Mr. Nye, who is now living with me, assures me that he carried these “Proofs” to Col. Mann’s house on 72nd Street, that Col. Mann read and corrected the “Proofs,” and that he made certain alterations in the article.
Then Mr. Nye took the Proofs of “Explanatory” back to DeFrance, and delivered to that person the orders of the real Editor-in-Chief of the New York “Watson’s Magazine.”
For the real Editor-in-Chief of the bogus “Watson’s Magazine” is Col. Mann, Editor of Town Topics and Smart Set.
Nice Editor-in-Chief for a reform magazine, isn’t he?
***
I am going to give, once for all, a simple statement of the whole transaction, and then I will try to forget it, in higher, nobler work. Nothing is a more thankless task than the narration of the events leading to such a climax as this.
***
After the national election of 1904, I went to New York to hold a conference with our National Chairman, Mr. Ferriss, and with other men who had been prominently identified with our side of the campaign. The conference was held at the office of Mr. Palliser who had been acting manager of the campaign in New York. I also wished to confer with Mr. Brisbane, who had long been urging me to join him in editing the Hearst papers. He had repeatedly written and telegraphed. A definite offer of $10,000 to edit Mr. Hearst’s morning paper, the American, had been made. If I had been ready to accept a thousand dollars per month, there is no doubt that it would have been paid. But while I was powerfully inclined to cooperate with Brisbane, I did not like to be swallowed up in Hearst. Besides, to edit a daily paper necessitated my residence in New York, whereas my interests, as well as local attachments, were too great to make the removal one to which I could readily gain my own consent.
While in this uncertain state of mind, Colonel Mann burst in upon me, at my hotel, in all the glory and pomposity of white whiskers, white hair, wine-colored face, spotted waistcoat, gold-headed cane, baywindow belly, eyes that looked like hard boiled eggs, and a voice thick with high-living and constant use.
As I may have remarked before, he looked just like a picture taken out of a child’s colored picture book.