The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-03-21
SPIRIT OF OLD WEST
DYING SAYS AUTHORIZES

thoress whose western stories OF the
old regime have been read in nearly
every nation, sees the spirit OF the
old west dying fast because people
were more sincere then and scondi-
tions were different" she revealed
Monday night in an interview at the
Northern hotel in Billings. Miss Lock-
hart arrived in Billings Monday eve
ming from her Dry Head ranch in
Carbon county.
Miss Lockhart did not fly her large
airplane to Billings from her ranch,
but she may make several trips this
summer, she said. The plane has
been stored for the winter and will
be brought out for use soon. She
does not operate the plane herself.
Like many other prominent mod
ern writer's, Miss Lockhart lets her
stories develop themselves from the
seed of a plot, probably suggested by
an accident, she revealed. Her char
acters she picks from combinations
of people, Her best story is "The
Fighting Shepherdess,' which also
has proved one of her best sellers. 1t
is the next to last novel she has
written.
From one to two years is required
rewritten two or three times, the
to complete a novel and it must be
authoress said. Some of the stories
written when she began her writer's
career took less time, although Miss
Lockhart suggested that they were
"less finished" Her career as a
story writer began when she was a
rub reporter on the Boston Post.
One of her interviews, story on
Robert Ingersoll's opinion of capital
punishment, is still presented by her
in the original and in Ingersoll's
dashing style and penmanship.
81 like western stories and | like
to write Them" she said. Il have
written short stories and stories of
Labrador and of Spain--.some of the
countries I've Travelled in.
Something suggests the seed of a
plot when | start and it develops as
l go along. The story tells itself and
l don't know myself what my char
acters are going to do. Sometimes
they run away with me before l can
catch them.
my characters sometimes are tax
en- from real life, although they gen
orally are a combinations combin-
alton of men and women-of people,
"And my best story? It is "The
Fighting Shepherdess." And why is
it? Because it is the most finished
of them all. 1t is the next to the
last story wrote. 1t took me nearly
two years to finish it and rewrote
it three times.
II wouldn't try to define what you
ask when you want me to answer the
question what is the spirit of the
west 1t is too difficult topic. But
that spirit is going fast. People
conditions and things are all differ
ent.
"In the old days people thought
more of their word and held repu
tations for being square. But now
things are different" she sighed
Business is different. If an old
timer gave you his word in the Older
days here in the west, you could know
he would keep it,
Robert Ingersoll, whose opinion:
and words were hurting themselves
into prominence and bringing the eyes
of the world to read his terse com
ments, advanced humanitarian views
on capital punishment when Mis-
Lockhart interviewed him during he
reporting days on the Boston Post
Ingersoll's answers to her pointed
question on "Do you think hanging
prevents crime? are copied from thu
original.
81 do not" Ingersoll replied
"There is no wisdom in torture o.
degradation in killing. Most of tn,
men sent to prison are made worse
think that all prisoners should b.
paid for their work so that when theil
time expires they will have a hun
dred or two dollars or more to star
life again and this money will be ;
breastwork behind which they can de
fend their resolutions to live bette
lives.
"When we recognize the fact tina
most people do as they must, al
ideas Of punishment and hunger fol
revenge will end. Montana Ere,
Press.
NO MORE PERMITS