Cub

"Dear young man from the Daily News:

"I am sick with a cold. I have gone to bed--and cannot see you--I am so sorry, but it will have to be another time.

"Let me hear from you another day and I will give you an interview."

(Signed) MARY GARDEN

It was the young-man-from-the-Daily-News's very first assignment. He had been loitering around her hotel all afternoon only to be twice postponed, once by a French maid, now in grandiloquent handwriting. All he wanted to find out was whether or not Chicago's "Our Mary" had ever written an opera. It being his very first assignment he did not know whether "Our Mary's" alleged cold was an operatic brand of applesauce or not. He had heard that no diva ever avoided publicity and as for "Our Mary" being in bed--well, he guessed lots of people had received in their bedrooms before this, in health and in sickness, for better or for worse. Still, he had been as persistent as even a cub reporter should be, probably. The hotel manager seemed to think so. Back at the office it would be easy enough to report that Miss Garden was really quite sick, could see no one. But, hold! That would be a story in itself. Couldn't say that. No, it was just a plain failure; just a tough break.

And then the French maid tripped by. The cub reporter's French was halt, lame and blind, but he could gesticulate. He detained the maid. He scribbled again.

"I sympathize deeply . . . but ... I cannot afford to fail. . . . I am a recent, very recent addition to your 'beloved Chicago' . . . Please answer the following question 'yes' or 'no':

" 'Do you plan to write an opera, now or in the future?' . . ." He got his answer: "NO, I do not intend to ever write an opera--to sing them is enough for me . . . NOT EVER!" And he had the wit to use his own difficulty as padding for an otherwise slim interview. He cunningly hit upon "Our Mary's" infinitive-splitter, the adverb "ever," as the key word for his story. And something almost unprecedented took place. A cub reporter on a large metropolitan daily not only got his first effort into print, but the city editor put it on the front page under a "by-line." Seasoned reporters eventually get used to seeing their names over stories--"By Joe Suggs," "By Jake Zilch." But "By the Cub"--no one ever before saw that in a paper the size of the Daily News; NOT EVER.