve women wear out sooner.
Five years in Fleet Street withers anv rirl.
Then she gets crows feet round her eyes and.
becomes snappy and fretful, fierce Great
struggling in an unequal combat with
men. l am just reaching that stage
An even moro terrifying picture is painted
of the book reviewer. He was, according to
Gibbs, "a young, anamic-looking man with
fair, wavy hair, going a little gray and
pale, haggard, cean-shaven face seated with
his elbows the desk a novel opened before
him and six other novels in a pile at his
elbow. He was smoking a cigarette, and the
third finger of his left hand was deeply
stained with nicotine. AS Luttrell entered
he groaned slightly and pushed back lock
of his fair hair from his forehead"
We would like to find something personal
in that portrait at least to hope that we
might be like that after few years more
of this terrific strain. But we doubt it. De-
spite eleven years of unremitting toll We
have been unable to wear ourselves gray or
conspicuously haggard or clean shaven. 1t is
not easy. To be sure, we have heard many
newspaper men picturng themselves as but
terhies broken the wheel, but always with
a melancholy gusto. Moreover, that was in
the days when Jacks and Joel's were open
all night.
We can't speak with authority about Fleet
Street, nor even pretend to be infallibs
about Park Row, but it is our impression
that newspaper work is easier than any Of
the other professions except the ministry
And the easiest sort Of newspaper work is
dramatic criticism or book reviewing II
you not sure of your facts you can Just
leave them out, and even if they get in wrong
it doesn't matter much. There is a certain
amount of work to be done in the first two
or three years, but by that time the critic
should have particular pigeonhole in his
brain for practically every book or play
which comes along. Upon seeing I'll Say
1t Is" in 1922 all he has to do is to
ber what he said about "Have Another in
1920. Once or twice a year book or play
comes along which doesn't fit into any pigeon
hole, but that can be dismissed in one para
graph as queer" and allowed to go at that
Don Seitz according to James Melvin Lee
in Opportunities in the Newspaper Busi-
ness" (Harper's), says that his first lesson
in reporting came from the editor of The
Advertiser" published in Norway Me.
"The first item turned in by Mr. Seits
read about as follows: Granville Reed has a
stalk of Southern corn in his garden thir-
teen feet high Mr.. Drake read the item and
then gave Mr.. Seitz his first and funda-
mental lesson in journalism. big OF little in
the following criticism: You don't tell who
Mr.. Reed is, you don't say where he lives
and you don't make any point complimentary
to him. Going to the type case, Mr.. Drake
rearranged the item, Former Selectman
Granville Reed has an agricultural wonder
in his well kept garden in upper Main Street,
in the shape of a stalk of corn which under
his able attention has reached the extraor-
dinary height of thirteen feet"
We think the reviewer of THE New York
Times" has discovered one Of the funda-
mental reasons for the appeal of Somerset
Maunhar ms ..-rhn Noo,, C.........an nhen