Wichita eagle., 1888-04-21
FORTUNES In FICTION.
WHAT POPULAR STORY WRITERS
EARN BY THEIR PEN.

Grinding Out a Library of Five Cent
Literature at the Rate of $40 Worth
Each Day-Salaries of Noted Writers
and Editors.
To have pointed out to you "the most popu-
lar American author" and then not to recog.
| niZe him either in the flesh or by any por-
| traits you have seen, is a trifle surprising II
you had previously thought you knew the
faces and figures of all the American authors
you ever heard of. The man who was point.
| ed out stood on a corner near the city hall OF
of Brooklyn, apparently waiting for that
| carriage which the poorest OF us keeps-a
horse car. He was a short man of medium
| build dressed in a suit of blue serge, wearing
| a fashionable white straw hat, tilted little
over the ear. and carrying a cane He looked
rather like shrewd commission merchant or
grain broker than like an inspired ward OF
F., literature.
where Howells never was heard Of, said
my friend, "where the fame of Longfellow
| has not yet reached and where Robert Louis
Stevenson is as if unborn, that famous author
is admired, if not reverenced. He makes
1000 year by his writings"
cASN lul iSlUidl4NS anu with NY Gu
riosity keenly whetted, inquired his name
only to learn that it was Harland P. Halsey,
a name I never had heard in my life. The
whole truth was grudgingly delivered by my
| informant, who at length freed his mind in
| this wise:
| Halsey is the writer who signs the nom de
plume "Old S!euth" in one of the popular
weeklies. Fifteen years ago he wrote serial
story called @Old Sleuth the Detective" and
it achieved success so great that afterward
| he adopted the name Of the hero for bis own
pen name, and ever since he has been reeling
out stories, always about Odd Sleuth, until
| he has now written something like 200 vol
ulnes, of this literature. Wide as is his circle of
fame he desires to widen it by the production
of more ambitious literature, and to that end,
or as an approach to it, has Just finished a
temperance tale.
| How strange this all is! We have never
read of Halsey in the magazine articles upon
"the literary movement in New York" have
not seen his portrait in similar articles upon
the spirits of the Authors club. Yet be is
the leading writer for paper that boasts of
go, 900 circulation and four times that num-
Der of readers, 250, coo a week. 1t seems
quite likely that, as my informant said, "his
books are to be found in the cabs of the loco
motives, in the garrets of the sewing girls, in
the kitchens of the land, and the factory
hands of the average New England mill town
would rather see him than Bismarck or Ten
nyson."
And $4,000 yeari That is almost $500 a
week Why, l may be unloosing a secret,
but it is none the less fact that the prince
of our novelists, William D. Howells, is paid
only $4,000 year by Harper & Bros, and
he is considered fortunate to get that sum,
though il order to do so be had to surrender
all chance Of earning extra money by means OF
contract in which he agrees to give all his
gifted creations to that firm. And Rev. Ed
yard P. Roe, petted favorite of the middle
class Of novel consumers, the man who is
supposed to press one of his metaphorical
heels on the neck of the reading community,
does not earn penny mora than $4,000 a
year and did not more than begin to make
that much until his publishers tried the e1-
pertinent of printing Barriers Burned Away"
in twenty cent form in limited edition Of
100000 volumes. l shy "lirnted" because
they destroyed the plates when that number
was printed, 10 force the public to buy the
higher priced edition of old tat 81 book,
DcAItNSl CtASS IL "uuttu IitI . Tue
twenty cent books were sold This was fol-
lowed by the same experiments with "He Fell
in Love With His Wife" Both succeeded
perfectly, and now Dominic Roe makes sl0,-
900 year.
Who else does as well as that with his pen ?
Editor Stone of the old Journal of Commerce
Of this city draws exactly that SUM for his
salary, but then he controls the paper and
pays himself, and he is not a novelist. What
novelist makes it, MI. Mayo w HazeltiDe,
Amos j. Cummings, Col. Cockerill and
George Alfred Townsend are credited with
earning $4,000 year, which is also the
salary Of more than one Of the metropolitan
editors-in-c chief. This is money made with
the pen or with the management Of the pens
of others. but it is not by novel writing, and
1t Is not $4,000. Brander Matthews and
Henry c. Bunuer, the editor Of Puck and
author of several entertaining books, are
credited with 81 600 or $500. Both could
make more If they were not too conscientious
and better satisfied to live easily and pleas
antly. The newest claimant for popular
favor among novel readers. Mr.. Henry Hsr
land, the young lawyer and ex-attachs Of the
surrogate's court, who writes under the name
OF Sidney Luska,n has not yet pushed his
income Up to the s, 900 mark, but be is very
young yet-not more than 30-and he Is only
making his first bows and STOPPING for the
first bouquets shot from tne thick OF his ap-
plauders.
/ have not mastered the secret OF Mr. Hal
seys story telling, unless il be that there u
an adventure In every 100 words, an arrest,
q shooting scrape, s. surprise or ruse But
the style is easy 70 anslyzs. Il is tina. OF the
repeating rife, bang, bang, bang, as fast rs
You can phi the trigger. with psuses for re-
loading Al the end Of eaca short chapter Il
might be called toe Gatins gun mode Of
writing
Il IS sign II the times and good omeo
for the country taat in this authors WORKS
there IS 10 word or suggestion, plot or theme,
that could stir an unholy spp-tlts or bring
blush 70 a pare woinan's face, IL Is not &C
rnuca sign Of the time. tEas this author Il
no Bohemian but solid, practical rsan Of
affairs, Of family snd OF high rsPats- Syl-
vanus Cobb, Jr., lately DEPARTED, wzs al Ct
this, and lie was ta- king Of popular writers.
Just a Mr. Halsey Is nov, Cobb never cared
more than 500 veek, but be lived II ise
country, where sch q sum goes great WY
HIS home was pleasant cottage, and De
drove horse that ar. Bonner gave him he
lived vel. though modes.ly, and neither IN