The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-04-15

| had intended to make this letter
more profound and reconcile than usual,
but other matters seem to crowd out
those plans and prevent the work being
so reconcile as had arranged for.
Yesterday received a condensed story
in manuscript from man who wishes
me to get it published at once, as lit
should be issued at least four weeks be-
fore the national conventions" he says.
Otherwise the conventions Will most
likely be bitter disappOintments,l Judge
He says 1.-The book is a timely one, and
should have been published two months
ago to fit people for the coming national
convention" He says this to me In a
tone of reproach which | am sure do
not deserve. [ could not have published
the book, even if | had been at home,
and had it done by this time. Possibly
not by another year even, OF may De
later than that.
hate to have a stranger hop on me
that way for not publishing his book
and going out afterward personally to
canvass for it. Few people of the great
work-a.day world realize that am en-
gagged in business business which oc-
cupies my time and requires my best
energies. The idea that l SIT up IN
large haymow all day reading rejected
manuscripts, and then in the evening
that | go about from house to house as
professional parlor entertainer, giving
readings from nv own works in ex-
Change for broken candies and the heel
taps of large public dinners, is erroneous
and ought to be exploded somewhere on
a vacant lot outside the city limits.
-, will hn roa6V
for the printer in few days, so the
writer says. He never wrote anything
before for publication, being an engine
wiper at the roundhouse, but he can
hardly wait for this book to come out.
| He thinks l am setting it up now and
sewing on the bindings, perhaps, of
evenings after the children are asleep.
| This is mistake.
| ANY publisher who would like this
manuscript, however, can obtain 1t by
writing me and inclosing postage, to-
gether with a promise to get the book
thoroughly scattered among the masses
prior to the great national conventions
The author is not man of letters
though he has received quite number
he SAYS, from the division superintend
ent, and has attracted some attention II
literary circles by having his pay gar
nisheed eighteen times in eighteen
months. He has a style, he says, some
thing like that of Laura Jean Libby
but he does not think so rapidly as she
does. Eight pounds of manuscript IL
twenty-four hours is his highest record
so he says he knows that he Is not 81
prolific as a writer as Laura is.
But still he thinks with great rapid
ity, and many of his quick thoughts, h'
says, are Just as good as any that he has
He has thought quite a number o
thoughts almost identical with thos
J thought by such men rs Tolstoi ant
Thomas Brewer Peacock, of Topeka
Kan, thus showing that he can if neces
sary think as good a thought as thos
men who have made good living by 1t
Above all, he says that the book Is
, timely one, and when an author come
: right out and says that his book is time
; " you must admit it. l would print
for him myself, but the Little Gen
printing press which am doing all m
: publishing with now is in use. loane
, it to a Kansas man, who is using 1t t
print a stud book and mark his linen.