Evening star., 1933-03-27
Nature Fiction Made Fame
For Connecticut Humorist

Winsted, q small community In Con-
necticut, is declared by the press Of the
Nation to have shared the fame Of Louis
T. Stone. creator OF famous humorous
stories in the realm Of the mature
faker." This modest journalist, In
death, receives tributes a. the modern
Munchausen and worthy to be ranked
with Mark Twain and other American
humorists. The products OF his imagi-
nation were distributed by telegraph,
adding unique feature to his life work.
Even now" says the Rochester
half expectant Of a Special dispatch
from the world beyond, signed by Louis
Stone" That paper declares that his
rare humor" made him "the most be-
loved liar Of modern times" and that
he made Winsted famous far and
wide" The Hartford Times states: 'Mr.
Stone had many friends and the respect
and regard Of the community. His years
OF work for the Winsted Evening Citi-
zen. Of which he became general man
ager, gave him An intimate and valued
place in the life Of eastern Litchfield
County. After Danbury's Bailey, Mr..
Stone had carried an infectious mirth
farther across the continent than any
other Connecticut newspaper man. His
ability to ascertain and report the new,
strange and startling as occurring
within hilly Connecticut's sight and
hearing has not been surpassed, if ever
it was eQualed"
"As young man." says the New
York Herald Tribune, che found Win
sted just another Connecticut town, and
his fanciful tales did it nothing but good
Indeed, one Lou Stone In such q town
may be well worth more than any num-
Der OF chambers Of commerce and
boosters clubs. The citi2ens Of Win
sted gave him much credit for develop
ing the town and the adjoining section.
He was pleasant. Whimsical and re-
markably well informed His stories,
brief, straight-faced and with just the
right restraint (some of them were terse
40 the Coolidge anecdotes), were of the
sort that give the lie to the journalistic
dictum. There is no harmless fake"
Observing that he was called "the
goth century Munchausen," the Rock
ford Register Republic reviews his
work with the statement: Millions of
American newspaper readers have
ehuckled over antics Of Jim, Pete and
Dick, the tunneling trout; the tree on
gave ice cream after 1t had been acci-
detally locked in an ice house. and
many other droll items written by Mr.
Stone during the last 20 years. The
taller and more impossible the tale, the
more certain 1t emanated from Winsted
His little news fables were never in
tended TO deceive. They were 80 OBJ
yiously impossible that they left readers
laughing. And that was their sole pur-
pose. Mr.. Stone received many tempt
ing offers to go to larger fields Of en-
deavor, but wisely he refused them ALL
He found happiness in Winsted; fame
and . fair degree of fortune, too.
There, in the region which he had
known from boyhood, he obtained the
inspiration to make a weary world pause
occasionally and smile at his drolleries.
And it is something Of a major accom-
pl1shment in these troubled days to
make restless millions laugh even for a
moment"
He was . hard-workng newspaper
man who turned out the celebrated
yarns IN his spare moments" says the
New Orleans Times-Picayune, with the
belief that they were so cleverly con-
structed that casual readers swallowed
them whole" That paper comments
further: "As Medicine Hat Is famous
or. II you please. notorious-as wealth.
er breeder. so Winsted became noted as
the center OF weird events, the seat OF
mysterious and sometimes almost
miraculous performances by men or
beasts, or even birds In the middle
nineties the story Of Winsted's wild
man attracted wide attention and
aroused the interest or curiosity Of SCI
entists and feature writer's. At irreg-
ular intervals. through subsequent years,
the country was told about Winsted's
'whistling cat and its accurate rendi-
ton OF Yankee Doodle and other pop
ular airs; about the Winsted hen that
flew through the open bed room window
Of its owner each morning. laid fresh
egg for his breakfast and then awAk-
enOd him h IT. cacklinR: about the