The banner-enterprise. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1883-18??, 1883-10-27
EARLYTRIALS OLA POPULAR
NOVELIST 81 y lGH
lon Dispatch to the New York World.

FLf NOFEI<IOls III a E4At
London Dispatch to the New York World.
Since Carlysle's memoirs nothing more
Interesting has been given to the world
than Anthony Trolope's autobiography,
which will be published on Monday.
Trollope was even more unfortunate in
a father than was Dickens. The elder
Trollope was born to fail, and was cursed
with an execrable temper. He was Q
chancery lawyer. His temper drove all
the attorneys away. He had . little
money and considerable ambition. Hav-
ing abandoned his hopes of professional
success, it occurred to him to try his for
tune at farming, for which his chief quail
ifcation was absolute ignorance of coun-
try matters. A house which he 0ccu-
pied near Harrow has been painted BY
the son in 'Orley Farm. Anthony was /.
sent to Harrow school as day scholar.
then to Winchester, then to Harrow
again. What he endured he ~tells with.
all the freshness of painful memories and
the simple pathos of truth. nA
He had no pocket money. In his rags
he always looked disreputably dirty.
Once he was stopped in the street by DR..
Butler, head master, who sternly asked
him whether it was possible that Harrow
school should be disgraced by SO diftys
boy. AT Winchester bis bills were left
unpaid and tradesmen told to stop his
credits. He could not even provide the
few shillings for college servants. When
he went back to Harrow he had to walk
l3 miles day through muddy lanes to
his daily tasks. His holidays were spent
at his fathers dismal chambers, Lincoln's
Inn. The dirty, penniless and apparently
dull boy, wherever he went, was treated
by his class-fellows as social pariah.
Yet withal he had an intense craving to
be loved by every one. ,4.5,
After leaving school he became clerk
in the general postoffice. Colonel Maber- J
ly, the secretary, disliked him. On one
occasion a letter containing bank notes
was missed from Mabery's table, Mr..
Trollope writes: A letter has been ia
ken, said the Colonel, turning angrily,
and, by God, there has been nobody in
the room but you; and as he spoke he
thundered his fist down upon the table.
Then, said |, by God you have taken
it, and | also thundered my fist down,
but accidentally, upon the table. My fist
came on the table, and the Ink flew up,
covering the Colonels face:and shirt
front. AT that moment came in the Col
onel's private secretary with the letter
and the money, and | was desired to 90
back to my own room.
There we're other troubles. A young
woman in the country had determined to
marry Trollope, but he refused. At last
the woman's mother appeared at the
postoffice. My hair almost stands on my
head now, he says, as | remember the
figure Of the woman walking into the big
room in which | sat, with six or seven
other clerks having large basket on her
arm and an immense bonnet on her head.
A messenger vainly endeavored to per
suade her to remain in the anteroom, but
she followed the man in, walking up the
center of the room, and addressed me in
loud voice, Anthony Trolope, when
are you going to marry my daughterT
We have all had our worst moments.
That was my worst. | lived through it.
however. and did not marry the young
lady. Those little incidents were against
me in the Office.
His mother, the aithor Of American
Notes, introduced his first book, The
Macdermots of Ballycloran,' to the pub
fishers. 1t brought in nothing. For his
third novel, La Vendee, he got 800,
but it was failure. Then he wrote
play called The Noble Jilt;' but George
BARLEY, the actor, condemned it so
strongly that it was not even offered to
manager The plot afterward was use in
Can You Forgive Herr The Warden
was begun, put down again and not pub
lished till 1855.
The profits were about $45 the first
year and $50 the second. Trollope had
been writing articles from time to time,
but at the end Of 1857 he had received
only $275 for the hard work of ten years.
The greater part of 'Barchester Towers
was written in train, and subsequently
Trollope got into the habit Of writing in
railway carriage. L made for myselfa
little table, and found after few years
exercise that | could write as quickly in
a railway carriage as at my desk. | work
ed with pencil, and what | wrote my
wife copied afterward, The only objec-
tion to the practice came from the ap-
pearance of literary ostentation to which
felt myself subject when going to work
before four or five fellow passengers.
HIS LATER INCOME. .
'Carchester Towers was published on
the half profit system, and the author re-
ceived $500 in advance. From this his
repututlon was assured. The largest sum
he eyer received for story was $l5,676,
which was realized by '0rley Farm
But he obtained higher rate of pay Tor
a shorter story: The Claverings' sold for
$l4, 900.