Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-04-02
Great Writer
Who Never
Wrote a Line
His Was Genius Of Easy
Talk Language
BY EDWIN C. HILL

NItERE are many veterans OF
Il New York,s Park Row who
will be grateful to Irwin S. Cobb
for his sharply drawn pen por-
trait of the late Max Fischel IN
Exit Laughing" Mr.. Cobb's life
story, Just now coming to the
book stands
Max Fischel. "leg man" for
the old New York Sun and the
Morning World, might be called
superlatively gifted writing
man who never wrote a line.
His was the genius of easy.
fluent, senSitively tuned talk
language, superb when written
down by lesser men among US
as Max telephoned in his story.
or stood beside US while We
wrote, but never to be caught at
the point OF his own pencil.
Time and again he tried 10
string words on copy paper, like
the rest OF us. !, was always a
wretched failure stilted, halt
ing fumbling and inept.
Then he would crumple the
paper. fleX his big. muscular
frame and. with an eager. new
light in his eyes say. Let me
tell you what happened And
then he would tell you. clearly
and Succinctly. not within the
requirements Of newspaper copy,
but with every word somehow
suffuSed with life and color. the
entire recital having form. pace
and climax.
WORKING with Max Fischel
w through the daily grist Of
crime. tragedy. disaster, humor
and pathoS which rounded out a
newspaper. one knew why the
roadside bards the Witnessing
erS and the MINISTRIES, with their
topical songs, somehow searched
deeper and looked deeper into
the heart Of humankind than
dNi the seg+bes and the clerks
who came after them
He made one feel that no mat
ter how def a writing nan
might be. no matter how timber
-his-Hrlting-wriSt, there was
somehow a loss in transmission
when the drama in hama was
stepped down TO word symbols
on paper
with Max. words did not
seem 10 be mere symbols They
were alive and vibrant things
and essences in themselves. IS
Francois Nillon might have
chanted them, Contempiuous Of
any pale parchment replica Of
living speech.
Max was truly an artist in
speech. with a voice AS sensitive
10 dramatic stress or subtletlcs
Of mood as violin.
TfiE late sam BeHnet. II his
Il day a great city editor Of the
Evening Sun. said that 10 take
a story over the telephone when
Max was deeply moved was Ike
listening 10 a one-man opera,
so varied and sensitive was the
meditation and emphasis. be il
tale of murder or comedy or
pathoS or some little noseCay ~
human interest which Max had
puckcd from an alley OF hy0ay
of the big roaring town.
Working on Park Row. YOU
somehow felt that YOU never had
really graSped a story Of human
values unless you had looked up
Max Fischel and he had made
you feel il and live 10 and per-
haps sense ITS deeper meaning.
Max came here from Prague
vi in 1863. a lad of four years.
and lived with his family in
Houston street. In all his -
years he never lived far from
that thoroughfare on the lnwrr
As writing men We were all
feeling our oats in that brave
day. and we weren't above an
occasional flourish, perhaps bit
Of learned adectation or a
stilted classical phrase
Boss Clark Of the Sun was a
magnificent de-bunker OF over
blown college educationS. but
Max F'ischel needed no such dis
cipline. As 10 that innate hon.
esty, again. he filched no verbal
finery from others and. utterly
lacking in seif-conSciousneSS,
eontrived no studied effects.
dorm an alien 10 orr great
I'D traditions of speech. his
spoken stories were AKIN 10 the
Flizahethan discourse which
welled up in taverns and coffee
houses in lean. hard. Anglo
Saxon words which served both
art and utility.
There is still another explana-
ton of Max FiSchcl He viewed
the world and the people and
the tragedy and comedy Of the
news day always with SYM
pathy and always with humane
understanding. Sympathetic
Identification" believe the
dramausts call this quality. al
though Max would have been
the last man in the world 10 use
such a high-flown expression.
The words we wrote in those
days live only in crumbling. vel,
/. lowing newspaper files-eVent
the best of them.
The words Max spoke. alive
with feeling and lit with UNDER
standing. have lived long I'm The