Memoirs of an editor : fifty years of American journalism / Edward P. Mitchell.

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MEMOIRS OF AN EDITOR

then to let me have a copy. It neither expressed resentment nor attempted appeal; the substance of Giorgio's
communication was the fear that his omission might
tend to disgrace or lessen him in his patron's esteem.
Just at that time Smith was invited to speak at the banquet in honor, I believe, of Mr. Burnham, which celebrated the completion of the preparations for the centennial display. Instead of making a speech at table,
Smith produced from his pocket the letter from Venice
and read it without comment, and then and there it was
unanimously agreed by the Exposition authorities that
Giorgio should be summoned forthwith to Chicago.
This artist with both brush and pen, lecturer of note,
man of heart plus nigh universal genius that could create
at call not only a lighthouse or a hotel or a pedestal for
Liberty's statue but also a Colonel Carter of Cartesville
or an astonishing multicolored record of modern Venice,
had among his varied assets an 'unsurpassed reputation
as a raconteur. A pet story of his was of an address delivered at a meeting of a woman's club in Minneapolis or
St. Paul, it matters not which. The hostess and president
of the club was likewise prominent in the local organization of the W. C. T. U.
Hopkinson Smith arrived at the house-he knew the
family well-in twenty-below-zero weather. He was chilled
through and shivering visibly beneath his heavy fur overcoat. When the hostess met him at the door he made bold
to suggest a remedy which caused her to hesitate long
and inspect him severely. At last she beckoned mysteriously, put a finger to her lips and led him up-stairs to
the bathroom. From the medicine-closet on the wall she

produced a teaspoon and a two-ounce vial labelled "whiskey." She herself poured the dose and administered it;
"and she didn't heap the spoon, either," the patient used
to say.
They went down to the parlor where the expectant