MR. G. R. SIMS.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 46, 19 June 1906, Page 2

MR. G. R. SIMS.

Mr. George R. Sims is not only one of the hardest, . but also one of the quickest, workers in the journalistic World. The other day he confessed in the “Referee” that recently he had been in the haTiit of writing thirty thousand words a week. With such an output it is astonishing that the quality of the work should continue to be so good.

This literary facility is no new thing with Mr. Sims ; he has always possessed it. Years ago, at the time he was writing the farcical comedy “Mother-i 11-Law” for Messrs. Walton and Hemming, he paid a flying visit to the provincial town to see those gentlemen, m order to arrange certain details.

He had only barely written the skeleton of the last, and most important, act of the piece, and the partners who had commissioned him were waiting eagerly for the “script” in order to put the piece into rehearsal .

It was a Saturday morning, and a large proportion of the “Mustard and Cress” which Mr. Sims contributes weekly to the columns of the ‘ ‘Referee’ ’ was still un written.

At a hotel, various people connected with the piece being present, he wrote a lino here and there alternately of “Mothcr-iii-Law and of matter for the “Referee,” turning from one to the other without any apparent difficulty.

Certain of the lines thus written were amongst the best in the piece. Slip after slip of the “Mustard and Cress” was piled up. and, incredible though it may seem, some of the items were short scraps of verse. Mr. Sims has been a journalist, author, and play write for thirty years.

During that time he has written dozens of plays, scores of poems, and hundreds of short stories, besides long novels and articles innumerable. His famous series of articles, “How tho poor Live,” did much to arouse public opinion on the question of the better housing of the people.—“ Spare Moments.”