On this day in the year 1864 Richard Harding Davis was born.

From that infallible source:

Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 – April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War.^[1] His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt. He also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion, and he is credited with making the clean-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century.^[2]

Not only that, supposedly he was the model for the “dashing Gibson Man!”

Daily Reading 4/18/20

• “Mr. Travers’s First Hunt“
• “A Slave to Duty”

I cannot find “A Slave to Duty.” This site has many of his works, including “In the Fog” which is among the short stories in The Family Book of Best Loved Short Stories (Leland W. Lawrence, ed. Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. 1954).

IMHO, “First Hunt” was silly. “In the Fog”… I read the first part of the first chapter and skimmed the rest. Fairly decent story if a bit heavy and long winded on the details. Maybe it’s just me but when a mystery invokes both extremely dense London fog, and the diamonds of the Czarina of Russia I kinda sorta lose interest. But don’t let that stop you!

Stay well and keep reading. And tune in again tomorrow! It will be April 19th and you know what that means.