Show GOOD WRITING ABOUT NOTHING The Young Reporter Invents an Interview In-terview With Satan Which Seems Fabulous From tho New York Times The reporter quitted the room which is not larger than a pocket handkerchief but the windows of which open on antique gardens His entrance into the park was I saluted by a veritable explosion of jQY among the birds the leaves the Japanese ducks and the swans It pleased him because be-cause he knew that they were disinterested disinter-ested and would not expect him to describe des-cribe their dress or the charm of their conversation They were glad to see so handsome a young man and perhaps they said to themselvesthey are so naivethat the Great Sculptor after He had modeled the angels finding that there was a little clay left in the studlo was moved by love of order to mould a man with an angelic lace A i dramatic critic was attracting the squirrels with pecans and walnuts but the reporter did not need anything but his presence to be attractive Suddenly he recollected that he had seen a spot among the trees which was delightfully scarlet colored He liked red and never missed an occasion to look at it He followed the spot without asking himself what its cause might be He Is not at all similar to the personages of the psychologic nov elists who are never content with being happy or sad but always want to know whyWithout Without waiting to argue as the philosophers philos-ophers do he followed the spot Thus he walked to the top of the observatory Why try tc understand anything The spot was simply che red gown of Miss Edith daughter of a wealthy banker who owns a village in Chenango county but of what use would It have been to the reporter re-porter to know this He lighted a cigarette Then came to him a stranger who asked for a light and the disagreeable manner of this unknown person painfully affected the reporter Thin in a silt of homespun checked with lines wide and colored as those of a flag his face was marked with wrinkles that resembled those of the boundary lines of a map His hair was golden and silky and his teeth were small and white He seemed discordant an abominable fault to a reporter Still the latter tendered the cigarette but the stranger had no sooner lighted his cigar than it was in ashes and the same thing occurred with a dczen successive cigars They were reduced to ashes in half a second The stranger gave no sign of surprisenor the reporter it must be paid for reporters are surprised only when nothing surprising happens The stranger Introduced himself I am he said < la gridiron maker He added with resigned sadness GridIrons Grid-Irons are always useful The reporter bowed without trying to express a respectful consideration which he did not feel He knew very well that the pretended gridiron maker was Satan himself and suspected at once that he had come to New York for some scientific experiment It even annoyed him a little to think that it was not an item of news this appearance of Satan in a dress which was not known to demonologists He knew instinctively that anything he might write on the subject would form a part of the big bundle of perpetually standing proofs of matter marked deferred in letters tall and thick that is seldom published pub-lished He wished he had not met the gridiron maker but the latter said I read your reports on the A P A and I have no hesitation In expressing the expert opinion that you are the greatest reporter of the century I wish I believed you said the reporter re-porter I would then arrogate to myself the right to wear a red gown although I am not a cardinal and would thus realize re-alize the most elevated dream ot ambition ambi-tion that I can imagine Pshaw I exclaimed the gridiron man From here you may see the city bathed by the rivers and the bay It resembles the views of cities < gkTbla exhibited under lobes In museums The houses are of colored cork the trees are shavings painted 1 green mirrors imitate the water Well New York with Its treasures shall be yours If yoU wish as a gift from me Oh It Is mIne already replied the re porter I1 have feet to walk In It eyes to j see it intelligence to understand it and t a patriotic soul to love it It even be longs to me as a model or a subject for description If I had the talent nothing could prevent my making it vivid In ar j dent and sincere phrases r was not playing with words said the gridiron man I offer It to you as real estate and with all the money there I is in Its buildings But I could not frame It or wear it as a scarf pin nor keep In my pocketbook the money that there is In the Treasury branch said the reporter I Now dont be a child said the grid iron man I can tell you scandals enough to fill rival newspapers forever I can give you a subject for a play which will have a run of 3000 nights The trick of it Is superb It Is a little mouse which is changed into a steamship steam-ship which Is swallowed by a whale which becomes the crown of a flower 3 transformed Into a drawing room where in a lady in gold relates to a swan In i diamonds stories at which everybody laughs irresistibly I can make Miss 1 > Edith fall in love with you Her father has so many millions that It would take him the rest of his life to count them 4 Do you wish to be wealthy glorious as well known as Napoleon My ambition Is much more difficult to 1 satisfy than all these things said the reporter I wish that after much pains 1 I may obtain such accurate knowledge of my trade that It may become possible t for me to write ten good successive 1 I I phrases a The gridiron man shrugged his shoulders shoul-ders and prepared a reply but followed i 1 the eyes of the reporter attracted by the j reapperance of Miss Edith passed through a gamut of gray colors until he j was of the same color as the granite of r the building and disappeared j The reporter attributed this sudden 4 flight to the fart that Miss Ediths hatpin J hat-pin was a sword the white hilt of which was a cross and learned that there are persons whom one may not visit with ° j impunity for he had contracted ideas of + luxury He bought cake for his birds In order to treat himself to a concert and I his little composers applying the theories of the new musical schools took pleasure j plea-sure in the persistent development of the melodic Idea a |