"Poor Wells?"

"Why, he called me a bore! How am I going to make my living as an after dinner speaker if I am slandered by being called a bore? I have started suit in London against Mr. H. G. Wells for $50,000 on a charge of slander. I will not submit to being called a bore!"

With such fighting words as these did the 71-year-old U. S. journalist- lecturer, Poultney Bigelow, confront reporters last week at his 120-year-old rustic home in the village of Malden-on-Hudson, N. Y., U.S.A.

There he is writing the third volume of his autobiography, Seventy Summers, the first two volumes of which have already been published and contain the now famous statement that famed novelist Wells has the appearance of "a stockbroker or a traveling salesman," which caused Mr. Wells to retort with asperity, "I suppose the thing is a libel and a damaging libel but life is too short to chase libels" (TIME, Jan. 25). Mr. Bigelow however continues in full cry after Mr. Wells' allegedly libelous retort to his allegedly libelous statement. Said he as a parting shot to the reporters last week, "Poor Wells! He is very sore; that's all. He lost his temper and he has got to apologize."