The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-09-08
Just as all Editors Write.

A charming little story of the way in
which Bjornsterne Bjornson, the great
Norwegian novelist, turns off his lit
erary work, is floating through the
newspapers. This is the paragraph:
"Bjornsterne Bjornson is an easy md rapid
but fitful writer. Sometimes his pen will be
seized by an inspiration and reel on whoie
chapters in a few hours. The forenoon is ms
work-time, and he does not care If his desk Is
surrounded by visitors talking or by Dozen
romping children at play. Nothing short OF
ap earthquake, he says, can disturb ms no"
OF thought
We've always admired Mr.. Bjornson
and have passed many happy hours
reading his stories in the original; but
now our heart warns toward him with
a warmth it never knew before, for we
discover that this great man and we
have tastes and feelings in common,
which it is the lot of few persons to
share. Biornsterne you're Just like us,
my dear fellow! We're just like you
only little more so. We, too, delight
in being surrounded by the laughing
prattle of children as we toll. As these
desirable surroundings are not easily to
be had in the editorial sanctum, we
usually write our heavy articles in our
lowly cottage, with the little romping
darlings on our knees, in our arms, in
the midst of our hair and whisllers, and
riding to Banbury Cross on our instep.
If possible, we send out for few of the
neighbors' children, and as the racket
grows merrier and the little prattlers
grow more humorous the faster flies our
pen and the more irresistible becomes
our logic. Perhaps our readers have
~, go I,.t1l mt
articles have appeared in the green
apple season. In the jubilee of collie
and stomach-ache we are inspired with
our sublimest ideas, and write with a
rapidity and vigor that drives all wit
nesses aghast.
Yes, we're happy to have a score or
two of visitors talking and chattering
around our desk, as we write. They
give light and airy grace to our style,
makes us crisp and epigrammatic, and
our work seems but Il paStime. But a
writer for q provincial newspaper can't
afford to hire twenty to forty people to
talk to him every day in the week, and
that's why the public don't get more Of
that class of work from us. When we
get hard pushed for stimulus of this
sort, we order in the foreman of the
composing-room, the oflice-boy and the
pressman, whom we have trained to re-
peat one of Joseph Cooks lectures
backward, in three different languages,
at the rate of seventy-iive words per
minute together and at the same time.
We have found this eXpedient exceed
ingly useful and economical, as last
resort, Brother Bjornson. No, noteven
an earthquake can disturb the flow OF
our thought. On the contrary. the flow
of our thought has often disturbed
earthquakes. The flow of our thought
reaches its flood in the midst of earth
quakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes,
thunder-stOrms, waterspouts, boiler eX-
blossoms, Fourth of July celebrations,
upheaying foundations and tottering
walls. The earth may yawn, but the
torrent of our thought rolls on in all its
dignity and grandeur. The flow of ou
thought was never disturbed but once
and that was when the tidings reached
us, at the minute of going to press, OF
the day after election, that the ''eleva
tor had busted and two forms were
pied" Have you ever been there,
Bjornson?-LewiitOu (Me.J Weekly
Journal.