The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1889-12-12
A AUTHOR.


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A very strange story was told ms, says
the PittsburR DispatcA, by the editor of q
weekly paper published I'm Now York not
long g concerning . contributor. The
editor said: "One OF my most valuable
contributors for the past three o. four
years has been a gentleman whom the
public know pretty well by this time. He
writes over his own name-a striking
name. So regularly has this pers0n writ
ten for my paper that l came % regard
him as q member of the staR. IL was only
the mails that he actually put i'm an appear
ance at our Office. The first time he came
i'm I thought he was q bGok agent or hill
collector until he mentioned his name.
Then, of course, I gave him q chair and
all the other cOurtesies at my disposal.
He only staid a minute or two and seemed
very nervous all the while he was sitting
opposite me. He lacked all that splendid
assurance most writers posss,ss. His APP
pearance belicd his work, which was Wig
Orous and sparkling in style, fora meeker,
"rhe next time he paid me n visit -he
was writing n novel for is and came with
an instailment q it, happened to be
published in the issue of the next day.
Al once II occurred to me to ask thc
puzzled IN p%roofNreaders and mne. " Sa /
handed the proOf-sheet to the author and,
pointing tn the passage in question,
asked him IL that was exactly wha he
"To my surprise" continued the editor.
I novelist grew very redin the face his
BLEED, and fora ne said nothing.
! had no idea what embarrassed him. hut
thought had a very rnre bird. a modest
said: '.I'vc no doubt it's my stupidity,
and no fault Of yours, that I cannot catch
the meaning Of that passage"
ale seemed to he going tn speak once
or twice, but his lips only. moved. Mean
while his face remained flushed and other
eloquent signs Of disturbance were not
wanting. His silence was making the
situation very painful and suddenly think
ing that ! might have n sensitive
spirit, i began in a clumsy way tn apollo
Rizc tn him for calling his attention To the
unfortunate paragraph. hut he stopped me
voice began: The fact is, sir, I have de-
ceived you-this story il none Of my writ
ing. never wrote a line i'm my life
ado you mean to say" said I holly,
'that I've been dealing with an imposter
all these years-a literary thief, n precious
.Not quiet so had as that, SIR" he re-
piled more calmly, ''althouRh I've put my
you have been good enough to buy, and
which ] now own were not written by me,
yet l believe you will not he SO indignant
"'May I have the pleasure of knowing
who the author is -" said I, with all the
irony a%a . se%,S "" Nv Wife,. h. replied.
quietly. Il never was i'm favor Of the use
of my name, hut she insisted that the
reviewers and newspaper photographers
had sharpened their knives to keep down
the rising crop of feminine writer's, and
that she could write more boldly over my
name than over her own and with less
criticism of a sG-called moral Sort
"Well, to cut u long story short in the
last volume. the facts were exactly as my
'iInpostor' stated them, and 1 very soon
after made the acquaintance OF the fair
author. She still used her husband
name, but he il no longer so meek and
nervous when he visited my den. A great
burden il Oft his mind"