Show bo dav I 1 OKA interrupted tate tale of a man who wrote a bet best seller MALL wonder that the T tower amov e r IS 5 of babel was halted by tile the confusion of tongues nothing that happened in babylon was half so bad as the prevalence of windbags wind bags all anxious to talk at the same time it takes a bit of Il listening to subtract a whole story even w when hea uie the conversation is in ED english iash r for or instance A fort fortnight bight ago I 1 stepped into cellas restaurant on east forty fifth street to bid in a tenderloin before gene tunney turned up with his bunch of gastronomic gangsters and cornered lie market too late ile he boat beat me to the me punch so I 1 countered on nn fin english chop new peas and the fixings muscling in among others who were likewise occupied jo DavId davidzon bon rood mod cling an idaho baked potato into a miniature taj mahal gat opposite me inc edwin lefevre down the line frett ted with a salad dressing tainted minted with just one too many cloves of garlic chris morley had his eye on a fat veal kidney sizzling to be caressed paul a Il hollander ollander who knows his spring onions was flirting with a platter of them everybody tallied talked one of sir air tunnels Tun guests nests sprung a new theory for telling the dIf difference ferenc beti between een a genuine and a fake pearl lie ile wound up babbling about the parentage of alexander Il hamilton amilton and the height of a plug hat bat as compared with a derby carl reed an engineer who Is a nut on molecules became one in the general confusion of opinions I 1 heard what lie he had to say but understand him rivaled bible sales at the next table war correspondent larry rue so close to roe me that I 1 could hear every word lie he uttered was filling the ear car of an unsuccessful author with some amalin amazing statistics how would you like to ii have ve written a book that went into ten million copies said larry leaning across his brol broiled led chicken youre not referring to the bible 1 I hope replied the author rather sadly not at all just a simple little volume selling at half a dollar and still in the money rolling off the press year after year and pulling down the scads even to this day nothing more nor less than a simple book issued 23 28 ll 11 years a ago 0 at last something really coherent and entertaining shifting my seat I 1 called for black coffee and joined the book chat boys boya this ten million edition stuff larry I 1 asked tact fact one of those things absolutely true that happen without drums trumpets or ballyhoo it will open your eye about big editions best sellers and popular authorship heres the dope with a flue fine tableau for the curtain years ago out west to be exact lived a thoroughbred yankee school teacher who dedicated his life to matters educational jasper hunts speller ills his name was jasper newton hunt six feet four inches high stately in manner the possessor of a flowing white beard and well beyond the three score years and ten record he became known as the immortal J N 1 at eighty two lie he died leaving behind several public school textbooks among them hunts progressive speller ten million copies of which have been sold to school children since 1908 the year it was written so much by way of introduction now for the sentimental touch that takes us to holland alch the home of paul de kaulf author of the medicine men Ml croli Il hunters etc and collaborator with sinclair lewis in arrowsmith do you know frazier hunt bunt the war correspondent better known as spike by those who love hire him sure where does he horn born in on this best seller tale well he be just happens to be the immortal J Ns son and incidentally an old chum of paul de kaulf whom he was visiting at holland where the pair of them did considerable hiking around the countryside in the course of these rambles during a rainstorm they took refuge in an abandoned schoolhouse one of the old red universities so to speak find early copy being nosey by nature and a bear eat cat tor for microbes mic robes de kaulf poked about the premises coffil coming ng eventually upon a pile of old school books in a dismantled closet among the treasure trove was a 8 copy of hunts progressive speller I 1 describe to you the scene that followed when de kruft kaulf placed the precious volume in spikes hand nor do I 1 intend boring you with further petty details except to say that paul and frazier returned to the do de kaulf homestead where after toasting the great names identified with the bright lexicon of youth in many lands they built a small mausoleum of cement under a spreading tree hard by the garden and with due ceremony deposited hunts progressive speller in permanent repose on a single ingle sheet of white paper such as professional scribes besL use in the preparation of 0 mss ass spike before the crypt was sealed scaled wrote this line one of ln ion willI million I 1 and placed it with the biest est seller service |