The Star Press from Muncie, Indiana • Page 6

THE MUNCIE SUNDAY STAR, APRIL 1942. Hoosier-Born World Traveler, Former Diplomat, Tells Of Gene Stratton Porter's First Writeup the end of 1933, resigned as minister to Persia, where he- wu crony of the ruler of that Interesting country, and was Immediately commissioned to return to central Asia to negotiate an oU concession. In the following four years he negotiated five concessions as follows: mm On all of Afghanistan, 270,000 square miles; in Persia, 200,000 to Justify all the prophecies of my extravagant preview. The first book square miles; concession for the came out in 1902, 'The Song of the and five years later two or longest pipeline in the world to Charles C. Hart; Born Near Bryant And Geneva, Informs Friends At National Press Club How He Introduced Talent Of World Famous Novelist In A Geneva Herald Press Notice.

carry oil from Afghanistan and 1 'Birds of the Bible, 'Music of the 'Moths of the 'The 'Michael O'Haloran, 'Morning 'Friends in the Feathers. A Daughter of the Land, 'Homing With 'Her Father's Daughter" and 'The First Bird. Printed in different languages they sold all over the world. "Although many years' younger than her husband, Mrs. Porter preceded him in death as the result of an automobile accident on the streets of Los Angeles, Dec.

6, 1924. The Porters had one child, a lovely daughter, Jean, now living in southern California, where she, too, has done some distinguished writing." Varied Newspaper Career. Charles C. Hart was born on a farm near the little town of Bryant, four miles from Geneva, and ran away from, home at the age of 15, he says, to obtain "more freedom of breathing and Independent thinking." His schooling began and ended In a little country school in Bear Creek Township, Jay County. Except for a short tour of duty in the regular army he was associated with newspapers for 27 years, then was appointed minister to Albania to be followed by his assignment to Persia.

He was long a Washington effacing' streams, thus became known to all the world. She immortalized the latter stream, which supplied the old awimmin' holes to most of us country kids, in 'A Girl of the "But I think, it has been overlooked that Gene Stratton Porter was something more than a writer of fiction. A letter to her from the late Edward Bok, which saw in 1905, indicated that he regarded her as the foremost amateur photographer of that time and as having done more than any other photographer to obtain faithful closeups of the birds of eastern Indiana. The. letter concerned Mr.

Bok's desire to acquire two of Mrs. Porter's bird pictures for use in the Ladies Home Journal. "It must be said for her that she discovered and photographed in the low, marshy country at the confluence of the Wabash and Limberlost important birds that few of us natives knew existed there. She climbed trees, garbed in khaki pants, like a true naturalist, to picture the nesting birds. "The first piece of fiction by Mrs.

Porter to attract attention was published in 1904. This book was dramatized and presented from stage and screen In all parts of the country in the years to follow. Other books were 'At the Foot of the three of her books were well on the way to selling 2,000,000 copies, a record which up to that era had never been approached by a single American author except Charles M. Sheldon who in 1901 published 'In His a religious work. Approved By Public.

"It never mattered what the critics thought of Mrs. Porter's books because the public's response underlined a saga of success that will be By Everett C. Watkins. Washington, April 4. New and interesting light on the literary rise of the late Gene Stratton Porter, world famous Indiana novelist, was given to a small group of friends at the National press Club a few days ago junior partnership in the Porter drugstore, dropped into the office of the Geneva Herald, a weekly newspaper, for a chat.

He casually ventured the information that Mrs. Porter was engaged in some writing that presaged her entry into that galaxy of distinguished authors then mushrooming from farms and town lots in every part of the Hoosier state. Charlie Pleads Cause. "In view of the literary ground-swell then sweeping Hoosierdom like a tidal wave, it required no imagination to foresee another brilliant star being added to the state's literary firmament," Charlie continued. "And besides, no investigation was ethically essential before printing a pleasant word anent the wife of one of the Geneva Herald's leading advertisers.

Just think, the Porter bank carried a four-inch double column ad in the paper the round and the Herald must have received as much as $6 or even $12 a year for printing almost Persia; on all the south half of Iraq, including Baghdad, the traditional site of the Garden of Eden and the birthplace of Abraham; in Palestine, all of ancient Judea, including the Dead sea, the site of Sodom and Gomorrah and half of the Jordan river valley. The Iraq concession was lost by reason of the assassination of the dictator with whose government tl concession was negotiated and the Palestine concession was rejected by the company because of an objectionable oil law. Charlie Hart has to his credit 700,000 miles of life travel including 300,000 miles In four years. 400 hours in the air and a flight around tHe world. He knew only Geneva.

when a printer-reporter giving' Gene Stratton Porter her first news- Pleawr Tarn Srtt Pare. LiMiniiiinniirji. equaled rarely by fiction writers of the future. Later I was to see her books in dozens of countries to which I traveled. "Gene Stratton Porter was loyal to the region of farms and small towns, swamps and dirt roads in which she made her beginning.

That Charles C. Hart. through her books as vibrant, intriguing human characters who appeared to live and breathe again just as sheJiad known them and as I had knowfrthem. The Wabash and the Limberlost, two muddy and self- area was used as the locale of most of her writings and the good, well-meaning people of that area stalked endless 'readers' exploiting the virtues He came home from Persia at of pink pills for pale people and Dr. Hoofsnoggle's colic cure, guaranteed to make -cholera morbus feel Just like a shot in the arm.

"My cousin, C. O. Rayn, still living in Geneva, owned the paper. He devoted his time to the business end and job printing while my function was assembling of the news and I also put it into type. Let me say that very little of the news ever was written.

I simply stepped to the case and, without mental notes, put in all events of the week worthy of notice and brief accounts of the per-igrinations of local residents. Charlie Follows Advice. "When Druggist Anderson left the office, there being nothing else worthy of recording, I mounted the stool before the case and began setting the type for a fulsome tribute I I I. UA ft -'l? to the town's budding literary genius, telling how the stars augured well for her 'early success. I did have one solid fact on which to predicate the laudation of this embryonic author.

I never dreamed she was to become world-famous. Mrs. Porter, just as a pastime, reported the news each week from Geneva to the Decatur Journal. It was obvious that she knew news and how to develop a story. When an ill-fated oil well shooter was suddenly blown to kingdom come by the accidental explosion of a wagonload of nitroglycerine on a country road, one could hear the explosion and feel the earth tremble in reading Mrs.

Porter's account of the accident. "But, getting back to my story, I raved on to something more than a half column, leaving nothing complimentary unsaid about a woman one of the most beautiful women I have ever known with whom I did not have so much as a speaking acquaintance. That rhapsody which trilled from the first page of the A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDER OF THE J. C. PENNEY COMPANY: I I 1 I I Tl WWW, I ii Si Gene Stratton Torter This picture was made shortly before the death of the famous novelist in an automobile accident' in 1924.

Herald that week made me somewhat unpopular. The Porters were not well liked because they had too much 1 by Charts C. Hart, Hoosier-born former diplomat, professional foreign negotiator and world traveler. "Charlie," as he has been known to Washington newspapermen and statesmen for more than 30 years, is generally regarded as more interesting when recounting stories of long residence and travels in the Near and Middle East where he had spent 15 years when gathering war clouds brought him home three years ago. EI73ENDQUS TASK LIES AHEAD OF US! Today America is at war.

Now. in wartime, because of the tremendous job ahead of us, we must learn again to work hard and to live simply to put into the preserving of America what we once put I ST money and were cruelly misunderstood. "They were labeled snooty because they were not backslappers and never flattered anyone. It was maliciously whispered that I must be planning to make a legal raid on Charlie Porter's bank but we'll not discuss that. "Anyway that press notice, the very first she ever had, produced for me the acquaintance and friendship of Gene Stratton Porter and her husband and if there was one quality she possessed more than another it was gratitude.

She and her husband remained my devoted It was discovered, however, that he could be just as interesting when narrating early experiences in Indiana, where he was reared on a farm in Jay County and later became a printer's devil in Geneva, then a booming oil center which was Gene Stratton Porter's home after she married in 1886 Charles Darwin Porter, druggist, who was later to become the town's banker and wealthiest citizen. The story began with how Charlie Hart gave Gene Stratton Porter her very first press notice in 1889, three years before the publication of her first book, "The Song of the Cardinal," a work which she herself illustrated. "One bright day at the end of winter in 1889, about the time the cutworms stage their first annual blitz in Indiana cornfields," Charlie began, "John Anderson, personable young man who had recently acquired a friends so long as I was within their reach and she often remarked that mv cress notice was her first en couragement to go ahead with her ambitions to be an author. "Gene Stratton Porter was soon I Get to That Modernizing Work on Your Home, Now! into the building of it -to return to the old ways of Thrift and Savings that were the general rule at the beginning of this century. We feel that the Penney Company is peculiarly well equipped to make a substantial contribution toward the Thrift and Savings of the nation because the Penney Company knows from long experience what thrift is all about.

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