Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-04-30
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

Times.)
By WESTBROOK PEGLER
TUCSON. Ariz.. April 30.-Hal
l. OFlaherty, managing editor
of the Chicago Daily News, has
been appointed assistant to Ad-
miral Hepburn, the navy's d-
rector of public relations. with
the rank of lieutenant COM
mander.
Mr.. O'Flaherty is not an ide-
ologiSt or Communist but a
Model T, or primitive, Ameri-
caniSt, and thus will be queer
bird among some of the press
agents who have been recruited
for government service in the
last eight years and a bit
Moreover he was not out of
a Job. but gave up much bet
ter salary TO accept the Presi-
dents shilling wherein tho same
difference will be observed be-
tween him and the general run
of those who have crept into the
woodwork of the government
under the New Deal TO serve
their personal grudgeS against
the economic system and the
profession in which they couldn't
keep step.
TfME magazine, with a weak
L ness for capSuled and insult
ing characterization. used the
word Drawing to describe
O'Flaherty, whose only fist &
fight of which ! have Knowledge
in an intimate friendship Of %
years was stout remonstrance
against a remark BIZ another
journalist in the Adlon Hotel in
Berlin in 1920
The remark left HIM no alter
native. so Mr.. O'Flaherty tagged
his colleague out, and that set
tied that.
In 1914 in Minneapolis he
cracked a beautiful cherry-wood
bar. but he and his companions
were not Drawing. They were
singing and beating time on the
bar.
He used 10 love 10 sing songs
In saloons and was partial 10
Wisconsin college Air which
began:
Minnesota. Sec the Badger
you can stroke his tswny hair"
LIE HAD also served briefly A.
IL coachman Of a farm vehicle
near What Cheer. Ia.
This equipage. being loaded
with fertilizer from the pile be-
hind the barn. is driven sedately
across the fields while mechani-
cal arms. operated by gears and
chains. hurl nourishment in
slow. graceful ares 10 the hun
CRY soil
Mr.. O'Flaherty set out behind
a team of spanking mules. one
Of which stepped on a ground
hornets nest. arouSing the in
mates.
The mules then ran away
while the Spreader-arms failed
wildly, and the young driver
accidentally achieved distance
records which are believed TO
stand 10 this day in this event.
IN THE Spring Of 1913 Mr..
L OFlahcrty, employed Their .
as Omaha manager Of tn
United Dress. was sitting in
bathtub in his roominG house
one morning.
A few minutes later he was
still sitting in his bathtub, but
not in his rooming house.
The rooming house had left
on the wings of big wind
which was famous for few
days as the Omaha tornado
When he had found clothes
for his nakedness Mr.. O'Flah-
erty went downtown, captured
the only wire left standing. and
scooped the world for II hours.
For that he was acclaimed,
but before he could enjoy his
celebrity his triumph was
washed away in the Dayton
flood, which drowned out public
memory of the Omaha tornado.
Mr. OFlaherty, still a cub,
arrived in London in the Spring
of 1916. and it was there your
correspondent shared with him
a life Of toll and not too miser-
able poverty on $50 week in
number of Bloomsbury boarding
houses.
MR.. OFLAHERTY returned
vi home in 1917 TO enlist n
the army. becoming a pilot see-
ond lieutenant Just as the W.
ended.
And when he went back =
London with his young bride h.
discovered TO his own constel-
nation, no less than hers. that h.
had achieved a romantic con-
quest over a young woman whom
he had scarcely ever seen.
During the old London days
the young American reporters
habitually patronized a cheap
Fleet street restaurant called
the Wellington. and now. when
O'Flaherty returned with his.
American dream girl, there
arose from the scullery such 4
squalling and yowling as YOU
never heard.
And then there emerged a red
eana,., I,tslz