The Press., 1886-11-04
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIoNs or AUrHORs.
sRT FoRTH AFTER THR 1Asr fAsH1oN.

LhSt ONef, ,ne uicEhteu play or two 10 FTADCls Bacon, who came around every morning with his typewriter. As soon as he had eat en his lunch he went for deer-in case the proprietor of the venison was Temporarily absent. If he was not, Shakespeare stroll ed down to the Corners and talked politics with the postmaster. After dinner he gave his views touching the madness of Hamlet to inquiring correspondents who enclosed stamps for reply and then went to the theatre. He was on the free list. On his way home he looked in at his dub and heard the Irish problem solved. He had standing offer of one cent a word from Literary Life for all he chose to write and had other tributes paid to his con- ceded talents.
 John Milton created "Paradise Lost" on wager that he could not turn out n thousand lines in thousand hours He had an exquisite library of rosewood with mother.of-pearl jado that reached to the ceiling but preferred to do his literary work on a bicycle, guiding the wheel with his right hand and writing with his left on pad resting on hls knee. It is believed in the knowingest circles of culture that no photograph of him, taken while pursu- ing this literary method, is extant. He resided in Harlem and injured his eyeeight reading on his journey up and down the elevated railroad. He was a hard student. allowed himself no recreation except pars- ing his own blank verse.
 Homer took the classical course. He had breakfast served him on the European plan in bed, and under this convenient ar- engagement got up at miscellaneous hours. The inspectors of elections became involv- ed in a wrangle over the city in which he could legally vote and so he spent m hour or so every afternoon at the telegraph of- flee reading the returns from the seven municipalities involved in the dispute. The gentlemanly telegraph operator at last grew weary of hearing him inquire, "Have the back counties been heard from yetp" His literary method, like Milton's, was pe- culiar. When he was bent uson compo- sition, accompanied by his faithful short hand reporter, he descended to the bottom of we'll that stood on the old Homer farm. AS fast as he finished page of manuscript he sent it up in one of the buckets and it was taken out and hurried to the printers by his devoted wife, who used to liuger around the we'll with her knitting for that purpose. A young lady of South Oshkosh-whose name is with held by request-for some time claimed that she wrote the "Illad" and lost the copy alighting from an omnibus while on her way to the office of the magazine that had agreed to publish it at the usual ad- vertising rates. Homer bought her off-at all events the copyright was taken out in his name.
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan never got up until 5.30 p. m., which goes to show how late he must have been up nights securing a temporary loan. He wrote all his plays and sketches on the back of unreceipted bills, and owing to this piece of thought fulness never ran short of paper. His lit- erary method, like Homer's, was peculiar He was accustomed to compose in crim- son plush shooting jacket hanging from a flying trapeze by one foot out of a flying balloon. It is hardly strange, therefore, that he wrote slowly and made many alter ations. He was reported to have been an earnest friend of the prohibition move- ment, but the friends of prohibition are confident that it could have proved an dLibi
 Thomas Babington Macaulay occasional ly caught nap in an omnibus or a railway car, but took no regular sleep. He did, indeed, go to bed nights, like other people. but he made 1t a rule to talk to himself until morning in order to keep in practice. He rose at 6 o'clock and managed to assim- ilate an encyclopedia before breakfast. He was that kind of man. One day the London Times sent reporter to his house to ask him to favor the paper with his view of the genesis of earthquakes, in a nut shell.s Macaulay stated his view as con cisely as possible but it was noticed that the Times of the next morning was com. pelled to print an eight-page solid agate supplement in order to make room for the nutshell. The reporter committed sui | ax5fo 1r, Sheridan's, was peculiar. In order to get what he called the local color for his "Lays of Rome, he served several months as brakeman on the Rome, Watertown and | Ogdensburg railroad. This fact is not generally known. He was shy in compa- ny-shy of keeping quiet for more than fourteen consecutive seconds at time. Byron never liked to see woman eat, but occasionally partook of an unobtrusive lunch himself. His favorite dish was Scotch reviewer, chopped fine as mince- meat and roasted His literary method like Macaulay's, was peculiar. He kept a igh-spirited three year-old Kentucky horse that had never been broken, and when he felt in the humor for creating verse he buckled himself to the side of this beast and then had it turned loose in the London streets without either saddle or bridle. Often he did not write more than half a dozen verses day in this DO. sition, which shows what nervous orga- nization he possessed. He labored hard over his compositions and made innumer- able changes before he allowed anything 10 pass into print. Hence it frequently happened that poem of his as published bears but slight resemblanoe Co it's first draft For example, his poem "Don Juan" as originally blocked out was a treatise on the tariff. Any one who will take the trouble to compare any of the standard works on the tariff with "Don Juan" will observe that there is a marked difference between the two. Byron did all his writing with one of the original fountain pens, and died young and in bit terness of spirit.
 Mrs. Hemans was a capital shot and never went out walking without having a pistol or two in her belt and gun on her (dimpled) shoulder, She wrote from a. n. until 2 p. m., Sundays and holidays excepted. After lunch she was accustom- ed to go aud hide herself behind the cur- rant bushes in the garden in front of her residence and fire duckshot into the legs of strangers who came up the gravel walk to ask her for her autograph. Her liter ary method, like Byron's, was peculiar When the creative mood was on her she picked up her skates and hurried to the | ..H