Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-04
PROMOTER WROTE
SMILE DICTIONARY
Work Was Begun in 1895.
Book Published in 1916.
Read $4,000 Works.
lpeclal DiSnatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. June 4 N.A.N.A).-
Frank j. Wilstach, business manager
for DeWolf Hopper. met John j. Burke.
city editor of the Boston Traveller, on
a Boston street in 1895.
Burke was thoughtful and slightly
worried.
II have just had another Of those
headlines handed in," he remarked.
land it was the old one-'News spread
like wildfire.' I tried my best to think
of some other method of having news
travel simply and swiftly. and it has
been too much for me. You can't say
in a headline that 1t spread like light
ming because lightning, while it is fast
enough. doesn't spread anything except
occasional trouble. Get busy" he urged,
80 that I can sleep tonight"
Wilstach. who had been known as
one of the smarteSt promoters of the
country since his work for Hopper
started In 1889. pondered. He tried a
dozen, but they did not click. Then he
gave up.
Job Too Much.
mo use" he confessed, "and you
have me upset now. Let's 60 down to
the book store and get q dictionary of
SMILES and settle It,"
They went down Washington street.
to the biggest book store in town. But
the proprietor had never heard of q
volume of SMILES. Later, investigation
at the Boston Public Library and finally
the Congressional Library, revealed that
there was no such volume in existence.
In 1916 Frank Wilstach came before
the public with tome containing H.
900 good SMILES, called the Dictionary
of Smiles" the result of his spare time
Of 81 years. He had managed" Viola
Allen. William Faversham, Sothern and
Marlowe. but had never been able to
shake the challenge Of John j. Burke
in 1895. While other men amused
themselves in various ways. his hobby
became SMILES.
Began Reading Classics.
"Gags" come often when one is at
tached to the theatrical profession and
listens carefully. Smart newspaper
men occasionally put over fast one"
in their headlines or copy. These, while
satisfactory. were not broad enough in
scope for WilStach. Well read from his
university training. he started all over
again to review the classics of ancient
and modern literature. He had forgot
ten his Latin and Greek and had to
use translations, but those suficed.
And Just as F. P. A, the columnist,
has dotted on picking up mistakes in the
use of who and whom" Wilstach
started his search for SMILES, with the
idea of his compendium always in mind.
He went through all available papers
when he was travelling with his famous
stage people and after his own work
had been done went TO the public Ii
brary of whatever town the show was
in, to pore over books to add to his col
lection Of SMILES.
Ten years after the appearance of his
much hailed and much-needed book he
issued a second edition, with $500 addi-
tional "nifties." The accepted ntera-
ture of the world having been covered,
he had only to watch new books, the
newspapers, magazines-and his friends.
Friends Were Problem.
The last were his great problem.
Many of them didn't know what a
smile was, and brought metaphors.
aphorisms, hyperboles, alterations or
what have you.
He is both pleased and annoyed when
some one makes a complaint. Students
of literature, in particular. delight in
calling his attention to alleged mac
curacies. Wilstach, once he has for
gotten the sarcasm of some letter, will
smile and recall that he had read,
thoroughly or in part, $4,000 books,
from Chaucer down to Katherine Brush
and Emil Ludwig. He has gone through
prose, poetry, plays, either in the orig
inal or translation, from every country
that has produced great works.
He met in Arkansas Opie Read, who
told him of smile used in the de-