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An omnivorous reader with a sharp memory, Pundit Brisbane possessed a great stock of odds & ends of information, like the hodge-podge of an almanac, which was mightily impressive to his readers. He had a Wellsian feeling for science and material progress, often pondered on the vastness of the material universe, as contrasted with the minuteness of man. For a King Features symposium just before his death, Mr. Brisbane typically wrote: "The successful completion of the 200-inch telescopic reflector is the most important event of 1936. It will carry the sight and mind of science man at least one million light years into space, and that is a long distance.* ... I think mankind will plod along about as it has been doing, slowly, following some plan mapped out far away, and beyond our understanding. Man should find comfort in the fact that he has done pretty well. . . ."
Among Mr. Brisbane's likes were Mussolini, Calvin Coolidge, big families, aviation, and the Emperor Nero, who he vowed was history's most admirable, character. Mr. Brisbane was fond of describing executions, took a detailed and almost professional interest in Nazi decapitations, seemed to derive great satisfaction from the thoroughness with which the Italians mopped up Ethiopia. Some people & things of which Mr. Brisbane did not approve: atheists, "half-baked" college boys, gamblers, "brain-trusters." In his editorials Mr. Brisbane long affected to despise professional pugilism, liked to point out that "a gorilla could lick them all." Actually he frequently attended big fights, once had Sport Editor Danny Parker bring colored Fisticuffer Joe Louis around for a chat.
In his working methods Brisbane displayed an efficiency which was as great and remarkable as was his industry. Most of "Today's" fluent stream was spoken into Dictaphones, which Mr. Brisbane had installed even in his limousine and on planes and trains. Often the "Today" column would be dictated as Mr. Brisbane's car stood on the deck of the ferry taking him from Manhattan to his New Jersey estate. The speed with which he learned to dispose of journalistic chores left him plenty of time to devote to his financial and real estate interests.
Eccentric to a mild degree when he got older, Brisbane displayed no fear of Death, took sensible health precautions. On his New Jersey estate he built a brick tower which he called "a machine for living." Each of its five floors had one large room. On the roof was a sleeping arrangement, for Brisbane argued that if outdoor sleeping was helpful to consumptives, it must also be good for people in normal health. When the morning sun waked him, he merely adjusted a lightproof mask of black silk, slept peacefully on.
*But not nearly so long as the correct figure. Mt. Wilson's 100-inch telescope already penetrates .500 million light-years into space, and Caltech's 200-incher is expected to pierce 1,500 million.