Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/578

 for nine years, with "two weeks a year out for vacations for the customers". In addition, he runs a gladiolus farm and a dairy farm, and is the father of seven children. Mrs. Upjohn, the former Lois Byrd, whom he married in 1920, was the third woman to be admitted to the bar in Oregon.

He was born on March 3, 1884, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he attended the public schools and Kalamazoo College. He then took up journalism and has been connected with ten newspapers—the Kalamazoo Gazette, Detroit Tribune, Kalamazoo Telegraph, Idaho Falls Register, Yakima Herald, Salem Statesman, capital representative of the Oregonian, his own weekly in Salem, the Calexico Chronicle, and the Salem Capital Journal. While doing newspaper work in Salem he was graduated from the law school of Willamette University. Governor Oswald West appointed him district attorney of Polk, Tillamook and Yamhill Counties, and he served nearly four years as private secretary to Governor Ben W. Olcott. Since then he has been on the staff of the Salem Capital Journal.

His column was born on April 13, 1926, appearing nameless and unclaimed on the front page of the paper. It first appeared under Upjohn's name on October 11, 1926, and on that date was given its title of "Sips for Supper". It has had no definite policy, "and rambles around taking the names of Marion County citizens in vain". As part of a newspaper published at the state capital, its field has been wide. George Putnam, the publisher of the Capital Journal, has never interfered with the contents of the column, though it has often advocated men or measures which were being bitterly assailed in the editorials of the paper at the same time.

The author of "Sips for Supper" says he has only a few recipes for column cookery. One is to try out the items on a few friends before he turns them loose on the public. Another is to listen to what the members of his family talk about at meals. Whatever success his column has had he credits to this form of family spying, for he says: "Folk are much alike the town and world over, and what interests one interests another. If the columnist picks some such topic of general household appeal, though one perhaps too small or trivial for the news columns, he can be pretty sure of getting a reaction, no matter what he says. So, after all, writing a column is quite simple—get a wife and seven children. Then listen to them talk among themselves and pirate their stuff."

We got so excited when the horses started dashing—without thinking, we grabbed some gum from under the seat and started chewing it before we knew what we were doing.