▼•ry many people* At one tixne ha was dramatie 

 editor for Harper's Weekly * Then he caine to the 

 Coast and Fremont Older took him up» rather to my 

 surprise because John was more of a literary man 

 than a newsman. He wrote a very thoughtful eolumn 

 and I was surprised that it took so well* i£i*d 

 piek a small subject and make it into a literary 

 oaraeo* He was a master of siniple expression* I 

 doubt if he ever wrote a sentence that wasn^t clear* 

 One time I asked Older^ *'How did you know that a 

 column like John Barry's woiild take? X think a lot 

 of editors wouldn't have taken it* They would have 

 thought it was Just too high-grade*" Older seemed 

 pleased by my question* But he waved off the 

 Implied compliment with^ *0h, anybody who keeps 

 writing every day for a length of time will get a 

 following ♦" 



Gilbs What did you think of Fremont Older? 



Coggins: I have always felt very grateful to him« although 

 X had no chance to be close to him. So, waa 

 interesting* He was a go-getter, a filter* Ho 

 wouldn't have much patience, for instance, with 

 the Socialist Party or running for office with no 

 hope of being elected* He'd feel that was not 



