The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-08


nifty for those who think they have the gift
of telling story well. II is the opinion Of
all competent TO Judge that never was q
more golden harvest offered for a compe-
tent writer than stands ready for his reap
ing IN this country to-day, and he must
thank the newspapers for it.
LITERARY REWARDS.
This is as true of special literary workers
as 1t Is OF romancing The rewards which
average competence may now find in lit
erary work are far greater than the returns
which average competence finds in the pro-
LESSONS In this city, for instance a writer
who lives by his pen, and who does market
able work with it. will find his income
larger than that of IS per cent of the law
yers or doctors or clergymen of this city
Some men here are rapidly accumulat-
ing fortunes. Bill Nye, for instance. re-
ceiveS for his newspaper work about 81 -
600 year, and in addition to that makes as
much more by his lectures, SO that he who a
few years ago was scrubbiug out. a bare
livelihood in the wilds of the west, bids fair
to become as wealthy as Mark Twain, who
has won the most conspicuous pecuniary
success from his writings of any contem-
porary, whether English OF American, ex-
ceptlng w. S. Gilbert. Nye is making mis-
fortune in fun, as Mark Twain did; but, on
the other hand DIR. Talmage is receiving for
his newspaper specialties something like
5000 year. and could earn more if he
had the time to do iu. So that while fun
pays enormously, the more serious and
solemn lessons of life are inculcated with
even larger pecuniary returns.
IN THE OLD TIMES.
Compare now the success of some of these
moderns with the comparatively paltry re-
turns Of those who did their work in the
time gone by. There was Miss Cummings,
q no ctc
whose sale has been exceeded only by "Uncle
Toms Cabin " and over which the children
and young folks of two generations ago
wept and smiled. That was called "The
Lamp Hghther," and it still has a sale. Yet,
notwithstanding the hundreds of thousands
of copies of her book which have been sold,
she received from it in all less than she
could have earned by teaching.
There were the Warner sisters, who wrote
in solitude, living on little island up the
Huc son, whose "Wide, Wide World" was
one of the great hits in literature of auto
war times. They got modest sum for it,
but not enough to have supported them had
they not lived in the simplest manner. Poe
starved, although partially to blame him
self, and his rewards are post-mortem ones
Nathaniel Hawthorne used TO tell, with a
pathetic smile, of the humble sums ne re-
ceived for his masterpieces No romancer,
excepting Cooper, Washington Irving, and
in lesser degree, Donald q. Mitchell, ever
received any such sums as have come to the
latter-day writer's whose stories appear in
the press
Miss Alcott, by phenomenal and unex-
pected hit with Little Women" and two
or three works which followed it got
together a fortune of 800, 900. But she
and Mark Twain are the only writers de
veloped since the war, up to within i've
years, who have gained much more than a
bare living from their works. John Hab-
berton's "Helen's Babies, which sold enor-
mously, gained rdiculously small sum in
royalties from it, and the chief value of
that publication to him was that IL made
his Aext work salable Bret Harte might
have coined money, and he did recei We
some large sums early in his career, but his
own cratic course and unbusinesslike
methods stood like bulwark between him
and pecuniary success
THE PROSPECT IN THE FUTURE.
Such considerations as those just given
are what lead publishers here and those
whose business it Is to deal with the work
Of the pen to think that the new develop
ment is bound to be permanent and Of
mighty consequence. They have no doubt
that out of it will come something of last
ing worth to American literature, some
thing which shall represent later ideas and
the modern tread of thought, and prove the
new literature which is after all the old in
spirit.
The true literature is truth. aud the art OF
storytelling can never be more perfectly
developed than it was by the princes of ro-
nance who lived ages ago. The trouble
with most of our latter-day literature has
been that it has not been truthful, and the
most untruthful of all is that of the so-called
realistic school, which the vast public recog-
nizes as lacking the spirit which has made
storytelling the charm Of all the ages. So
it will be to the press, and to the mighty
stimulus which it has created and the vast
opportunities which it gives in the field of
romantic literature. that the American
lovers Of storytelling will be indebted.
MR.. REED TO BE ASKED TO NEW YORK
1t is the desire of the republican state
committee that Speaker Reed deliver two
or three speeches III New York state when
the fall campaign opens. and if he cannot
make more than one address he is to be in :
vited to speak to the New York city re-
publicans in Cooper Institute some time in
October.