The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-05-28
Search For A
Celebrity

like cold potatoes! That is hard on
an ambitious young woman. My heart
beat high when the managing editor
called me into his private office.
Have you much Of the detective in
your" he asked, looking at me keenly.
My heart went higher still. | felt it
thump my palate. ] put as much effort
on my reply as on half-column arti-
Gle. "Try me-" I said, reasoning that
anybody who blue pencils as he does
would prefer a laconic answer.
'tYou know Woodrow Wardham has
| left town, and nobody knows his
whereabouts" assented.
Il want you to dig him up and give
him a page with photographs in the
Sunday paper"
what clews" asked.
you'll find them. You don't need
to be reminded that it isn't precisely
as If he were regular criminal"
mot exactly"
''No, but still he hasn't any right to
drop ont of sight this way. When a
man is as noted as he is, the public
expects to know everything, and yet
1t isn't advisable to trail him by ex-
actly the same methods that would
be used If he were an embezzler."
81 agree with you," / said, with
mental reservations.
use your own methods, but find
him. His absence is deucedlv incon-
venient. We want the first interview
on his novel, Tarsus Of Metatarsus. +"
Mr.. Derry told me later that Elmer
Mount of the Morning Imitator had
been sent out after Wardham.
Hes a novelist with soul, Is
Wardham," continued Derry. (which
ever Of you finds him first will be
treated royalty, and the next will get
courtesy but no story. He used to be
on a newspaper himself. You've met
him"
"At the Bronton reception" l re-
turned.
"He never forgets anybody. Sue
cess to your search"
The servants at the house refused
to say where Wardham was. Then
bought steamer rug and got Derry
/
maid he thought it belonged to Ward
ham. You see she was almost certain
to reply ia one or two ways. AID she
did:
"No, his rug is here in the house"
So I returned my purchase to the
store and sang. 'sNot gone abroad"
And after that good detective work,
my brother-in-law, who is with the
! Driver Realty Company, told me Ward
ham would be in town on the first and
aagin on the tenth to attend to some
real estate business. Then felt sure
he was in the state.
l sat Gown With map, and begin
ming with the southern towns, put
line through every place where
thought he was not. Big hotels, the
popular places, even the Imitator peo-
pie might have found him there.
Presently my map looked as if it
were covered with a drawing Of a
torn mosquito-net. This was getting
interesting. / appreciated the subtle
compliment of the EDITORS detail more
and more. 1t was possible. of course,
that Wardham was In the northern
Coast Range. He was not with the
Sierra Club, knew. AS he is neither
hunter nor horseback rider, he was
probably not far from the railroad.
l had not read Chesterton's MAN
Who Was Thursday" for nothing, so I
looked for my man where no one
would think Of hiding I'll look for
lin in the village where everybody
is a celebrity" l exclaimed.
Now a reporter on the Imitator
would never think Of looking for him
at Carmel. reasoned 1t out another
way and got the same result; a thief
hides among other thieves; when a
celebrity wants to hide, why should
he not mingle his fame with the
celebrity glow? / bought a ticket to
Carmel
You know Carmel, village where
everybody who isn't novelist is a
painter and everybody who isn't a
painter is a poet, and every mothers
son Of them is an artist in the broad
sense. Water ana oil doesn't refer
there to the Peoples Company or
Coaling stock Nobody eats canvas
back for fear of mutilating the canvas.
/ If you want to do anybody kindness
you offer to read proof for his next
book. and expect him to mention 1t
in the preface.
When left the train for the stage
/ the celebrities seek retirement three
miles from the station there was nor
a celebrity aboard. Evidently ! just
missed one, for the stage driver put an
artists paint-box under the seat with
the remark, "a painter-feller from
the city told me not to forget this
Said he was going Notwithstanding
around here and would come out on
later stage"
The box was initiated E. M. I
could not think of any well-known
artist whose name fitted. He was in
/, good field for sketching at. any rate
for the old town has not lost its quaint
Snanish air. | might make story of