The Bismarck tribune., 1933-09-26
NOTED HUM0RIST IS
CLAIMED DEATH
AFTER Long SIEGE
Ring Lardner, Who Made Nil.
lions Laugh, Is Tubercu-
:. Iosis Victim

New York, Sept. 26.-(F)-Ring
Lardner, who once noted that there
wasn't much difference between his
native Niles, Mich. and his adopted
New York because both begin with an
M, has lost his long fight against
tuberculosis.
The lean, six-foot humorist who
made you and me know AL and who
became ranking figure Of American
literature, died suddenly at his East
Hampton, Long Island, home Monday
night in the forty eighth year Of an
active, interesting life.
For 10 years Ringgold Wilmer
Lardner had fought the disease. Dur.
ing those years his humor flowed on,
bringing laughs to the faces of those
who saw on the stage Elmer the
Great" and then June Moon," and to
other tens Of thousands who read his
"Story of Wonder Man." Love
Nest. and other stories.
Heart disease, complicated by other
ailments. was given by his doctors as
the immediate cause of death.
Only In the last few years has the
Iardner typewriter gone on short
hours. His doctors ordered him to the
southwest and he remained there
many months. When he returned to
New York several months ago he was
reported much better.
Pain vanquished Humor
His days Of quantity production,
however, were over. He did column
on radio in the weekly New Yorker"
"a humorous, critical column that
carried sting for those artists, those
sponsors and those stations which he
felt were not serving the public need
for entertainment. The sweep of the
humor that filled "You Know Me,
AL" "Gullible's Travels" Own Your
Own Home" and the hilarious, How
to write Short Stories" was gone. Oc-
casionally It flashed on those last
published writings, but the spontanei-
ty and wit Of Treat EN- Rough"
"The Young 1mmugrunts'' and
symptoms Of Being IS" were not
there.
Lardner was born in Niles, Mich,
March 6, 1885. AS he put 1t, he was
born during "Have-a-Baby'' week. In
comparing Niles and New York later
he said there was little advantage
either way, as the New York Central
tracks ran through both places.
Throughout many of Lardner's
writings the hometown pride Is not
ed. His youth was spent there and
his first job on newspaper was In
South Bend, Ind, just 10 miles away
His journalistic experience was de-
voted almost entirely to the sport.
page-South Bend, Chicago, st. Louis
Boston, and back to Chicago. HI
travelled with the baseball clubs, the
White SoX and the Cubs, in the day.
Of doc" White, Mordecai (Three.
fingered) Brown, Frank Chance
Tinkers, Evers. and the many other.
of Chicago's heydey Of baseball.
Was Baseball Authority
He became a recognized authority
on the game, loving 1t for its sport
and for the humanness Of its players
From this experience he drew the ma.
terial for the development Of hi
best known character, the egotisttcal
bumptious, lovable and dumb bush
Lacquer, Jack Keefe, who told Of hi
experiences in the big league by mean
of letters to "Al."
The success of the "You Know Me
Az stories brought Lardner many Of
fers. In 1919 he resigned from tn,
Chicago Tribune and devoted himsel
to literary work, also doing q syndi
Gated feature. widely circulated. I
was at that time that he moved t,
New York, settling at Great Neck
Long Island, where he maintained hi
home until moving three years ag'
to East Hampton.
In these later years the full powe
Of Lardner as short story write
flowered and he received for the frs
time serious consideration by the cri
tics. It was In this second phase o
his career that he wrote his classi
1.-THE Champion" and Haircut" whicl
many critics have held are withou
peer in contemporaneous America,
literature.
They say that Lardner. who earne
q fortune with hts writing, died vir
tually broke because Of poor bushes
ventures and his inability to say mo,
to q hard luck story.