The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-11-12
A Writer'S Thoughts on Writing.
BT OLIVER WENDELL HoLMEs.


tricks, If you had rather call them
SO, as to their ways Of writing and
speaking. There is a very old and
familiar story, accompanied by a
feeble jest, which most of my read
ers may probably enough have met
with in Joe Miller or elsewhere
1t Is that of lawyer who could
never make an argument without
having piece of thread to work
upon with his fingers while he was
pleading. Some one stole IL from
him one day, and he could not get
on at all with his speech-he had
lost the thread of his discourse, as
the story had it. Now this is what
] myself once saw. 1t was at a
meeting where certain grave mat
tiers were debated in an assembly
of professional men. A speaker,
whom Inever he ard before or since,
got up and made a long and forci-
bic argument. l do not think ne
was lawyer but he spoke as if he
had been trained tc talk to juries.
He held a long string in one hand,
which he drew through the other
hand necessarily, as he spoke, just
As "a shoemaker performs the mo-
ton CT waxing his thread. He ap-
peared to be dependent on this
motion. The physiological signifi-
canoe of the fact suppose to be
that the flow of what we call the
nervous current from the thinking
centre to the organs Il speech was
rendered freer and easier by the
establishment of a simultaneous
collateral nervous current to the
set Of muscles concerned ia the ac-
ton l have described.
do not use string to help me
write or speak, but / must have its
equivalent. must have paper and
pen or pencil before nae to set my
thoughts flowing in such form that
they can he written continuously.
There have been lawyers who
could think out their whole argu-
ment in connected order without a
single note. There are authors
and Think there are many-who
can commence and finish off a
poem ora story without wri ting a
word Of it until, when the proper
time comes, they copy what they
carry in their heads. / have beer
told that Sir Edwin Arnold though
out his beautiful "Light Of Asia" ii
this way.
l find the great charm of writin,
consists in its surprises. Whei
one is in the receptive attitude O
mind, the thoughts which ar
sprung upon him, the images whici
fash through his consciousness, ar
q delight and an excitement. 1 an
impatient of every hindrance il
setting down my thoughts-of
pen that will not write, of ink tina
will not flow, Of paper that will nc
receive.the ink. And here let m
pay the tribute which / owe to on
of the humblest but most services
bic of my assistants, especially i
poetical composition. Nothin
seems more pcosaic than the style
graphic pen. 1t deprives the hant
writing of its beauty, and to som
extent of it's individual ,chssacte
The brutal communism Of the lie
tiers it forms covers the page it fill
with the most uniformly unintt
esting characters. But, abuse it
much as you choose, there is 0otl
ing like it for the poet, for the in
aginative writer. Many a fine 70
of thought has been checked, pc
haps arrested, by the i'll behavior
of a goose-quill. Many an idea hi
escaped while the author was dis
ping his pen in the inkstand. b.
with the stylOgraphic pen, in tt
hands of one who knows how to III
it, unbroken rythms and harmon
GUS cadences are the natural pr
ducts of the unimpeded flow of tt
fluid which is the vehicle of Il
authors thoughts and fancies. s
much for my debt of gratitude
the humble photographic pen.
does not furnish the proper mediul
for the correspondence Of intimate
who wish to see as much of the
friends personality as their han
writing can hold,-still less for Il
imprisoned interchange of sent
ments between lovers; but in wri
ing for the press its use is open
no objection, Its movement ov'
the paper is like the fight of
swallow, while the quill pen al
the steel pen and the gold pen a
all taking short laboriOus journey