The Coconino sun., 1923-04-13
CHARLEY PERSON TELLS
HOW IT TOOK SO YEARS
TO HYPHENATE NAME

There are only few Of the old
time, lovable news hounds" of the
Opie Reid and Gene Field stripe left,
men whose long insight to the inner
workings of the lives of the great,
near-great and migrate, never soured
there is good in mankind and the
world; men who sturdily maintain
their is good in mankind' and the
world is getting better right along
despite temporary slackening up and
short stops on the upward way.
Well, Charlie Heston Pierson, one
of the few remaining of the old breed
above mentioned, was given wonder
full banquet at Long Beach recently
in honor of his fifty years service
in the news game which has taken
him to all parts of the world. He was
toasted and honored by noted writers
from all sections Of the country. In
an interview giving most interest
ing history of his fifty years in the
game, which he might have wound up
with the time-honored statement, "a
good time was had by ALL" he tells a
story of his visit to Flagstaff and
how he was vulcanized together with
hyphen.
His story in the Long Beach Tele-
gram reads:
81 had been working for the Edi-
son company two or three months
before ever took the thing serious
ly. was glad to do Mr.. Miller's lit
tie Job and was expecting to go back
to New York Just as soon as the sun
shone on Park Row, but somehow or
other, / caught the spirit Of electrical
development of the southwest from
associations with Mr.. Miller and r. H.
Ballard, his general manager, who is
now my big boss and has been for the
last Is years. The thing has been
getting bigger arsl bigger, and the
story that | am now covering | think
is the biggest story of industrial
peace that the world has ever known.
ut contemplates a project which,
from a money standpoint, costs many
millions more than the Panama canal,
and involves the most daring engin-
eerihg and construction work ever con-
templated and the movement and en-
ployment of thousands of men. 1t is
all occurring away up in the noun
tains, and | guess | am the only one
who is thoroughly in touch with the
story and | feed it out to the news
papers and magazines as fast as any
thing happens. | spent a great deal
of my time on the, works at Hunting
ton lake and among the construction
camps, which now cover a front of
about rs miles. it is a regular, full
blooded man-sized story, and it is the
best story | ever had the writing of
in so years, and | hope | can stick
on the job until it is finished, which
will be about 1882"
Why the Hyphen?
Before you finish the story of a
nisspent life, tell me how you came
to part your name with a hyphen," )"
the writer asked.
Il certainly will" answered Char
He-Pierson, because that's one of the
best achievements of 80 years. 1t.
happened this way: During the sum-
mer Of 1920 the Southern California
Edison company made filing for cleo
trio developments on five or six pow
er sites on the Colorado river, and in
giving the newspapers the story Of the
project it took me over into Arizona
on several trips. We had typical
desert engineer in charge of running
the levels from Flagstaff to Glen
Canyon. His eccentricity was that he
talked like telephone buzzer and /
don't think that he could say the
Lords prayer and put thin space
before the amen. Col. Fred Breen, ed
itor Of the Coconino Sun, the largest
paper in the largest county in the
United States, with publication offices
at Flagstaff, was quite anxious to get
the story Of the Edison project, and
our young engineer had told him that
as soon as | returned from a trip up
to the headquarters of the Colorado
river that / would call on him and
tell him about it.
Son the evening Of the dav that
had made the trip of $50 miles over
the Navajo Indian reservation, [ blew
into the office of the Coconino Sun
and prepared to introduce myself to
the colonel, but it was unnecessary,
for we had met somewhere or other in
previous years along the paths Of
neWs-chasing.
"The colonel commenced to laugh
and then he laughed some more, and
said to him, 1t must be awful fun
ney-enjoy yourself, but | don't get
the joke.
Then he laughed some more, and
he says: That suffering jabberwop in
charge Of your surveying gang over
there has been telling me that some
man would be in to give me the story,
but | never could figure out what he
was saying-now / get it--Charley-
Person Well, it was a pretty good
story, involving the development Of
about 100000 horsepower Of cleo
tiicity, and the colonePs story went
on the press association and all over
the country. When | got back to Los
the gang commenced to kid
me about parting my name with a
hyphen, but the fact is | rather liked
it.
''You see it is an absolute antidote I
to having such terrible things hung on
you as Uncle Charlie, Pop Pierson, Old I
Scout, Daddy and Dear Old Man,
which well-meaning people of the
Main STREET type have a habit Of
wishing on everybody who has wealth
sred by 45 years. You can read Main
Street from cover to cover and you
won't find single haySpad with his