The Washington times., 1922-03-30
RILL is HUMAN
IL BY
Ben H. Lambe-

The Washington Times discontinues publica-
tion today Of the popular column which has
been written by William Atherton Dupuy under
the caption. "Humanisms."
You see, Bill. too, is human; and being
human has surrendered to urge that has
stirred mankind throughout the ages-the i'm
pulse to move So Bill is his way. He
is bound for Europe to remain perhaps for a
year. perhaps longer.
II Bill himself not so human he couldn't
have produced his daily column about human
beings in The Times. Without understandable
ably" Bill would say-you have wondered
where and how he got all Of bis items about
folks There is no secret about It, Most of the
stories were told to Bill by the subjects them
selves. Bill from man his life his
tory in the time that a Washingtonnian takes
off every day for lunch.
But Bill, who is blessed or cursed with q
greater share of modesty than most humans
left out Of his column in The Times a fasci.
mating series Of stories about himself These
stories have to do with his varied and adven.
turous career cowboy hobo. soldier, miner,
writer, philosopher
Only where the threads of his own life had
in the past crossed the paths Of the men about
whom he wrote did he sometimes permit a
glimpse OF himself Once in recent sketch
about Western Senator he told how he Bill
when youth travelling across the country
from the Texas plains to the wonders of the
Grand Canyon he stole a mans horse and left
in it's place an animal of his own that had gone
lame. The man to whom the horse belonged is
the Senator. ..-s..
Bill could have entertained you with columns
Of print telling Of the days when as a tramp and
intimate companion Of the famous hobo, AL he
crossed and recrossed the continent on the blind
baggage and In "side-door Pullmans" He
might have told how, because he delicate
looking youth, he never failed of handout at
the kitchen door after he had convinced the
kind hearted housewife that he just out Of a
hospital and on his way home to his mother.
The best story of Bill has to do with an un-
comfortable twenty minutes which he once
spent trying to parry fusilade of questions
by Theodore Roosevelt on the habits of ferrets
Bill had disguised himself a rat catcher, and
with real rat catcher had gone to the White
House at midnight to clear the place Of rats.
While the real rat catcher was following his
ferrets about the underground passages, Bill
talking with Roosevelt's sons. Their down
into the cellar came Roosevelt, bent on learning
in a short space of time all there was to know
about ferrets He saw Bill and began to cues
ton him. Bill did the best he could and finally
when he was stumped completely the rat
catcher emerged from passage and Bill said
to the President: 49,.
Here comes my brother. He knows more
about ferrets than do"
The old. adage about the rolling stone and it's
failure to take on covering Of moss doesn't
apply to Bill, unless you regard moss as some
thing acceptable at the paying teers cage He
has picked up a lot of things in his wanderings
has Bill. One Is his knowledge of and his
interest in human nature and his ability to put
this in print
Maybe when Bill comes back he can be per-.
suaded to write an entirely new series of
human interest stories-tales not about Others
but with himself as the central figure. They
would make good reading -
Tomorrow The Times will present the works of
8. e. Kiser, vsrsifier extraordinarily