White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-09-23
BABBLING
IN THE DESERT

their employees to be self-respecting.
They do not require their men to
take advantage of their prestige to
place themselves on a pedestal"
and make everybody take off their
hats to them, but to at least demand
the same respect as their peers and
allow nobody to wipe his feet on
them. That and another rule that /
hayef followed is that of standing
by my men " il they are in the
! wrong, provided, that their motives
rung true.
Broax Smith came to Tonopah iE
his private car, with his family and
servants, in the early part of 1905
] sent Buel down to the car to draw a
fishing his likeness and a cartoon.
This was customary with every celeb
| rity who ana to town and they al
most invariably were more than Gag
er to get their pictures in the paper,
especially with such a swell artist as
Buel was. He could take a sketch OF
any person in fifteen minutes that
was a better likeness than a photo
grapher ever made. But, while Bor-
ak Smith had no objection to having
his phiz in the Tonopah Sun, he want
ed the cartoonist to call again or
stick around for an hour or two while
he and his party dined, dinner being
about to be served. He asked Buel
to either wait or call again. Buel
told him 1t was a long way down
there and demurred at either calling
again Or sticking around, SO the bor-
ak king did pot pose for a sketch.
When Buel came back to the Of
fee he was hot in the collar. He ask
ed me ii I would be willing to roast
kim that is; II a cartoon giving
the multimilionaire a few shades the
worst of It. I didn't tell him I
owed the Nye County bank eight or
ten thousand dollars and Smith was
supposed to have a big interest il it
and might get sore, but anyway to
go ahead and teach him to respect
lis
Buei had a picture of some kind
of Smith, taken from Who's Who"
or some other get-rich-quick proDo
sition, and from that he made his
likeness. He was careful to see that
it did not f1atter the subject. In one
place he had Smith standing in Il
self-important attitude on the rear
platform OF his car, and a rude like
ness of the artist bowed down no
Bonded knee, asking to please remain
on the back porch" of his a while
he sketched him, which the great
man Indignantly refused to d.. Ir
another part Of the picture he show
| ed some two or three Cinnamon lamp
ing ties and Buel's mascot, the bur-
70, which went with every ,:artoon
asking Smith if be would ever EN-
ploy any white men on his railroad
A third and probably the m6st
striking one of the lot was another
picture of Smith kicking a big slab.
sided mule with two other hungry
looking mules tied to an old freight
wagon e by, under it being the
words, when Borax Smith recided
to become a millionaire the world
'ost a fine mule skinner"
All these and other ornaments max.
ing up the cartoon got under the bor-
az kings hide. He did not come to
the Office to tell us so or to thank us,
but we heard from several close
friends of his that he said the car
toon was a good one and a great piece
of work. The bulls eye of the lot
was the mule skinner reference.
as Smith is said to have
drawn the jerk line over many a
long-eared freight team and chain
jumpers before he decided to become
a millionaire.
Mr.. Smith never came back to To.
nopah while our outfit was doing
business there. but if he had and the
play had como up in exactly the
same manner, I'll guarantee that he
would have invited Buel into his
private car, not only to draw all the
sketches he wanted, but to have par
taken of his sumptuous faro and
anything else he had in store. While
he said he liked the cartoon, what
he really liked about it he probably
could not have defined himself, which
was the fact that Buel taught him
that a newspaper man is as good as
the man he interviews or sketches,
in every respect his peer. and is
entitled to consideration as such. One
of the things in my Tonopah expert
ence that I have regretted and
never will was telling BueI to go
ahead and draw his cartoon of Smith
in the nature of a roast
AS indicated, practically everybody
is willing to have his likeness pub
lished. especially where the artist is
a good one. When in 1906 Buel came
to Tonopah he did not have like
nesses of the different prominent