The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-03-11
Irwin S. Cobb

Mark Twain of an earlier generation, and Viii
Rogers, his contemporary, entertained more
readers, and listeners too, for he was fami
liar figure on the lecture stage, than Irwin
S. Cobb, whose death occurred yesterday. I'm
like Mark Twain, his expeditions into serious
literature were unsuccessful, and he lacked
Will Rogers talent for condensed w.t. but he
welded facile pen and had a rare gift for
humorous portraiture which, however sharp
never left a nettle to tester under sensitive
skins.
His fame as lecturer and after dinner speak
err was on par with his popularity as a
writer, but his motion picture career was not
a bowling success. He himself had poor
opinion of his histrionic ability, and although
he appeared with Will Rogers in four short
commedies won but moderate praise from
film critics.
It was in 1904, six weeks after Cobb had
gone to New York from his native Kentucky,
and was doing badly, that he sat cogitating on
a park bench and Internationally scanning a
newspaper. What he read gave him his big
idea. He told about it thus:
IT was struck with something hadn't MOTTO
ed before-the flippant tone used toward i'm
portant people-something unheard of in south
ern journalism Cobb related. well, I just
said to myself, if this kind of derisive attitude
is what they like, maybe the same tone in a
letter might hit some of these editors
The letters he sent hit several editors, and
Cobb selected job on the New York Sun. A
year later he was on the staff OF the Evening
and Sunday World, one Of the highest paid
evening paper reporters in the world. He was
with the famous Joseph Pulitzer publication
until 1911. For the following eleven years he
was on the staff of the Saturday Evening
Post, "covered'' the World war for that
periodical and came back from abroad to es-
tablish a reputation as a lecturer, after
dinner speaker and pungent commentator on
people and things. From 1922 on he was with
the Hearst publications, more especially the
Cosmopolitan magazine.
He got to Hollywood when he sold the movie
rights to his fiction character, Judge Priest -
and was made unofficial adviser in the
filming of the judge. Then, to his surprise, he
was drafted as an actor.
His first ambition was to be an artist. When
forced by family financial difficulties to leave
school at 16, he became cartoonist for the
Paducah Daily News. For pictorial delineations
of quilting bees and sewing circles he received
SITS week. He also made some money by
contributing squibs and sketches to comic
weeklies, but soon became a full-fledged re-
porter and at 10 was made editor of the paper
From 1898 to 1901, besides these duties, he
conducted column, Sour Mash," in the
Louisville Evening Post. Then there was a
merger of Paducah papers and Cobb became
managing editor of the Paducah News Demo-
crat After three years of this work, he treked
to New York and came to rest on his park
bench
Cobb started his after dinner speaking and
lecturing when he returned from the Euro
pean battle fields in December, 1914. There
was an intense public interest in America in
accounts of the fighting and already the anti
German propaganda campaign of the Allies
had begun to spread stories of Belgian atroc-
tiles.
Cobb had been with the German forces early
IN the conflict. He got with them by mistake
and remained because he was "detained' at
headquarters in AK la Chapelle on suspicion
OF being spy. He had some narrowing ex-
perlences with the kaisers officers before he
was released after being held almost six
weeks He cabled of his safe arrival in
Holland on October 10, went to London, inter-
viewed Kitchener and other notables and ar.
rived back in New York in December
He had no tales OF "atrocities'' to tell his
lecture and dinner table audiences but his
account OF What 1 Saw At The Front
brought him engagements throughout the Unit
ed States and Canada.
He went back in 1918 after America Joined
in the conflict and ''covered' American, Bri-
fish, French and Italian fronts He lectured
on these experiences until 1921. France made
him chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1918
and later President Harding commissioned him
major in the intelligence section of the army
reserve corps He received the honorary de.
gree of Lift. D. from the University of Georgia
in 1918 and from Dartmouth College in 1919
However fleeing his fame may be, anc
there was little in his product written OF
spoken to give him niche in any hall Of
remembrance the country is the poorer fol-
his passing.
-V
The Nth Air Force