Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-08-11
How Wilkie Collins Works.

How Wilkie Collins Works.
Nilkie Collins is the novelist of con-
struction; and plot and character and
incident are always the development
from a central dramatic idea, "the pivot
on which the story turns" as in The
Woman in White" the substitution of
one woman for another in q lunatic
asylum, and in THE Moohstone," the
projection of an Eastern Jewell with
the superstitious devotion of it's atten-
dant priests, into modern civilized soci-
ETY.. This idea settled, he weaves his
plot, selects his characters, builds up
his incidents, all with reference to it,
and above all things writes one contin-
uous story, and not two or three alter
mating stories in one. This makes him
Indifferent to methods of publication,
for as he means to keep up an unfag
ging interest throughout, he expects to
hold his reader, whether to sit up all
night to finish the volume, as many
of them complain to him. or from week
to week or month to month. His first
nm and chief difficulty is to "begin at
the beginning" so that the story tells
itself straight on to it's predetermined
end without barking back, and he
thinks many novelists who aim to be
artists much too careless about this.
Sometimes he has written out the lat
ter part of his book first. and the first
almost last of all, with this in view.
He never transfers real people, and sell
dom real places or incidents, to his
books; vet he has found that no one
can invent name, and new book
often brings protests from more than
one correspondent against too close
copies or misleading peWersions of
what they suppose to be his originals.
One outraged Frenchman, who saw
himself in particularly unpleasant vii
lain, kindly offered, if Mr.. Collins
would come to Paris, to meet him with
pistols and seconds at the care.
Mr.. Collins never spares himself, and
takes minute pains with the details of
his work. Most of his novels, by the
time they reach publication in book
form, have been written or revised
seven times: the first writing; a revis-
ion next day before the autograph man
Uscript goes to q copyist; a second and
third revision upon the copyist's manu-
script; a fourth on the proof a fifth on
the printers revise" Il final revision
after the story has appeared in peri
odical as it is made ready for a book,
1t is this hard writing which makes
easy reading and good English. Now
adays he restricts himself to four hours,
and those of daylight, but in former
times he wrote almost continuously,
spurred on by the eager delight of the
work itself. When he began, his favor
lite hours We're from midnight to just
before dawn; but GHOSTS" cured him
OF that. They used to accompany him
upstairs as he gave up work for bed,
and a particular green woman with tusk
teeth stood at the turn, and said good
night by biting piece out of his Shout
der. He gave them good radiance by
revolutionizing his hours of work, and
now the latter part of the day is apt to
be given up to novel reading, for he is
a catholic customer for his fellow crafts
mems wares, enjoying them as a reader
and as critic. Believing that a novel
should be, first of all, story, he thinks
Cooper the great American tictionist,
and wonders that his countrymen can
call the author of the Misunderstanding
stories and sea tales "a writer for boys"
His aim has been to follow any success
full story with one of entirely different
kinG and scene, as when "No Name"
followed THE Woman in White" The
success of these books was indeed
enormous, On one of them he was
paid $4,000 for book form alone,
and the next, which proved to be
"Armadale," was secured by a rival
publisher, who offered f5, 200 before the
Il. IL. Bolcker. in HarDer's Maoazine.
How Wooden SpOOls Are Made.
Birch wood is preferred. The birch
is first sawed into sticks four or five feet
long and sevcn-eighths of an inch to
three inches square, according to the
size of the spool to be produced. These
sticks are thoroughly seasoned. They
are sawed into short blocks, and the
blocks are dried in hot-air kiln. AT
the time they are sawed hole is bored
through them. One whirl of the little
block against sharp knives, shaped by
pattern, makes the spools at the rate
of one a second. A small boy feeds
the spool machine simply placing the
blocks in Il spout, and throwing out the
knotty or defective stock. The machine
is automatic, but cannot do the sorting.
The spools are revolved rapidly in
drums and polish themselves. For
some purposes they are dyed yellow,
red, or black. They are made in hun
dreds of shapes and sizes. When one
sees on a spool of thread 400 yards"
or 5000 yards" these words do not sig
Nifty that the threal has been measured,
but that the spool has been gagged and
is supposed to contain SO much thread.