Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-07-31

DISPLAY. hut rich in vocabulary. An aocu-
rate. quick and retentlve memory enabled
HIM To garner many facts and make them
available for immediate use. HIS amiabll-
~ To all about him was almost mex
hauStibIe. and he was slow to wrath. One
dav he came back to tho office after inter
viewing some petty municipal officer, and
ouoted sonnet hing that the latter had said.
.Nhv Judge" suggested one Of his fell
lows Of the editorial force, that chap
meant 10 insult YOU. The judge medItat-
Cd few moments. wrote sonnet thing IN his
hne. clear hand on sheet OF paper. and
disappeared Soon after he returned hear
ING his written message with the signature
Of the recently interviewed officer affixed
II was an ablect apology wr1Ing from the
fellow as the judge quietly stood over hlm
with the advice, Sign here
Humphrey had not only richly-stored
memory. but an inventive mind and
skilled hand. He made with much care and
labor an ingenious office thermometer,
still somewhere cxtant His chief hobby
was astronomy, of which he had more
than "A clever amateurs knowledge, lie
made for himself telescope. the consider
able lens of which was made to order for
him bv tho famous Brashear of Pittsburg-
With this instrument he studied the
heavens from his little dome on the roof of
his house on Rodney street, above econd
He observed ecbpscs and OCCUPATIONS,
and made himself much at home with the
moon. Once a month he prepared for
Every Evening a forecast of the starry
heavens for the ensuing four weeks. W hat
ever the Deficiencies of Every Evenings
earthly news service, Humphrey saw to II
that the paper never suffered a beat IN
celestial intelligence.
In journalism Humphrey was an all
round man. He could do anything from
renortinc with taste and discrimination
the routine events of the city. to writing
with skill and effect an editorial article on
the tariff, strictly from the Democratic
uspint of view His special articles on a
great variety Of subjects were rich in fact
and written in an engaging fashion. As a
legislative correspondent Humphrey was
thorough and highly intelligent He in
vented a cipher by means OF which he
could telegraph IN a few words the es-
sentials of a days doings at Dover
"Punchs" "Toby, NJ y, hardly bet
ter does the essence of Parliament and
business done" In middle-life he studied
shorthand and became a stenographer,
swift and sure, far above the common.
Election night, however, was the oc-
c=asion when Humphrey especially shone
II was the custom of Every Evening to
issue editions late and early, so long as
anyone was awake upon the streets to buy
and read, and to come out as a morning
papcr the day after election with the final
count. The judge came to his desk as
usual early on election morning, worked
all day. and then worked all night, quit |
ting after sunrise. apparently as fresh as
ever. knowing conditions and persons, /
national and local, and being a lightning |
calculator, sure as we'll as swift, he coIlat- +
ed returns by the hour with rarely mis- /
take IN facts or footings. Though Croas- /
dale came TO him every half-hour or so for /
the latest figures, and Harry Young de- T
manded "copy' with his waspish whistle |
from the composing room, Humphrey /
was calmly unmoved, and never put off his I
count Three men never worked together /
more satisfactorily than the generous but T
irrascible Croasdale, the prompt, ener-
cetic and warm-hearted Harry Young,
and the impeIturbable and universally |
Humphrey. The whole Office
was keyed TO energy and loyalty by the |
example of those three.
Those election nights had comic inter ]
ludes for there was some gymnastic APP
IN an unused bit Of the building.
and here Humphrey, Jerome Bell, Hey
wood Conant and the rest of us s0ughG
'aLef from the desk by exercises of strength