The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-13

The Circle
With
McCREADY HUSTON
McCREADY HUSTON

McCREADY HUSTON
TODAY'S column IS TO DE devoted
4 to a cg1umnist who has just
died and who probably was second
only to Kin Hubbard as an ironic
commentator on the daily scene. ]
refer to Jay E. House, who died in
Topeka, Kas., the other day when
he was back home for the holidays.
Jay was, SO far as know, the only
newspaper colurlnist to be elected
mayor. While writing for the Capt.
tai, in Topeka, he served term as
mayor and made a good one. He
was also seriously considered for
Governor.
ONE of the strangest incidents in
~ journalism took place when Jay
House transferred from Topeka to
the staid, blue-Stocking Philadelphia
Public Ledger. 1t came about like
this. The late cyrus H. <. Curtis,
owner of the Ledger, was on trip
to California. On the train he picked
up a copy of the Capital from car
seat and read Jays column. I'M
mediately he back-tracked to Chi
cage, had Jay meet him there, and
signed him up for Philadelphia. Jay
told me himself that the figure was
$4,000 year and freedom to say
what he thought.
THAT this Illinois born farm
Il boy, who had been a tramp
printer-he told Of it himself in the
Saturday Evening Post not long ago
could write a column in the
shadow of independence Hall and
make the Quakers like it is one of
the curious contradictions Of news
paper life. He was marvelously in
dependent. When, during the panic,
newspaper companies were forced
to make horizontal reductions in
salaries, Jay declined to accept his
and the publisher could not do any
thing about it.
He was a columnist who could
have been syndicated all over the
country, but who preferred not to
be. He wrote only one day ahead,
getting down in the morning about
II, writing about 700 words and de-
parting.
FAY HOUSE was one of the finest
- characters who ever graced his
profession. His diversion was what
he called a party. He would gather
into his fiat perhaps Is friends
who could sing or who enjoyed mu-
sic. They would spend the evening
IN quartets, octets and choruses,
all confined to old-tirne American
folk songs. Any person who has
been privileged to hear Sweet
Genevieve" in the House living
room has an imperishable memory
+ one could write the history of
= Jay House he would have the
history of Middle Western Journal
ism. He once told me he could not
remember all Of the small dailies
and weeklies in Illinois, Kansas.
Missouri and Indiana, for which
he had worked as a youth-sattino
type, writing news and editorials
ana acting as editor. His beginning
as columnist was typical of the
way things used to be done. The
editor OF the Capital told him one
day to write a column. Jaw had
never even thought about it. But
ne sat down and did it and the re-
suit was one of the best in the coun-
try, one that reached national fame.
+ 4
EE reason was that there was
something of James Whitcomb
Riley, something of Mark Twain.
something of Eugene Field in the
man. He insisted on being him
self. When he went East he did
not try to make himself an Eastern
er. He wrote for the East the same
sort of thing that he had done in
the West. And in doing so he
evinced the soundest kind of char
acter.
TAY HOUSE believed that truth
y was universal-that what was
true in Kansas would be, true every
where. His life was i'll conformity
to Shakespeare's dictum, ITO thine
own self be true"
q
INCIDENTALLY, his column con
= Second Thought" was titled by
the Kansas editor who first told
Jay to write it. Finding good column
names is hard work. Franklin P.
Adams 1.-THE Coming Tower" is as
good as any. Of course, the real
hard work is finding something to
write about.