The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-10

Written for TIL HELENA INDEPENDENT
- WRITER WHO DESIRES TO WI
81 81 s.s y !. a9 ID, ' II. s ,s,s' With i, re, sss.s "as''
regularity should oonfine himself t.
such themes az all the people understand
Some OF my great predecessors neglected
this principle and are now unable to AFFORD
anything better than plain granite monu'
ments, whereas I live in a thirteen stor,
nat house with a front that looks like
Parian marble except whore the frossinR II
sSraped off. The 'front.'" which l rer'
sonally put on 10 an oven better imitation
thAn that.
The thought which 10 concealed IN the
paragraph above came to me a few days
q after / had read an interview with Mr.
Howells, in which there was much good ad-
vice to Young writer's. felt a strong I'M
pulse to attack the subject and, incidental
", Mr.. Howells. This did not strike me az
presumptuous. II / wished to learn how it
feels to be run over by = moving machine,
/ would rather have a few earnest wo'ds
from a man who is being chopped up than
the sober a~fterthoueht of a much better
man who escaped with only the loss of his
oyeral!s. Though the carss incident to be
ing a young writer have made me older
than my v father. while Mr.. Howells
(vho raised a mustache before / was born
"a still in the vigor of youth, l am qualified.
Il least BY the records in the family Bible,
70 speak for the boys.
But At this point comes the thought al
ready mentioned. which / intend to stick to
because l may not have another in all sam
msr. This is it,: Who cares for the young
writer, anyhow Or the old one, either?
Isn't the writer pretty nearly the most IN
interesting cbieo. IN the face of the earth?
He cannot appear in his own work without
violence to his art, and, in my opinion, this
same iudioious principle should apply to
him generally. His tolls and d~isappoint-
ments nse not understood by the public,
and there Is nj need that they should be.
One Of the oleverest young writer's / know
has tried in vain to make his landlady IN
derstand them; but she would rather dis
cuss the value Of his baggage as collateral
security. Hence, by the principle which l
enunciatod in the beginning, l should never
have written this letter, but | shall finish it.
just the same, for l need the money. And
this brings me naturally to my advice to
young writer's.
Training should begin at an early age.
One OF the most successful young literary
men Of my acquaintance began at the early
age of six years to play marbles 'for keeps"
Al seven he pitched pennies, and though
She other fellows coin was often nearer the
mark, our young friend nearly always won
which left nobody in it but himself. His
business ability attracted the attention Of
his father, who made an honorable COM
potency by trading horses. The son soon
surpassed the father To such an extent that
he spent the last five years OF his minority
in a reformatory institution. where he WAS
associated with several youths who had
even better business heads than his own.
In short, when he came to New York at the
age Of 81 he was thoroughly well fitted to
succeed.
And this is what / wish to impress upon
money by literary work in the metropolis:
Be a business man. DON'T waste your time
with KerFs common school grammar; you
can hire q typewriter girl who will make
your verbs agree with their subjects, if nee
cssary. The printer will afterward make
them disagree again. anyhow; that is. I'M
less you throw YOUR work away upon the
tirst-class publioations. Don't wrestls with
the sequence of lenses. The proofreader
knows all about that. o., if he doesn't, he
will fix it to suit himself III spite of you.
Look for the markets, Ey boy, for that's
business. and let the queens English take
its chances between the case and the proof
reader.
Why, I know a man who can't call a dog
without offending the animals Rrammati-
cal instincts, and yet that man can write a
detective story half as long and nearly
twice as dull as Robert Elsmere' in a
week and sell it for 500. And l know an
novels, one Of, which he published with
$500 borrowed money. and yesterday he
took a position a. assistant bookkeeper in a
brewery At $13 a week in order to lay BY
none enough to pay his debts. That man
had no head for business. If he had been
better equipped that way for literary work
! could have secured him q position as poet
for the Staten Island Quinins Pill company,
where he could have made a name for him
self.
l think hat it is a great mistake to tell a
young man that he should enter the career
of letters with NO thought of money. He
will never succeed in that way. know two
men who wrote storios that were rejected
by the Century magazine. One of them
spent q month in revising his production
and then sent it to the Harpers. after which
he put it into a little box. shod a few tears
upon it and abandoned his ambition. The
other simply dedicated his story to the
memory OF Jake kilrain and sold it to the
Police Gazette. lie is now writing stuff
that should go down to posterity, in the
interests of the manufacturer of the So
pocket gymnasium.
1t ID this power to make everything avail
able which marks the dawn of a new and
happy era III American literature. The in
dustry OF this rushing age has taken hold
of the writer also. and he is not the loafer
he used to be. Mr.. Howells errs, l am sure,
in saying that literary Labor occupies fewer
hours in the day than any other kind except
that which is done III the government de-
partments at Washington. | have seen one
of our successful young literary mon die
Eating to four stenographers at once, and it
took them till two o'clock the next morning
to find out what he had been talking about
in order that ii might be put into typewrit-
ten copy. There we have over sixty hours
OF work in n single day put into the produc-
tons Of one great literary brain.
he errs, too, in saying that moods have
been credited with too much influence in
literature. 1t is impossible. Why. 1 know
q publither who would no more buy an
article when he's in a bad mood than he
would give a dime to a starving man. Bu.
just lure that fellow out of his office INV;
let him beat you n couple Of games OF bill
iards and he'll buy almost gnY old thing
that happens to be lying around in your
pockets. l can't say how important that
mans moods have been to me. If | hadn't
discovered the secret of them | might now
be full OF ambitious Literary designs and
empty OF dinner.
But, taking moods perhaps e re- seriouslv
and more nearly IN .hs way intended By MI.
Howslls, aud still | disagree. There are
days when l csn't write my n4rue with
marking inx on a celluioii collar and i'm
part any literary favor TO 1t. and there are