The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-04-30
BIG PAY FOR

500 for a Sonnet-Grant Paid at the
Rate of $50 a Limo for His Memoirs
Tennyson Paid $3.50 a Line for a Poem
Money Paid to Mark Twain, Gen. To-
gan and Mr.. Cox.
New York Mail.
A British periodical has announced
that the editor of a high-class journal
for boys in America, offered Mr.. Glad.
stone $500 for an article OF 1900
words, this being at the rate of about
81 per line, and that Mr.. Gladstone
had declined the offer. Many publish
.ers in this city when shownthe extract
said they were not at all surprised
that Mr.. Gladstone should have re-
fused to write for any such sum. Oc-
pcupying as he does the highest position
of prime minister in England, theprice
offered seemed to be ridiculously low.
The advantage OF Mr.. Gladstone's
name as q contributor to the journal
would have been worth the money Of
fered, ever if he did not write a line.
Some of the publishers said that, look
ing back on the past, it is really
surprising to find what large
amounts of money have been paid to
writer's for desirable articles. Harper's
Magazine and the Nineteenth Century
have often paid more than $40 per
line for suitable writings by popular
authors. 1t is not an unusual thing
to pay 500 for a sonnet of only four
teen lines, q price nearly double that
per line offered to the chief state of
ficer OF the British crown. More than
81 per line has been paid by the own
ers of magazines for several stores
running a period of perhaps an entire
year, if found readable, or possessing
merit, or written by a person whose
anne would give it popularity. Es-
pecially is this the case in the matter
of books written for a special object
or connected with the history of the
country. An instance may be cited
in reference to the recent work pub
lished as Gen. Grants Memoirs. This
embraces two volumes, and has also,
even at this early stage of the publ
cation, given to the Generals widow
a sum equal to, even if it does not
exceed. $40 per line, and may net her
a much larger amount. Miss Cleve-
lands book is also spoken of as one
which will realize to her a proper
tomato amount of money as royalties
far exceedingt that offered to Mr.. Glad
stone for the article alluded to In the
u.c, poY avk,aoo+ Dt,rit,n tho an plu
days of the New York Ledger Mr..
Robert Bonner was noted for giving
large sums of money to authors
whose names were considered of more
value than the amount Of printed
matter which was the result of their
pens. Many of the writer's to whom
he paid what might appear to be al
most fabulous sums were then not so
well known by name as Mr.. Gladstone
is to-day; but they were prominent
enough for Mr.. Bonner to desire that
they should be recognized as contrib
utors to his periodical. On one occa-
sion he paid Mr.. Tennyson, now Poet
Laureate of England, the large sum of
$4,000 for q poem which ouly made
twenty lines in that paper. This was
at the rate of $3.50 a line-a price
that would almost seem to be beyond
the value of any written production.
The same publisher, anxious to Sc
cur a contributor the late Charles
Dickens, paid him So, 00Ofora sketchy
story which barely filled six columns
In the Ledger. This was at about the
rate of $40 per line, and although the
sketch was not the equal OF many
others which the author has had
printed, with his name attached, In
the English periodical All the Year
Round, the money paid was not con-
sidered too much Tor the work OF an
author whose name had become so
popular. Edward Everett was Sc
cured as an exclusive writer for the
same periodical for one year at the
rate of $11O, 600. He was only re-
quired to furnish one article each
week. This contribution barely filled
acolumn when set upin the bold type OF
that periodical. Henry Ward Beecher
was paid $4,000 for Norwood.
Mr.. Beecher at that time was o very
popular preacher and his nameincon-
nection with the work madei it muchde-
sired by readers ofserial stories. Other
less popular writer's, whosenames were
not so prominently before the public,
were also paid high prices for serials
OF merit, on condition that they
should write exclusively for O. special
publisher. Book writer's have been
engaged by serial story publishers,
merely for the puspose of gettingtheir
names associated with certain period
lcals. Altogether the exact sum paid
the war generals and naval officers
who have been writing historical
sketches of the late war in o leading
magazine is not known, it IS said
that all received far more per line ior
Their OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES the generous
offer'' made to Mr.. Gladstone.