Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-07-29

went abroad to collect materials for the
first young America Abroad" series. He
has since crossed the ocean many times.
He has visited every country in Europe,
been to Africa and ever put his foot in
Asia"
Mr.. Adams is very regular, temperate
and m~ethodical in his habits. He rises at
1880 O'Clock, and about an hour and a half
is occupied with breakfast and the morn
ing paper. Then he writes till dinner time
Il O'Clock. His forenoon's work is about
5000 words. After dinner he usually
goes to town, visits the club or calls on
some friend and then returns home to
read. His favorite authors, he tells me,
are Dickens and Thackeray, though he
very much enjoys reading the stories of
Alexander Dumas, pere, in the original
French. Mr.. Adams is also familiar to a
degree with Spanish, Italian and German.
Two of his books nave been published in
French.
When I asked MI. Adams which of his
own books he regarded as his best, he re-
piled, ''They are all my children and I am
partial to none"
do you get your plots in real life, from
newspaper reports of events and such
sources?" l inquired.
mo, sir" he replied. IT get them all
from my imagination"
Mr.. Adams, however, is always histor-
ically and geographically correct. His
young America Abroad" books contain
faithful pen pictures of the customs,
habits, Industries and institutions of the
countries wherein their scenes are laid, and
his stories of West Indian life lave been
quoted as authorities. His Army and
Navy" series display complete technical
knowledge of tactics, and his thorough
knowledge of nautical affairs has been OBJ
tanned in his keen observations during his
voyages. He is a practical yachtsman, and
for years owned a fine yacht, in which he
delighted to cruise along the rock bound
New England coast.
MI. Adams believes nothing in inspira-
tional writing, but once a story is thought
out and carefully outlined he works with
great rapidity.
He is a fine amateur mechanic, and a
worker in both wood and iron. He has a
room in the back of his house fitted up as
a complete workshop, where he has been
wont to find recreation after his mental
labors.
Mr.. Adams, though not protesting to be
a poet, has written scores of odes and
hymns for various occasions, and for q
number of years was selected to write the
Fourth of July ode for the city of Boston.
On public occasions Mr.. Adams services
are in great demand, for he enjoys the rep
utatlon Of being an excellent offhand
speaker. On the platform he is easy, flu
ent, witty and graceful, and felicitous in
his Illustrations.
Curious to know of his first object in
writing, 1 asked him about his early aims
and ambitions.
II never had any literary ambition"
aid he, land my success was as great a
surprise to me as it could be to anybody.
When l began to write stories for the
young, however, I had a distinct purpose
in my mind. The hero of the stories l had
read was a pirate, a highwayman, a snug
gler or a bandit. He was painted in glow
ing ~colors, and in admiring his boldness
my sympathies were with this outlaw and
outcast of society. These books were very
bad, because they brought the reader in
sympathy with evil and wicked men. It
seemed to me that stories just as interest
ing, just as exciting, could be written
without any of the evil tendencies of these
harmful hooks. I have tried to do this in
the stories | have written for young PEG
pie. l have never written a story which
would excite the love, admiration and
sympathy of the reader for an evil person,
a bad character. I have never made a hero
whose moral character or whose lack of
high aims and purposes could mislead the
young reader. This has been my standard,
and however others may regard it, l deem
it a safe one."
Mr.. Adams married in 1916 Miss Sarah
jenkins, of Dorchester, and was left a
widower in 1885. He had two daughters,
one of whom is the wife of Mr.. Sol Smith
Russell, the we'll known actor.
Oliver Optic has thrice been an editor
from 1858 to 1886 of The Student and
Schoolmate; from 1867 to 1875 of Oliver
Optics Magazine, and from 1881 until the
present time he has been connected with
the Russell Publishing company, editing
the we'll known magazine Our Little
Ones.
In the curse of his busy life he has not
had much time to devote to politics, but
in 1869 Mr.. Adams was elected to the Mas
sachusetts legislature by his fellow citizens
of Dorchester, and declined q renomina-
ton the next year. Fol twenty years he
was a school teacher, for fourteen years on
the school boards of Boston and Dorches-
ter, and for nearly a score of years he has
been a Sunday school superintendent.
Ever busy looking up references, evolv-
ing plots, inventing names and reading,
when not actually engaged in composition,
this interchangeable writer works with all
the fervor m enthusiasm of his youth,
drawing from a seemingly inexhaustible
fund of freshness and novelty, and giving
to his work that breezy, graphic individual
ity that has rendered the pages of Oliver
Optic so fascinating to thousands of read
ers.
His latest story is entitled "a Missing
Million; or, The Adventures of Louis Bel
grave" It is the first volume of the Gail
Over the World" series, and Mr.. Adams
recently made a trip to the West Indies
to procure fresh material for forthcoming
volumes. He sailed on July 2 on another
foreign tour, and will visit England, Ire
land, Scotland, Belgium and the Rhine
countries before he returns.
FRANK j. BoNNELLE.
The Oldest Practicing Lawyer.
Especial Correspondence
MAccvYr nv n T,,1rr 10 VULo- DaL..L