The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-08-30
ONE DOLLAR \ WORD.
Famous Men Who Can Easily Get This
Sum For writing.
tSpecial Correspondencc.l

Especial Correspondence
NEW York, Aug. 21.-Thcrc arc a mum
Der of men who have no reputation &c
writen, who would be able to command ut
almost any time higher rates for magazine
or newspaper articles thar almost any of
those litteratcnrs who have gained fame
by reason of their writings. Mr.. James II.
Eeene, who is well known as ono of the
most successful and picturesque of those
men who deal in Wall street in New York
city, has been many times asked to write
over his own signature upon any topic
which he chose and to name his own price,
which would cheerfully be pad, AS Mr..
Keene sometimes has found his fortune ap-
preciate as much as 100000 in n single day,
il Is easy to see that II he charged for such
service in proportion to his earning capac-
ity he would receive an almost fabulous
sum for an article from 1000 to 5000 words
in length.
The only occasion since those carly days
of his poverty, when he made his living as
a newspaper writer, that Mr.. kccnc over
came his disinclination to write was in the
summer of 1877, just after he had held ut
bay an army of Wall street spectators,
having sustained the market single handed
for an entire day, backed by gold which
his California friends sent to him, and
thereby unquestionably prevented such n
panic as this country has not seen except
ing possibly in 1887 and 1876.
The strain upon his nervous system of
thus maintaining the market against the
combined assault of frightened investors
and spectators was so great that a few
days after MIR. keeue was stricken with an
illness which threatened to develop into
paralysis of the brain. He was removed to
,,,, ,,p, ~. p.>Dp nc ~ ,<ro. ,,Ncptt0a IN
lift him from his bed, and there, after some
difficulty and through the offices of the late
Sam Ward, Mr.. keene consented to dictate
an interview for publication. Mr.. Ward
labored with him for more than two hours
before the great operator consented.
AT that time Mr.. Ward was entertaining
his nephew, +. Marion Crawford, and had
been so highly pleased with a story which
Mr.. Crawford told him of an experience in
India that he advised the young man to
write it out and that he would see that it
found a publisher, and thus it was that the
story which made Marion Crawford fn-
nous, Mr.. ~Isaacs,' came to be written and
printed and Crawford's career determined.
Mr.. kcene was greatly interested in Mr..
Wards narration to him of this tale, which
had not then been printed, and he told Mr..
Ward some of the early California eNpe-
riences of his which seemed quite as mar
velous as did the story of Mr.. ~Isaacs, and
it was then that Mr.. Ward said to him:
"Mr. keene, If you were not a great specu-
lator, you might become q great novelist"
Mr.. keene finally received the repre-
sentative OF one Of the New York newspa-
pers. He lay upon his bed, which was in a
quiet room of one of the Long Branch ho-
tells. The room was very simply furnished,
n-I - oDp,, ~, ,,~rr.lJ t~ -1.-x- A1-.l
the man who lay there content apparently
with the almost humble surroundings of
this 10 by IL room was able, if he chose, to
buy the hotel and p good deal of the adj
jacent property without materially affect
ing his pocketbook.
He began slowly to dictate. 1t seemed
as though he weighed every word. He fire.
quently changed a word in order to put in
its place another which would more clearly
express his meaning. When a sentence or
a paragraph had been written down, Mr..
kcene would ask to have it read over, and
when this was done he repeated it several
times, his patience and care being quite
as great as characterized Ruskin or Rus
sell Lowell when they were engaged in
prose composition.
Thus for five hours this great ~financier
lay there composing and debating this
article. The mental strain was exhaustive
both upon Mr.. Ward, who was present. and
upon the newspaper reporter. Once during
the interview Il telegram was brought to
Mr.. Keene from the hotel office. He opened
it, read it and tossed it upon the table with
no more concern than though it had an
nounced a most trivial matter to him.
This article appeared the following day
in print. 1t was the sensational publica-
ton of the month. 1t was %republished
either in whole or in part in a great num-
Der OF newspapers. 1t commanded atten-
ton not only from fnanciers, to whom
every word uttered by Mr.. Keene then and
since upon financial matters was received
with absorbing interest, but it also made a
deep impression upon literary men on &C.
count of the singular purity of it's English
and the lucidity and felicity of its style.
The editor of the paper in which the arti-
Gle appeared would gladly have sent Mr..
keene a check for $500 forit, but the great
did not and would not write for
pay. He earned a fortune while he was
debating that article, for the telegram
which he received announced that a sudden
appreciation that day ina line of stocks
held by Mr.. keene was SO great that if lie
to sell his profits would be .l5u.OO0.
EN-Speakcr Reed has only recently been
tempted to write, and for his writings lie
has received a price quite as large as the
handsome sum once paid Mr.. Gladstone by
an American publisher for a magazine ar
ticle. Governor Mckinley was offered 81 COO
for a 900 word article; Governor Russell
OF Massachusetts a sum almost as large.
but for a little longer article. Secretary
Carlisle, if he could find time to write.
could materially increase his income by so
dong, and there is not one of the more
prominent politicians and linanciers who
could not more than match the earnings Of
some OF the greatest of the litteratcurs. pro-
Vided only they We're willing to accept Of
fers which have been made to them. II il
noticed, however, that the timiditv or re
puSnancc which used to prevail among men
OF affairs about writing for the public
prints is very rapidly passing away.
E.. j. EDWAPDs