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Fantasy Fiction Field, June 1944
Page 13
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M-3 a good idea to serve a sort of apprenticeship with this genius before applying for a job on a newspaper. Merritt though that maybe if he learned enough in advance he could get on the staff of the Sun in New York -- an ambitious project born of ignorance, or course. But in serving this apprenticeship, he unfortunately was a witness of a singularly unhappy political incident in which he had no part beyond that of an innocent bystander. Nevertheless, he qualified as an essen-tial witness. The political opposition was anxious to force him into this, while the side the political expert was on was just as anxious that he shouldn't be an essential witness. The consequence was a speedy trip to Mexico and other points south where writs of extradition did not run. It was here that he first conceived a strong interest in matters arch-eological, although he admits that he spent most of his time studying the habits and customs of the natives with special emphasis on fiestas and bibiendo, or drinking as they call it in the United States. Once, he likes to relate, he won $600 on a Panama lottery which he had bought from an old Indian women in Miraflores, spent a couple of hun-dred of it, then filled with gratitude, sought for the old women who had sold him the ticket and presented her with most of the balance, This overcame the seller, who was quite an important person in her tribe, that a few days later, Merritt says, he found himself a member of it by full blood rites. He was down in the country for more than a year, a good part of the time in Tohuantepee(?) and Chiapas. He went treasure hunting over in Yucatan with a rather reckless scout for one of the big Eastern Univ-ersity Museums, was one of the first white men to enter the ancient Mayan city of Tuluum since Catherwood nearly a hundred years before. Here he almost lost his life by falling into an ambush of hostile Indians who were on the warpath. He turned up later in Cichen Itza and fished for awhile in the cenote, or "sacred well," from which was later taken golden objects to the bullion value of $5,000,000. From there he went to Costa Rica where he spent some time wooing the senoritas up at the San Jaun de Potosi. While there the cloud was lift-ed from him and he was recalled to Philadelphia. He didn't want to leave, but if he stayed he wouldn't get any more money, so he had to come back. Shorty thereafter he got a job as a reporter on the old Philadelphia Inquirer in the days of the Elversons. was Merritt's talent/ for what is called "feature writing". He rose rapidly on the Inquirer, covering murder, suicides, hanging, mysteries, romances and political stories, and one personally conducted lynching party in Delaware that still keeps him awake some nights. In six years he had marched up to the night city editorship on the In-quiror, becoming, on the way, special Philadelphia correspondent for Morrill Goddard, the great feature editor who left Joseph Pulitzor to take over the American Weekly for William Randolph Hearst. This was then called simply "the Sunday Supplement" of the Hearst Sunday Newspapers. Later it was forgod into The American Weekly by Mr. Hoarst
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M-3 a good idea to serve a sort of apprenticeship with this genius before applying for a job on a newspaper. Merritt though that maybe if he learned enough in advance he could get on the staff of the Sun in New York -- an ambitious project born of ignorance, or course. But in serving this apprenticeship, he unfortunately was a witness of a singularly unhappy political incident in which he had no part beyond that of an innocent bystander. Nevertheless, he qualified as an essen-tial witness. The political opposition was anxious to force him into this, while the side the political expert was on was just as anxious that he shouldn't be an essential witness. The consequence was a speedy trip to Mexico and other points south where writs of extradition did not run. It was here that he first conceived a strong interest in matters arch-eological, although he admits that he spent most of his time studying the habits and customs of the natives with special emphasis on fiestas and bibiendo, or drinking as they call it in the United States. Once, he likes to relate, he won $600 on a Panama lottery which he had bought from an old Indian women in Miraflores, spent a couple of hun-dred of it, then filled with gratitude, sought for the old women who had sold him the ticket and presented her with most of the balance, This overcame the seller, who was quite an important person in her tribe, that a few days later, Merritt says, he found himself a member of it by full blood rites. He was down in the country for more than a year, a good part of the time in Tohuantepee(?) and Chiapas. He went treasure hunting over in Yucatan with a rather reckless scout for one of the big Eastern Univ-ersity Museums, was one of the first white men to enter the ancient Mayan city of Tuluum since Catherwood nearly a hundred years before. Here he almost lost his life by falling into an ambush of hostile Indians who were on the warpath. He turned up later in Cichen Itza and fished for awhile in the cenote, or "sacred well," from which was later taken golden objects to the bullion value of $5,000,000. From there he went to Costa Rica where he spent some time wooing the senoritas up at the San Jaun de Potosi. While there the cloud was lift-ed from him and he was recalled to Philadelphia. He didn't want to leave, but if he stayed he wouldn't get any more money, so he had to come back. Shorty thereafter he got a job as a reporter on the old Philadelphia Inquirer in the days of the Elversons. was Merritt's talent/ for what is called "feature writing". He rose rapidly on the Inquirer, covering murder, suicides, hanging, mysteries, romances and political stories, and one personally conducted lynching party in Delaware that still keeps him awake some nights. In six years he had marched up to the night city editorship on the In-quiror, becoming, on the way, special Philadelphia correspondent for Morrill Goddard, the great feature editor who left Joseph Pulitzor to take over the American Weekly for William Randolph Hearst. This was then called simply "the Sunday Supplement" of the Hearst Sunday Newspapers. Later it was forgod into The American Weekly by Mr. Hoarst
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