Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-04-11


ton in sending copies to the nobility and promi-
nent people. Then came Basil, Mr. Mayo's
Casket.' Hide and Seek, and by this time was
fully embarked upon literary career. After
that | became regular contributor to House
hold Words, then edited by my friend Charles
Dickens. and my stories have ever since been
first published In serial form. There you have
my literary career In brief have written some
twenty-five or twenty-three novels, and hope to
write some more. | had the plot for many
others in my mind
50 How do you work, Mr.. CoIlns-rapidly2
"No. not very. Let me see. write about
nine or ten pages of book day when work
regularly. 1t usually takes me six months to
turn ont book after get fairly started upon
it. / work chiefly at night, and use very large
sized sheets of paper on which / write very
slowly. and cut great deal. Here, now, Is
the manuscript Of my last story. The Black
Robe. You see 1t is scratched and worked over
until it. becomes scarcely decipharable. The
printer can read it, however, even if you can't,
at glance"
| couldn't read it at a glance and am not
sure that could read it at all. And yet have
read letters written by John w. Forney. and
made out what Horace Greeley was trying to
write. 1t was cut, interned the interlinea-
lions lnterllned again. sentences written on the
side and hauled into place by a line around them,
and erasures which looked as though the writer
IN trying to scratch out something tried also to
push it out through the paper on the other side.
lHcTe were DIOtS everywhere.
1T is a pretty good days work for me to get
through three OF these pages in a day"
Three OF his pages would make about 300
words, or, say, twO-thirds of the space of this
column.
when come to the last l get the fever on.
ami | make the pages fly. Then am in way,
and write and write till nature either stops me
or finish. When | came near the end Of Man
and Wife | wrote away for dear life some 12 or
IA hOurS, without further rest than the exercise
L took when | got on the floor to act my situa-
tons and represent my characters, and no fur
Their rcfreShment than little dry champagne
and few frssocs."
do You always act your characters?"
"Ies. Invariably. | have to consider what
they would do and how. before try to tell for
a certainty how, under given circum-
stances, they would behave Finishing a book
like that always exhausts ne very much
Hints for the Library.
From the New York Critic.
Books which children can read should be put
on the lower shelves of the bookcase, SO that
the children may be tempted to take them down
for themselves and have q try at their contents
These books within a child's reach need not be
Juveniles" and indeed had better not be-
They ought to be travels and biographies,
brightly written and full OF pictures Especially
should the file OF HDpcJ's 1N0q0zine or The Cen
get at It. On the other hand, books which chill
dren should not handle should not he within
ieacn OF their hands. Lead not the little ones
into temptation. Lock up your Radicals. and
perhaps even your Fielding. where little fingers
may not happen on them. Put the EliZabatha
dfanlafists and the comic writer's OF the RestOra-
ton where 10 Paul Pry. jr.. or his sister. NAV
chahce to spy them. Out Of sight out Of
mind.
All books need air. The doors of all closed
Ia fl o..
every few days, to let in light and to change the
air Books are no more benefited by SOLITARY
confinement than are men. All books get
dusty. Every shelf should be cleaned out once in
SIX months. every book being busted and re-
turned to it's place. The best buster for fine
bindings Is q bit of soft channels leather
Every book should carry its own history It
Is we'll To note the price paid for It, the place
where it was bought, and the date when It was
purchased This can best De done with a herd
pencil Iii corner OF the back iyleaf. If bought
at auction, note also the number it bore in the
sale catalogue. When a hundred books are
gathered together, then ought there to be a
cal dioguc The simplest form Of catalogue is q
iftIe pocket address book. with a marginal
ainhahef cal index. IN which are put down the
Titles CT the books under the name OF the author
For small collections this vii! serve 1t is best,
however TO enter every book at least twice
once under the title and again under the
authors name. If you have more than two or
ihree hundred books. don't attempt to cata-
io9ue them before you have learned how to do
IL CatalOeung is not as easy as it looks at
first sight.
Never cut open the pages of book or q
magazine with anything but a paper-cutter
A niger Is too blunt, and tears the edges. A
knife Is too sharp. and may cut the edges I'M
equally. The best paper-cutter is thin Slip of
ivory. Wood and bone are nearly as good
Metal is not.
Never deface books in any way. Never scrib-
BILE on them ncedlessly. Never dlsfigure them
with unnecessary stamp, or with stamps I'm in
appropriate places. A good book is a good
friend and should be treated with the respect
due to a friend.
Never wet your fingers to turn over leaf. Be
warne4 by the fate of the king In the Arabian
taie Never turn down corner of q page to
hold your place. Never put in a soied playing
card, or stained envelope, or bit of dirty string
or piece OF damp newspaper. ALWAYS use a
regular bOOkrnark. The simplest, and one of
the best, is a card as large as small visiting
card By cutting this twice longt udinally from
one end almost to the other, you will have a
three-legged bOOkmark which rides astraddle of
the page. one leg on the page below and two on
the page you wish the book to open at.
Never allow your books to get damp. as thew
may mldew. Never allow them to get hot, as
the boards may warp, and the leather NAV
crack. Never put them on shelf high up near
the ceiling of room lighted by gas. as the re-
suits OF gas combustion are highly Injurious
Never put books with metal clasps or with en-
bossed sides, or albums ornamented with deco
rative nails, on the Shelves by the side of other
books, for the delicate bindings of the other
books will suffer Put all such hedgehogs of
books In drawers or trays by themselves
Never let books lean sideways for long time
as it racks the cover If the absence of one
or more books from shelf makes 1t difficult to
keep the remaining volumes upright, insert a
wooden block in the place of the missing books
1t is well to have supply of ash or walnut
blocks resembling in size and shape an octave
volume. If these are at hand, one of them can
be substituted for any book taken down,
whether for study or to lend. A little slip of
sllicated paper glued on one side of this block
would enable a record to be kept of the date
when the book was taken away and OF the pur-
pose. When there are only few books on
shelf, the best block to cause these to stand up-
right is made by saving dagonaly in half
cube Of wood six inches every way
1t Is best not to cover the books of
library with paper, As Mr.. William F.
Poole puts it, THE covering is expensive.
troublesome, and quite as much an injury
as protection to a book. A book covered
with paper is likely to need rebinding sooner
than II 1t be not covered room tull of
books covered with paper Is dull and monot
Onous; and no one who has ever glanced into
such room will De inclined to disagree with
Mr. Poole when he says that books lose their