Imaginary Interviews: Sep. 3, 1923

(During the Past Week the Daily Press Gave Extensive Publicity to the Following Men and Women. Let Each Explain to You Why His Name Appeared in the Headlines.)

George V of England: “I shot grouse on the moors and am said to have lived up to my reputation as one of the best shots in England. Simultaneously my son, Wales, visited his horse farm and set what is said to be a record by jumping 150 fences in one morning.”

Miss Christabel Pankhurst, evangelist: “At a Presbyterian conference, said I: ‘Because of the immorality of the fiction of our day I do not see how girls have the slightest chance to remain good’.”

Victor Margueritte, French author: “The Paris boulevards were flooded with a 50,000-copy first edition of The Companion, a sequel I wrote to The Bachelor Girl (La Gargonne), the feminist novel for which I was expelled from the Legion of Honor. In a ‘ fighting preface’ to The Companion I declared that my new heroine, Annik, will arouse more wrath than my previous one, Monique, as she goes further, attaining spiritual emancipation. Monique stopped halfway and got married.”

Mrs. Henry Ford: “At Michigamme, Mich., women and girl resorters wearing overalls and short stockings besieged me for autographs. I publicly rebuked them, saying: ‘You ladies and girls are showing very poor taste and worse judgment in coming into the town garbed as you are, without skirts or dresses. I do not want to sign my name for you and prefer not to look at you. I resent your idea of dress.’ ”

Henry Ford: “Senator James Couzens of Detroit, interviewed in Paris, said that because I had shown brilliant qualities as a business man it did not follow that I would show the same ability as President, any more than Babe Ruth, expert in still another line, would make a great Chief Executive.”

Luther Burbank: “In an article for Mr. Ford’s Dearborn Independent, entitled Tobacco, Tombstones and Profits, said I: ‘I never met a tobacco user who did not regret that he had formed the habit; I never met a non-smoker who was sorry he did not smoke. Isn’t that significant?”:

Dr. C. A. Wills, father of Miss Helen Wills, tennis champion: “My daughter entered the University of California as a Freshman. She will take a general course in Art. Commenting on a report from New York that my daughter would be sent to Europe by the U. S. L. T. A. to play the French Lenglen, I said: ‘The trip to Europe must be at a time when it will not interfere with my daughter’s college work.”

Miss Helen Wills: ” The New York Evening Post, in a dispatch from Berkeley, Cal., ignorantly referred to me as ‘ Miss Hazel Wills.’ ”

Madame Alexandre Millerand, wife of the President of France: “Interviewed bythe press, said I: ‘ It is fitting that we return now to the wearing of full dress at functions. The tuxedo will soon replace altogether the full dress for men if something is not done by hostesses to urge its abandonment. . . If the wearing of lax apparel is to be condoned at the opera, at balls, at affairs of state, then such affairs will lose their elegance and prestige.'”

Mrs. Woodrow Wilson: “I paid a personal call upon Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. The press stated that this visit was the first I have made to the White House since I presided over its functions. As a matter of fact, when Mrs. Harding was ill last Fall my husband and I drove to the White House, made inquiries for her, left our cards.”

Benito Mussolini: “At Pescara, Italy, I visited poet Gabriele d’Annunzio’sbirthplace, an humble cottage. I was received by his former governess, shown the household relics. From a window I addressed a crowd: ‘Let our reverend thoughts wend their way to d’Annunzio, the heroic soldier, faithful Italian, wonderful poet. Viva!'”

Gabriele d’Annunzio, Italian soldier-poet: “A Eucharistic Congress at Zagre, Yugo-Slavia, was attended by a papal legate named Pilegrinetti. This holy man was met at the station by an emotional crowd of nuns and monks cheering loudly. The reason for his warm reception was that the Italian for ‘ papal legate ‘ is ‘ nunzio.’ The good Yugo-Slavs had confounded their guest with me and were greeting him by my name.”

Owen Wister, author: “A fortnight ago TIME arbitrarily stated that Mr. Harold Bell Wright is the only American author to have a hotel named after one of his fictional characters. Medicine Bow, Wyo., (where certain incidents of my best-known novel are said to have taken place), has named its most elaborate and commodious hotel The Viginian.”

Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury: “I sent specialists to attend Richard Green, aged 69, my Negro messenger, who was critically ill. Green first got his job from President Grant. Six feet three, he is noted for his courtesy and dignified bearing.”

Alvero Obregon, President of Mexico: ” I wrote a letter to Wilbur P. Thirkield, M. E. Bishop of Mexico, Central America, North Andes. Said I: ‘I believe frankly that your prestige as a prophet is not being compromised too much when you state that our tendency is toward prohibition, and that at an early date Mexico will enter into that state.'”