The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-30
Distinctive Train
ing Here Received
Still Marks Nota-.
able Works of One
Time Reporter !

= cOpiS We ooot oiN "O
Song" with its pathos and quaint
humor.
Years ago Mr.. Ralph told the story
of the big Barracks:
I'm truth, like so many things Of Z
tho kind. my stories grew out o. :
many pieces, and many experiences
OF the old Sun days. First, adopted 1
the name Of the house because Of
the brutal and insulting name,
The Big Fiat saw on double
decker tenement In lower Mott or
Baxter street Next described the
house with which was familiar q
or a type OF tenement found else
where. Finally, I chose Forsyth
street, because knew more tens-
ment folks there than elsewhere.
knew them better. and thought that
the mixture OF races and worldly
conditions offered as much scope
for stories as could get from any
other quarter. 80;
"Innumerable as we're the kinds
and points at which touched these
tenement people in my reporting
experience, II was only here that
was received in their clubs or so
cieties, at their dances and on their .
picnics, on q basis OF complete
friendllness and frankness. In,
other words, looked on in other
tenement districts. but in this
ono I took part. And here
found at least one lay employer a
Of skilled labor living in old world
fraternity with his employees ana
their families, as we'll as an UNI
sual number Of well to do and more
than ordinarily respectable tavern j
and shop keepers. It's all a thing
of the past. A few years ago 1
went back and tried to resurrect
the old conditions. but they were
buried and their spirit had moved q
uptown"
Found Inspiration In "sun" once.
Just as Jesse Lynch Williams drew
Stories" from his under
graduate years in the New Jersey uni
by the way, was col
lege in those days--hc drew the
stolen Story and Other Stories" from
the old Sun office in the building az
and Frankfort streets, which
had once been the home of Tammany
Hall.
The yarns were yarns OF the re-
porter and the city room. and the CITY
room was usually the SUN city room.
and the reporter, in three cases out or
Ave, a fresh faced youngster, known
as a cub" who was already planning
the writing of the great American
and who, meanwhile, believed
that the main purpose OF
the morning light was to enable the
city and the country at large TO read
the news as It appeared in the sheet
OF his allegiance.
The description might not quite nj
BILLY" Woods of the title story. but It
would do for Hamilton Knox, VINO
found 1t easier to write his facts ana
then make them, as told in THE Cub
Reporter and the King OF SPAIN" or
Rufus Darlington, who beat all the
older men from the other papers on
the Great Secretary OF State Inter
view" The story OF The Cub Re-
porter and tie kirG of Spain" was the
story OF its out Of town end, although
the usual scene of Hamilton knox's &C
tivities was Twenty sixth street and
the East River, where he used to dan
gle his feet over the water and watch
the incoming ferryboats while waiting
for Morgue news, but the action OF
THE Great Secretary OF state Inter
view" was centred in the old Fifth
Avenue Hotel. and a certain court l.
room on East Fifty-seventh street was
the mise en- scene OF the little tale
Mrs. Harrison Wellss Shoes"
They all--those men OF THE euF
school Of fction--cherished aspirations
of the fame that the great American
novel would bring, and most of them.
at some time, have lived in the semi
Bohemian atmosphere OF Washington
Square and its neiShborhood, ana
written about it.