The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-17

situations or took them from real life. She
replied that she did both and she told me
that the heroine of THAT Lass GLOW
rie's,' which many suppose TO have been
taken from real life, was almost altogether
an ideal creation. THE character" said
she, was suggested by strong, handsome
W oman among the miners in the English
town where lived with my parents be-
fore l came TO America | was very little
girl when l saw her, but she made great
impression upon me and she Was queen
among the rough people with whom she
associated. l used to watch her with great
interest when she would pass my fathers
gate, and though had 10 acquaintance with
her, she produced such an impression
upon me that l wove around her the
character which you find in my story. l
suppose all my characters are suggested by
something, but only one or two of them
have been taken from people in real life,
and these are notably Little Lord Fauntle-
roy and Lawrence Arbuthnot in Through
One Administration
81 suppose, Mrs. Burnett, you have been
a great reader all your life? What books
have Influenced you most ard of what
class Of literature have you been most
fond?n
81 can hardly say,'' replied Mrs. Burnett.
T 81 read nearly everything | could get my
hands on when q girl. l could never keep
away from books, and | was often pun
ished when l was child for my impolite-
ness for looking into books and stealing
page of reading at time when visitors
were present, pretending all the
time to be interested in the con
versat!on. have always been
very fond of novels and l think my favor
ties are Dickens and Thackary. OF the
former l dearly loved "David Copperfeld,"
ard | have Travelled about London with
Pendennis and Nicholas Nickelby. l can't
tell when [ did not read. [ don't think
ever learned my letters, nor to read by
learning to spell as most children do, amt
my first membrance of reading is, that
stood one day when was just three years
old. at my grandmothers knee and out of
her brown speckled Bible, read these
words
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judea."
Ii is strange l should remember them,
hut do remember them, and they are my
first memory of reading anything out Of a
book.
II suppose Little Lord Fauntleroy' has
1 paid the best of ali your books, has it nnt!"
YES it has" was the reply, sit has had
very large circulation and 1 have made
10 UGH out of lis decentralization"
~ suppose that play writing pays much
better than novel writing!n
A'Yes, a successful play brings in large
! and immediate income, andit continues TO
/ be profitable for long time. Little Lord
Fauntleroy' was a great success in Eng
land, but the receipts from 1T there were
nothing like those of the United States.
\ Most of my plays have done very well and
though do not like play writing as well as
story writing. it is SO profitable that can
not give it up.n
Give me some idea of the difference be
tween play writing and story writing,
Mrs. Burnett said /.
They ara very great, can assure you, u
was the reply. you have,to write for two
different audiences, and the circumst tan ces
OF reading your stories are different. If
play-wrlting there is no chance for any
subtle touches of art or thought. Every
thiLg has 10 be of the broadcast and PLANES
kind. Your points must be such as t
strike the audience right between the eyes
and. they must be understood without rea-
son or Intellectual eXertion. All the pretty
things you are proud of in your stories
such as the analysis Of character the sub
tie undertones of thought, and the
words which you want your reader;
to imagine between the lines, have t
be cut out, and you have osay just whx
you mean so plain that he that gallons car
read. In writing play l compose it in the
shape OF a story and then go over it and re
model it, and rewrite it for the stage"
The conversation here turned TO Mrs
Bnrnett's new play, THE Showman's
Daughter" which she brought out ir
, London last season, but which appeared
just at the time of the death of the Duke
of Clarence. This death threw oil Londor
into mourning, and it practically ruined
the theatre business of the city for the
season. On account of it Mrs. Burnett