Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1883 — Where Gath Gets His Facts. [ARTICLE]

Where Gath Gets His Facts.

Beyond all this power of memory and facility of expression Townsend has a very systematic method of doing what he is about. In one room in his house he has the walls lined with scrap books, which are indexed thoroughly. If a man comes suddenly into prominence, or anything happens to draw him before the public, Townsend takes down the book which is indexed with the letter beginning this man’s name, and finds all he has accumulated there concerning him. As he reads every newspaper that comes along, and clips out all personal matters, or matters bearing upon persons, he has drawn together a tremenduous amount of information about everybody who has been in the papers at all since he began this sort of thing. I suppose his scrap-book system is the most complete thing of its kind in America or in the world. When he reads over his book, he sits down and telegraphs all he can find or invent that makes good reading. He seems to have taken the clipping notion from Charles Reade, who is well-known to have conducted operations on this line ever since he was a youngster. Reade, however does not go in for personal information, of course, because he is not in journalism.— New York letter.