The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1922-05-13
John B.SIater Tells
About California
Writes of Some of the In
teresting People in and
Near San Diego

Most anywhere we find people worth
while to tell about. Here, however,
we find few, the mention of whose
names causes US quickly to turn about
and enquire. Men and women known
to the better half of the world who
live or have lived in San Diego.
One of the outstanding of these is
Walt Mason. Everyone knows Walt
Mason. He lives in the village of
La Jolla, which is Ia miles away
from the business center, bus within
the corporate limits of San Diego.
He lives there because the sea and
the sky and the earth come together
at that place, and by dreaming into
their midst the cyclone of his old
Kansas abode, he can enjoy them all
from the patio of his $4,000 home,
which he bought a year ago Walt,
a lyric of the clearest type, is young
at 60 years. He is product of Can
ada, but America has owned him
since he was 20. After laboring on
Kansas farms through the strong
era of manhood, he fell into the
writing habit, bringing into his new
heritage another habit which came
to America with Columbus and re-
mained until his discovery went dry.
In those halcyon days of conviviality
Walt Mason was as flexible of spirit
as a sailor in port, and it was not
until he was forty-five that he really
gave John Barleycorn the slip and
settled into his real self. According
to his own story he invented the
prose style of poetic expression in
the preparation of ads in his own
publication. This practice grew to
perfection because the advertisers
liked it, and there was no literary
critic on the job. He submerged
more than once in the iniquities of
| the bar-room, only to rise each time
| to the welcome of world that had
learned to love him by his works. The
turning point in Waits life was a
wrought miracle. 1t seems that he
had run amuck with his old friend
Spiritus Vini Gallici and all the prod
igal sons in Christendom. Like all
such campaigns for popularity, de-
feat claimed them. So the Kansas
poet came forth detected sample
of the has-been variety of inebriates.
Penniless, and unable to get work of
any kind, he turned to "boiler fac
tory" which is one of those insti-
tutions which boil out picked human
ity He had no money but they took
him in. When the time approached
for his graduation he wrote many OF
the leading newspaper editors for a
job, but his fame had preceded him,
and he despaired until one day he
read magazine story by William
Allen White which breathed such
essence of human kindliness that he
wrote the author for job. Think
ing White would understand, he OPP
ened his soul to him. White was
gone from his home in Emporia, but
the delay in getting an answer was
one of hope rather than Of disap-
pointment. Walt offered to work
for anything that would give him
food by day and cover by night.
The letter so affected White that he
answered from the mountains OF
Colorado, directing Mason to report
at the office of the Emporia Gazette
and 90 to work. Hardboiled and
sober Walt put his best efforts to
the task. He wrote from daylight
until dark, made the whole paper
sparkle with his intellectual light.
White had never seen Walt, but when
he returned he greeted his new pro-
tege most heartily and said: "Walt,
you have been writing wonderful
stuff; come up to my house tonight.
| want to talk with you"
The turning point for Mason came
when the foreman called for two
inches of copy to finish the issue.
Walt dropped into his chair and as
rapidly as possible finished catchy
verse urging people to go to church
the next Sunday. The forman set it
in prose style, put box around it,
and the next day it was the talk of
the town. Each day thereafter a
similar verse was featured on the
first page. This, with all the other
wonderful stuff Walt produced, caught
Whites fancy. So, when the contrite
visitor met the editor at home he
was assured he could have a job as
long as he wanted it. No exactions
were made on a moral score, but
there was sort of sympathy in