Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-02-09
Methods Of EmIn.n. w-I,.-,-

ArpuE.
Johnson's method was 70 ,ho-or,,,v
think out his subject before hs mt ~
to paper, not only In its salient ro ~
but word for word az II Was 20 aOraas
in print, witch must have 49, - aP draat
effort Of memory 10 hao,,, ~.-st,
IIeyelyan yves the following account
Of how Macaulay wrote his history:
CAS- soon as ne had got into his head
any particular episode in his bistorv nc he
would sit down and write off tbe whole
story at headlong pace stetcb;ng J in
the outlines under the cor;aI a.
audacious impulse of a fIr,t oornaD.;n n1
and securing In black and white each
idea and epIthet, and turn of phra ,e. as
1t flowed straight from his busy brain
to his rapid fingers. His mannscr;nt
at this stage, to the eyes of anyone bnt
himself, appeared to consist of col.
umn after column Of dashes and aonr.
ishes, in which a straiOht line vitb a
halt-forined letter at each end and an
other in the middle did duty for a
word. AS soon as Macaulay had fin.
ished his rough draft he began TO fill II
in at the rate OF six sides of foolscap
every morning written in so large a
hand and with such a muItitnde of
ensures that the whole six pages were
on an average compressed into two
pages Of print. This portion he called
his task" and he was never ouite
easy unless he completed IL daily.
More he seldom sought 10 accomnIisb
for he had learned by long experience
that this was as much as he conId do
at his best, and except at his best he
never would write at all. He never
wrote except he was in the humor
and stopped as soon az his thoughts
ceased to flow fast He never allowed
a sentence to pass until II was AZ good
as he could make IL. He would recast
a chapter to obtain a more lucid ar.
rangement, and reconstruct a para
graph Tor the sake Of one happy stroke
or apt illustration. He spent nineteen
days over his description Of the massa-
ere OF Glencoe. and then expressed dis
satisfaction at the result. There could
be no more notable anthithesis TO this
elaborate method than that of Sir
Walter Scott. He wrote with marvel
Gus rapidity; his pen was never stop.
ped by the want of a word. II il did
not come readily he left a blank space
and sped on to the rest. Correction was
distasteful to him, and as the ideas
flowed from his brain they were set
down and altered. He could write
while children were playing about the
room, and amid conversation or almost
any disturbing influence. FANNY KEN.
bic in the Records Of My Girlhood."
tells a good story in illustration of this:
IL can never forget the description Sir
y dam Ferguson gave of a morning he
had passed with Scott at Abbotsford.
which at that time still unfinished
swarming with carpenters, painters,
masons and bricklayers, and disorderly
discomfort inseparable from the pro-
cess OF house-building. The room they
sat in was in the toughest condition
which admitted of their occupying it
at all-the raw, new chimney smoked
intolerable. Out of doors the place
was one mass Of bricks, mortar, scat
folding, tiles and states. A heavymist
shrouded the whole landscape of lovely
Tweedside, and distilled in a cold, per.
sistent, and dumb drizzle. Mazda, the
well-beloved stag-hound, kept fidgetting
in and out of the room, Walter Scott
every five minutes exclaiming, 'Eh.
Adam, the puir beasti's just wearyin'
to get OUT; OF, Eth, Adam, the puir
creature is just crying to come in :
when Sir Adam would open the door
to the raw. chilly air for the wet mud
dy hounds exit or entrance, while
Scott, with his face swollen with a
greviOus toothache and one hand
pressed hard to his cheek, with the
otEer was writing the imitably humor-
Gus opening chapters of The Anti
quarry which he passed across the Ia
BILE sheet by sheet to his fri, d, saying,
Now, Adam, dye think thall dor