The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-26
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from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE
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Mardi Gras; that it costs $3.50 a dav
to run the average-sized freight
ship; that people in shrimp can
neries work from in the morning
till 6 and later at night; that
Natchitoches in Louisiana is pro-
nounced Macintosh"
A ND as rowing reporter I have
Aseen some wonderful things-the
long, soft shadows of the Arizona
cactus under a desert moonlight:
the awful panic in the eyes of peo-
pie running before a Canadian for
est fire; the slow rising of the
Southern Cross into the vast tropi-
cal sky as you see it from freight
er at sea; the deep preoccupation
on the faces of men and women at
the gambling tables in Las Vegas,
New; the amazing speed with
which tumble of tin and steel be-
comes an auto in Detroit: and the
amazing speed with which an auto
from Detroit becomes a tumble of
tin and steel on a slick, snowy road
in North Carolina.
In $1,000 miles of driving in one
year, l have had only one fiat tire.
Picked up a nail in Louisiana. Only
in one place Con the Gaspe PENN
sula in eastern Quebec have had
to go into low gear to get up hill.
I have paid from II to 35 cents for
gasoline. I have run out of gas
twice, and both times it had appar-
entity been syphoned out by thieves,
and neither time did have to walk
| for gas.
Seldom do I go more than so
miles an hour any mere. almost
never drive at night. Some days l
go only Is miles. Other days 800.
I have never been stopped by. a
cop. I have driven through a bliz-
zard in southern Mississippi and a
dust storm in Nova Scotia.
Il n n
7 HAVE never left anything in a
l. hotel room, except one tooth
brush. have had good hotel rooms
for rs cents, and bad ones for SIS. In
the back country have seen pigs
hitched to little wagons, hauling
wood And men and women hitched
to plows. have eaten papayaS, and
cactus candy, and enchilladas, and
| @y. icrlaf AF f17n hay
seen (but not eaten) canned rattle
snake meat.
Once in Maine rounded up half
a dozen stories in less than two
hours. Another time, in Washing
ton, I worked a whole week on one
story. Sometimes I can write a
story in half an hour. Other times,
when 1 am out of the mood, start
a. story and never do get it finished.
Rowing has taught me that people
in general are good, Once l stopped
at house in little village in north
west Florida to ask the direction,
and they invited me to stay for
lunch Once, standing high on the
precipitous bank of the st. Law
renee River, I talked for 10 minutes
with native, and he spoke in
French and I in English and neither
of us knew word the other said,
but we understood. Once I spent
two hours at an abandoned gold
mine on a mountain in Arizona,
talking with the old Waterman who
lived alone with his dog. In Ottawa
I stood on the sidewalk and chatted
with the Premier of Canada for Is
minutes. In Minnesota 1 picked up
the same hitch-hiker four times in
one day.
How do I find things to write
about? Well, some things by design,
some by accident. In a strange
town, 1 go to the local newspaper,
or the police chief, or a doctor, and
they tell me the most interesting
people in town. Then go talk with
the people.
NOBODY has ever refused to
~ talk with me. Only one man
has ever refused to let me write
about him, and even he was friendly
and we talked for an hour.
There have been many stories I
couldn't write. One was the time L
went with doctor far back into
the mountains, to an old log cabin,
to see dying old man. He lay there
in his bed like movie mountaineer.
with his shotgun standing at his
bedside. When I came in, he raised
on his deathbed and held out his
feeble hand, and in a whisper well
coined me to his home. 1t made a
lump in my throat, but I couldn't
write about it.
There are times when the life of
a rowing reporter is so thankless and
bare that you feel you would rather
dig potatoes for living; but at
times such as now. when you sit
down and start remembering the
things you have done, and seen, and
especially the things you have felt
then you know you want to keep
going on.