The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-28

Tn the cir-
 ctmstances, 1t seemed an irn- possible task. The readers, in their charity, have made 1t possible. The editors and publishers who were willing to take a chance made 1t easy for some millions of read- CTS to form their own opinions. Expression of those opinions in letters has been the tonic that has kept me at the job, doing my best.
 The Column had been dis- tributed to newspapers for sixteen years before Odds passing, and had been served by the McIntyres to a list of papers for five years prior to that. So 1t is now in con- tinuous publication for 9 years. Thanks to those good friends whom this little anniversary item Is addressed, it appears that this daily effort is now well established under the new authorship, and will go on as of old so long as 1t shall please God to give me strength for the task.
 My coming to San Francisco at this time is due to MT. Grover Whalen, chief of the New York Worlds Fair, 1889. I tried to sell MT. Whalen the idea of cooperat- ing with the San Francisco fair. I told him I thought such @ gesture of friendship across the continent would help establish good will all around.
 MT. Whalen refused to have anything to do with such @ scheme. He has his reasons, and I'm sure they must have validity. But I still think he's wrong. And, since MT. Whalen wouldn't extend the glad hand to the Golden Gate, I have been presumptuous enough to come out here and do 1t myself, as a citizen or New York.
 Then, too, 1t is an essential part of my theory of writing about New York that the columnist should back off and see the metropolis of the Atlantic seaboard from a dis tance every once in while. Dur ing the last year I have made a dozen such sorties fro mthe City, each of short duration, and have greatly benefited from contact with the Americans who do not live in New York. During the pres- ent year I expect to visit the areas of the United States that I missed in 1888. do not think a New York letter for non-New Workers can be the kind of letter want 1t to be unless the writer of 1t gets out among the customers and takes care not to become New Yorkish.
 On the train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, a note was de- livered to me by trainman. It was from MT. c. c. Larmer, chief clerk in the Fresno division of- flee of the Santa Fe. It said that the writer and Mrs. Larmer, his mother, were regular readers of this column, that the train would stop two minutes at Fresno, and asked if I would step from the rear car for handshake.
 I did, and now have two new, valued friends in the town of Fresno. Two honest, hard-work- ing, intelligent folk; the kind of friends I value. The conductor found 1t possible to hold the train for two or three extra minutes. I learned that MT. Larmer is an en- thusiastic stamp collector, and promised to look out for an occa- sional stamp for him.
 Fresno, in the heart of a rich valley, is known to the world for its grapes and citrus fruits. But I've always remembered it be- cause a fearsome iron scraper, called the Fresno, that I operated in levee construction work on the Arkansas river. I was so young and small that could hardly reach the long iron lever by which the scraper was made to dig into the earth. You drove the horses with one hand and pulled down the lever with the other-in theory, I used to let the horses manage themselves while swung on to the hated lever like mon- key.
 Still, I found Fresno almost an idylic town, in the brief view had of 1t. Who ever thought of naming that fiendish machine after such a lovely place.
 Dave Elman, the Hobby-Lobby man, ought to know about this. Bob Brinkerhoff, cartoonist, and George Carlin, his chief, were tell ing me of a visit they made to the home of MT. and Mrs. Bill Conselman in Hollywood. Consel- man is a scenario writer (one of the most successfully, and conducts a strip in the papers. He and his wife are incurable collectors. Bill collects dishes, and his hobby is cooking. Mrs. Conselman collects hands. She has a marvellous dis- play of hands in marble, fade, plaster, wood, and every plastic medium.
 Most of the interesting people I've met have hobbies and collec- tions, but never before have I heard of 8 collector of hands.
 Copyright, 1889. McNaught
 Syndicate)