Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-02-03

ROSc-tlnted may thy future Sleam,
Yet roster still the present seem.
do you find work enough in this line
to make living?" inquired the reporter,
with the stanza, and paid the half dollar
therefor.
well. yes.' was the cheerful response.
Il manage to live along after fashion.
The worst thing abont it is that my income
is sextremely uncertain. Sometimes don't
get five dollars worth of orders in a month
And then, again, have turned out twenty
dollars worth of work in a day. Averag-
ing it the year round, l suppose | earn
eighteen or twenty dollars a week. That,
however, includes an occasional lucky sale
to the magazines and story papers. In
order work-that is, jobs which are done
under contract make my rates, as a rule
considerably lower than l get for pieces
sold for publication. | can afford to do
this. because, you know, the chances Of
having a article rejected by an editor arc
always larger then the chance of having it
accepted. job work, on the contrary, is
sure pay, although SMALL
But, where do these orders come
from -
''Oh, from all sorts of people. | keep
L standing advertisement, like the one you
cut out, in three OF four of the dramatic
and Sunday papers. These bring me a
considerable number of orders from varie-
ty performers for new songs and sketches.
Occasionally, too, some variety actor, who
Is ambitious to become star, calls OH me
to write him play adapted to his special
line. You know that is the way Emmett,
Gus Williams, Richmond, Harrigan and
Hart, Den Thompson, and a number of
others have come to the front. Then
there are the words of cheap burlesqucs,
for which there is a fair demand, and
which | adapt to some well-known airs.
Then. again, song-wrting affords a fair
field, and have done a good many pieces
for Tony Pastor and other popular singers.
But didn't count the theatrical custom
my best, by any means. A sketch for va
riety hall use takes two or three days,
usGally, to put together, and if l get
twenty dollars for it am lucky. A full
fledged drama might return me one hun
dred dollars, but orders for these are rare
My bonanza comes when l strike a bob
bin. "
''And what is bobbin?''
"Well, it is name of my own which
have G given to certain class of customers.
l call them bobbins because the thread of
their vanity is SO long that it will keep un-
winding indefinitely. And for me it
often turns out golden thread. Here,
for example, is a speech that have just
finished for a highly respectable old gen
tleman to deliver at a society dinner next
week. He is one of the very best bobbins
| ever found. l have been writing
speeches for him now, on and off, five
years. He is rich, has retired from bust
ness, and has developed a great taste for
after-dinner Oratory. l don't believe he
could speak a dozen words himself with
out committing some ridiculous blunder.
But have floated him along, until now he
really enjoys the reputation of being
always prepared with neat speech.
charge him good round price, but he pays
it cheerfully. Then have another bobbin
in the person of a young man, who lives
in Fifth avenue, and who drives down
here frequently in his own coupe. lie is
a mild. inoffensive young chap, who, with
fortune of quarter of a million, wants
to be considered poet. He never strung
together rhyme in his life and yet within
the past two years he has read, at various
uptown gatherings, not less than half
dozen occasional poems. OF course thcy
are supposed to be original, and can as
sure you that some of them are extremely
original. | charge him anywhere from
five to fifteen dollars, according to length.
1t is one of the conditions of ali work done
in this way, that the person who buys any
thing from me shall have the right to Law
claim to its authorship. Perhaps you will
recall the mental album, so called, which
made its appearance few years ago.
There were number of printed questions,
the answers to which were supposed to ind
cate the tastes and character of the person
writing them. Well, 1 did thriving bust
ness with these albums. Young clerks and
bookkeepers and school girls applied to me
usually, by letter, to write the answer for
them. | charged fifty cents for each char
acter which l thus delineated. That was
cheap enough, certainly, even if the char
acters were not very good. One day a very
young man, with weak eyes, entered nv
room in state of towering rage. He told
me his name, and said that he had mailed
ME half dollar, the week before, for set
of answers to the mental album questions.
Well, said /, didn't they turn out salts
factory?' 'Satisfactory?' he shouted.