The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-18
Especial Correspondencc.l

Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Oct. A few days ago there
was delivered from one of the ocean steam
ships which landed in New York IL couple
of very small parcels upon which the hands
Of the custom house officer were not laid,
although probably no other parcel so small,
excepting one containing jewels, was
worth so much OF all the great cargo on
that steamship. They were bundles which
were small enough to be carried in an over
coat pocket, and yet they represented to-
gether value not far from $4,000, al
though their intrinsic worth was scarcely
more than that of the paper with which
they were wrapped.
These parcels contained the latest work
of two of the most successful of the authors
of this generation, both of them writers of
fiction and one perhaps the most successful
humorist since the days of Artcmus Ward
This writer-Mark Twain-brought his pre-
cious parcel with him. 1t was the manu-
script of story which he has written within
the past year and which is shortly to be pub
lished by one of the magazines. If the
opinion of Mark Twain himself is of any
value, the story ought to prove as popular
as anything which he has done.
Not long after he landed he strolled with
that Undesirable Looping gait, which Of it
self suggests humorous considerations int O
the Office of the magazine which is to pub
fish his story, and before he had departed
the arrangements were completed.
Mr.. Stevcnson's New Novel
The other parcel contained he typewrit-
ten manuscript of the lateststory of Robert
Louis Stevenson, and not long after it was
taken from the steamship it was opened by
tender and considerate hands, as though it
were almost as precious us II bit of exquisite
lace. The editors Of the magazine to which
this story WAS consigned saw that the man
uscript had been thumb Marked was dingy
with much use and frequent reading and
betrayed evidences of the extraordinary
care which Mr.. Stevenson requires OF those
who have his literary work in charge
This story was written in the Samoan is
lands last winter and suggests in its style
and its romantic interest those brilliant
stories of Stevenson's, "Kidnappedn and
Robert Balfour" After it was written
Mr.. Stevenson had copy made which he
preserved, and the original manuscript was
sent TO his solicitors in Edinburgh. When
III their hands negotiations were made wit II
publishers, the price demanded was agreed
upon, other copies were made, which were
revised and scrutinized with patient fidcl-
ity, SO that even to the slightest marks of
punctuation it should agree with the man
uscript sent from those farolf South Sea is
lands.
This story has less than $4,000 words, but
MIR. Stevenson will receive for it nearly 81,
600. Parts of the manuscript were revised
by Mr. Stevenson more than n score of
times. Many sentences were rewritten over
and over again, and in this patient drudg-
cry there is furnished vivid suggestion OF
the way in which Mr.. Stevenson secured
that mastery of English style which the
best critics declare is without parallel
among living writers of fiction
| Twain, who is more greatly controlled by
his emotions, moods and fances than Mr.