The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-25
1t
Seems
to
Me
BY HevHood Broun


to do columns ahead of time. There
has been objection occasionally when
my stuff Sauntered in at or 3 or
in the morning. But for these
delays I have seldom made any of
the traditional excuses to the man
aging editor. I have not taken the
easy way out and said, Boss, was
at a bachelor dinner, and you know
bachelor dinners
On the contrary, I always have
taken a very righteous attitude and
said:-"What do you mean-late!
The later the better. This is a
column right on the nose Of the
news"
That contention was not always
truthful. Sometimes it was both a
stale column and a bachelor dinner.
n r
TINE trouble with writing COL
l. umns much ahead of time is
that people and things won't stay
set. The man who is a columnar
hero on Monday may do some
thing before the end of the week to
outrage your good opinion almost
completely. And this is not mere
ficklenesS. The aspect of men and
events has never shifted about with
more celebrity.
This trip is taking me only as far
as Haiti, and I will be back i'm
mediately after the turn of the
year. You could have taken trip
like that in the days of Calvin
Coolidge and piled up a whole stack
of columns in advance without the
slightest trepidation. In fact, if /
had been sufficiently industrious to
do a gross or SO Of little master
pieces 1 could have sailed around
Cape Horn. My opinion of Coolidge
would be just the same when went
away and when came back. Moth
ing much would happen.
Long before the war worked on
a paper which was edited by a
methodical old gentleman who was
a stanch Republican and II years of
age. Our first edition, as 1 remem-
! Der, came out about in the morn
ing, whether anybody wanted it OF
not. But the old gentleman put the
paper to bed long before that late
hour. He had everything neatly laid
out and arranged by 8 in the eve
ming. If king was very sick he
would sit up with him for while
but quite resentfully.
Il n
Unlike most newspaper men
~ the old man hated murders. o.
course, if they occurred around
or 7 in the evening he didn't mine
so much, although even in that CASE
there might be developments neceS-
stating the handling of late copy
His notion of an ideal story was ar
announcement by the trustees o.
the Museum of Natural History tt
be handed out at 4::30 in the after.
noon. That allowed plenty of time
for the dignif1ed presentation of the
main facts in the report.
can't remember now whether il
was an earthquake or a volcano
Maybe it was only hurricane. But
at any rate, it was, as the lawyers
term it, IAN act of God" and il
didn't happen until just before mid
night. I've never seen an editor sc
mad in my life. He acted just as il
some gunman had gone out killing
respectable citizens.
In fact, his first intention was tt
ignore this earthquake, eruption o.
hurricane, and not let it upset hi
nice, clean newspaper, which up tt
this point had been orderly. Blu
the cable dispatches kept coming in
The disaster grew worse and worse
The old man yielded grudgingly anc
tore his first page to pieces. But
after that, next to murders, he dis
liked earthquakes, active volcanoe;
and hurricanes. He was a good mar
and pious one, and, even so, thing:
like this happened to him.
A ND so I have little hope thai
L n my tirnid prayer will be grant.
ed in full I would like to see while
1 am gone a quiet world providing
very little copy. One risks so much
in absenting himself from his office
The day you choose to be just G
perfect riot Of antic and fantastic
humor can be the very afternoon
when something Of tragic import
occurs and readers say, Has Thu
low fellow no taste at alp"
Maybe that was the trouble with
Nero. Perhaps he had scheduled
himself to fiddle long before he hac
| the slightest notion that Rome
might take to burning.
am, for a period of six or sever
days, shooting columns into the air
If one of them happens to q
through a window or gravely injur,
an innocent bystander I apologize
in advance. The country can ge
along without me- admit as much
But can I get along without thu
country?
Somebody will point across a,
azure ocean and say, There's Halt
now" and all the while I'll be say
ing to myself. ''I wonder what's In