The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-12
The Dead Novelist's Methods.

He lives in a quaint old house in Shepherds
Bush, and devotes himself always to hard work.
A recent appointment win your correspondent
was made for o'clock in the morning, most
unseemy hour in this big city of London, where
you cannot get drink at a respectable public
bar before $50 or 10 o'clock. The omnibuses
don't begin to run until o'clock you know, and
cab is rarely seen until long after that time.
had, therefore, to start early and make my
way on foot to his house. lifted the big knock
err and just then the author pulled open'the big
door, almost preeipitating me into his arms as
he stood at the threshold
"Ha!" he roared, 81 saw you coming up the
path 1 suppose you are the American newspa-
per correspondent who has sought this appoint
ment for the purpose of interviewing me. Eli!
Am | not rightW
~ am, sir, and hope I am on time"
"Why, you don't speak with the insolence
have read was the essential quality of the inter
viewer. But come in. Now, l may as we'll tell
you, first as last, that won't be interviewed.
What's the use of my flterng my welconsid-
cred thoughts through your imperfect i'm
pressionsY Answer me that hey9 Haven't l
got pen of my ownl Can l not use it, Have /
not reached further With it than YOU with your
newspaper? Why, the interview is the disease
of the American newspaper press. Don't tell
me- Haven't read themi Look here. What
are theser and he threw open vast scrap-book
filled with American newspaper cuttings.
There, now look at that. Here is one with
President Hayes, and here's denial Here is
one with man, Washburne, who wanted to be
President and here in turn is his contradiction.
Here's one with a preacher, who Immediately
writes to the newspaper that the interviewer has
misunderstood him in relation to the importance
to be placed upon the discovery of certain old
parchments discovered near Raoob. Here's
another with a banker who seeks correction in
the next issue of the journal; another with
defaulting life-insurance president a.. who
says it is all lie Judge explains
from the bench that he is not fairly presented
in an an interview, SO and so; and now here's one
with a condemned murderer in which the iourn-
alist seeks his views as to the pre-eminence Of
hanging over all other methods of capital execu-
ton. / keep these out of curiosity"
'~ Did you ever arrive at some information,
Mr. Reade, that you could not, or probably
would not have received in any other wayf' L
ventured.
"Ehq Hows that Very likely, but there is
too much trash. 1t takes too long to get at the
grain However, there is this to be said about
interviews. 1t carries the ideas of the inter
viewed with the color Of his own expressions and
manner But l maintain that the interview is
carried to ridiculous extremes in the American
newspapers Here is a New York journal which
contains PAT different topics of news. See, l
have it all marked. In ninety of these find
the interview, some of its features, distinctly
shown Now, that's too much The American
nation is nation of extremists; it cannot stop
at proper point it goes plunging on and on,
and when it reaches the place it should stop, it
still goes on and on. That's the trouble with it.
You are like that race-course man-Waton is
his name-and you will plunge too far"
Mr.. Reade had stood over table that was
laden with books and papers while he spoke.
His voice was gruff but CHEEKY withal, and
there was an air of good natured raillery in his
manner that was indescribably engaging.
However. you had better sit down, and so
will L. he added, suiting the action to the word
The apartment was long drawing-room. On
each side were two great big tables, almost
square. They were strikingly suggestive, as to
size of the London lodging house table, whose
vastness is made all the more impressive when
laid for breakfast where you find big loaf, q
cup of tea, plate of butter and an Italian egg
of the proportion of a football to the players
field. The tables in Mr. Reade's house are bet
ter covered At one end of one there is great
pile of scrap-books, made of foolscap, covered
with neatly stitched brown paper. There are a
hundred or more of these, all of them marked
with an appropriate letter. One pile deals with
all sorts Of prison affairs reports of commissions
descriptions of prisons in all countries. Another
devoted to crime in all its forms, another lot to
churches, and so on. you see | have the cur
rent history Of the world under my eye. l have
great faith in ale newspaper press. 1t is the
record of yesterday for the world. At least it
should be. I find in the newspapers every vein
of human thought and every condition of human
affairs told about In its active state at the most
interesting period of its happening Now there
you see tne scrap DOCKS L IOllOW every great
trial You will find under the head of crime the
full story of the Nalley boys trial in your own
country, and now am gathering in the facts of
the Pelrzers' trial, now going on in Brussels
Mine is not morbid interest in these things. L
find in them the facts out Of which fiction is
made, What is fiction, then3 described that
in my appendix to the Wandering Heir Flo
ton is the art of weaving fact with invention
If it were mere arrangement of fact thou
sands could write it; the paragraphists and penny
a-lners would become great novelists If it
were pure invention the young would beat the
old men out Of the field But they do not, be-
cause, though they have got invention, they
have not accumulated facts, and they have no
art Dickens is the only great novelist who
made an early success, and there are circum-
stances in his youthful history that account for
that success
"a novel or story being finally decided upon,
it must be based upon a solid sub -structure of
social life, which must not be invented, but be a
faithful and truthful presentInent of reality.
1t is the hardest thing in the world to get