Pussyfeet

In Peoria, Ill., the people who favor prohibition know William E. ("Pussyfoot") Johnson. Some have seen their hero in times past. Many have seen his pictures, know well his single eye. So when it was advertised that William E. ("Pussyfoot") Johnson would speak in person, not by radio--hundreds tumbled out into the inclement, spring, into a bandbox auditorium. Listening to the one-eyed one, their hearts warmed, their ideals revived, their purses opened.

Next day alert Peorians learned that Lincoln Eyre, able correspondent of the New York Times, had cabled an interview which William E. ("Pussyfoot") Johnson had just given him in Berlin, Germany (TIME, April 5, GERMANY).

The New York Times, hastily queried, vouched for the veracity of Mr. Eyre, secured from Wayne B. Wheeler (super-prohibitionist syndicated by the New York Times) a statement that Pussyfoot was certainly abroad, probably in Berlin.

Peorians were vexed.

Later, Peorians pressed their inquiries.. Mid-West newspapers took up the cry.

From Manhattan, the Times sent radiograms poking around Europe in search of Correspondent Eyre, who could not be found. The wireless editor pulled out the original despatch. With the usual economy of words it read: "Pussyfoot arrived Germany intending make it second Sahara," which seemed ample justification for the rewrite man to have written: "William E. (Pussyfoot) Johnson, well known Dry crusader, etc."

Then, at last, the radio found Correspondent Eyre, who indignantly replied that his original wireless read "Pussyfoots" not "Pussyfoot," that he did not have reference to the one-eyed, but to the general species of professional prohibitionists.

The New York Times explained, regretted. Mr. Wheeler made no statement. But Peorians, their suspicion aroused, were not satisfied until next day, when reporters of Mid-West, papers vouched that they had seen the one-eyed one resting in his home, at Westerville, Ohio.