Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-03-07
Living by Literature.

Then there is another trouble'in liter
airy work; it is very poorly paid. do
not mean that the money is not paid in
proportion to the work, for I think it
is, especially to popular writer; but
the trouble is the long waiting for that
which you have earned, and the un
certainty of a payment depends upon
the time of printing the manuscript.
There are but two firms in this country
who habitually pay on acceptance; else.
where the writer must wait any uncer-
tain length of time for an uncertain re-
suit. I have myself been put off two
years and half in one instance; fire.
quently a year. This makes writing a
precarious mode of getting o living in.
deed; it involves authors in necessary
debt, and life is q steady "grind y"
when we dread to meet our fellow-crea-
lures. I have sinking heart to see
them pass the house because we owe
them for the very necessaries of life,
and cannot pay our bills till it pleases
this magazine or that paper to print the
article which means to us, shoes, or
potatoes, or -four To be at liberty to
do the best work, an author should
have some regular income beside that
which he earns; but how few have!
1t follows, of course, that those pub
fishers who pay for manuscript have
the choice of the best, and next to them
come those weekly papers which pay
for contributions. OF these last know
of only one which is regular in its pay
ments-every article being paid for the
week after printing; the rest delay, and
linger, and possibly have to be dunned
"a most distasteful necessity to lady
before they pay such debts. One pa.
per, edited by two clergymen. ave
ceased to write for, because I could not
afford to wait so long after an article
was printed as I was obliged to wait in
every instance there for my money. To
have regular salary such as teacher,
or a seamstress, or housekeeper, or a
servant receives, would be delightful
compared with this constant work and
constant debt; for though checks de-
lay, hunger and cold and the thousand
needs Of daily life will not; and living
on nothing while you wait for publica-
ton is poor experiment.
Then, again, you need health and
strength to write, for it is hard work.
Nothing exhausts so utterly as a day
OF writing; and how is it with weeks
and months? You feel that clergy
man earns large salary who writes
tive sermons of $500 words each and
every week; and generally write about
5000, and have written as many as
5000 words in five days, and attended
TO my house and the needs of an invalid
besides; yet have never made thous-
and dollars in year.
"When you write," said my physi-
clan to me, "you draw from the very
source of your vitality, not from its
distributed energies; no wonder you
are exhausted" and I have felt the
truth Of his words in the aching head
and cramped fingers and weary irrita-
bility that will follow mental exertion,
even in such good health as I happily
possess. No there is no royal road to
literary work any more than to washing
and ironing; it is poor pay for the ex-
hausting labor, and it is work never
done. and very hard work at that; all
the harder because of its slow and un-
certain reward.-Rose Terry Cook in
Sunday afternoon.