The record-union., 1892-12-10

sinner who has never Christmas gift
unless he steals tiff you can do only
| TINS, 10 1t. Write, write, write as though
you were driven by steam.
But look odt for old man Scrooge!
There was never more than one Old
Man Scrooge. Him Dickens created.
| OIher people, writers, / should say, have
tried to create duplicate Scrooges. But
you can't duplicate Old Man Scrooge
worth cent. If you can't write Christ
mas story and put ghost into it without
| Trying TO duplicate Old Man Scrooge you
had better not have any ghost. Save
him for the Fourth of July. Fourth-of-
| July stories with duplicates of Old Man
/ Scrooge are rarities. They might take"
| kuteu sot6e2
Since writing that last sentence, the
| 'quIen sabe," l mean, have had long
ana refreshing sleep. My brain was
/ tlred and gave il a rest. | have a very
delicate sort OF a brain. Ifmy stomach
/ was as delicate as my brain is l would
| nave 10 1--we on ants, gnats, grubs, mos
qultoes and other delicacies. 1t is really
too bad about my brain. Sometimes it IS
almost nuisance to me. But to resume.
On second thought, believe l should
not advise any person, especially young
| person who Is going to be the-(or one OF
themJ-Dlckens of America, to create any
ghosts at all. | think it would be much
better TO have the ghost uncreated for Il
Whlle, unless the young writer has had a
good deal to do with ghosts, knows
something about them and can write
| from experience. / hate to pick up
nice little Christmas story and then
pump up against ghost that is only half
created, half dressed and about as "skair-
| fuP' as clothes norse and not so inter
| esting as a nightmare.
IN the greater number of ghost stories
that have read the ghostly individuals
did great deal of pointing. Sometimes
they pointed at one thing, sometimes at
another. Sometimes they pointed saw
agely at the door knob, or ieYeled their
index fingers at somebody that had "a
red, sred rose on the end Of his nose" e"
But, as l remarked, they generally
! pointed at something. 1t is best, per-
! haps, to make your ghost, if you decide
/ TO create one, do a little pointing, but it
would be better if you make him, or her,
| or it, point a moral.
| 1t IS rather Late, 1 know, to be giving
! advice on this subject. But, late as it is,
now is the time. The old writers, who
have long ago given up the idea that they
were going TO be the Dickens of America,
| do not need this advice. They wrote
| their Christmas stories last August, and
| hnlshed their chilly ghosts when the
mercury was over the 1902 mark, and they
are now busy with yarns about such
/ things as summer Idyls," Mrs. Fo-
garty's Boarding house" and so on.
! But the enthusiastic young writer who
| is going to astonish the world most al
| ways begins his or her Christmas story a
! week or 50 before Christmas Day. And
! when it is finished nobody ever knows.
/ The week before Christmas is bad
| time for story writing. There is too
/ much distraction, too many other things
| to look out for. One hates to have ones
| hero or heroine in the midst OF an affect
ing contab with ghost that is pointing
at the knob of ones door. and 90 out and
murder ones turkey with ones bludgeon,
! or hack ones mince meat with ones
hacker, or stone ones raisins with ones
shoe horn, but ones duty it is to do so if
one wants ones dinner for ones little
! ones, and ones sculion and "made-of-
all-WOrk' is one of the ones that isn't
one of the ones one wants to find when
one wants to lind some one to
But, II the Christmas stories that are
written for this Christmas are not finished
until the first day Of January they can be
warmed over for the next Christmas-if
they still seem to be sensible tales. 1t is
pretty hard-pretty hard is not good
rhetoric, but it sounds better-it is pretty
hard TO warm over an Old story that has
/ been getting cold for year. The philos-
ophy of 1892 looks foolish in the latter
days OF 1898. 1t is not an easy matter to
write a tale that will keep. Old and ex-
perienced writer's know how to do it:
they know how to put on the salt" but
/ they can't transfer the recipe. Every
young writer must learn from his own
| experience just how much salt to put on
his tale to keep it from spelling before
! the year is over. 1 have lost a great
many tales by not having enough salt in
! them.
Well, this will do for the present.
A. V. HOFFMAN,