Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-17

He has done considerable magazine work
| since he left Congress. and his lectures
| have taken up great part of his time
In the meanwhile he may have had some
| time for fiction, and IL SO i predict his
book will be a bright one.
1 knew Bancroft quite we'll His books
were sold to some New Workers, who gave
them to the Lenox Library. Congress bid
within 5000 OF the amount for which they
went, but q friend of the Lenox Library
| got them. Among them are valuable man
| uscripts, which / am surprised have not
| yet come to the public. There is q man.
uscript diary Of James K Polk, which he
copied at Nashville just before his death,
and which, i am told, is full of interest.
There are lots Of original letters of Alex
arder Hamilton, Aaron Burr and others
| that ought to have been included in the
collection, and doubt not that some good
newspaper articles could be gotten out of
the library by those who have access to It.
| 1t Is generally supposed here that IT is
about as hard TO go to Picking after rare
books as TO get into the closely guarded
archives OF that New York library, and so
far i have not seen anything published
from the Bancroft collection. Shortly be-
fore Bancrofts death / had an offer from,
one OF his private secretaries. who treach-
erously said that he could get me copies of
some rare letters in Mr.. Bancrofts pos
session II / would pay for them. ] wanted
the letters, but told him / could not think
VI stealing lueffl, ana nothing came of the
| matter. Bancroft was one of the slowest
writers We have ever had here. He wrote
and rewrote, first debating his thoughts
70 a shorthand man and then revising
them again and again as they were pre-
scented 10 him in typewritten form He
thought go words was a good DAVIS WORK
but he kept grinding away until he was
ninety, and his long life enabled him TO
accomplish much.
saw Parson Brownlow's son here the
other day. He was a colonel in the Union
army ana MS fathers private secretary
while he was in the United States Senate
asked him something about Pareon
Brownlows book and. he told me that
about 10000 copies Of it were sold and
that his father made in the neighhorhood
Of $4,000 out Of IT. 1 doubt whether Ran
croft made as much in his long life of
work out of his histories Henry Ward
Beecher got $4,000 from Robert Bonner
for writing the novel Norwood" and
We all know of the great fortune that
came to the Grant estate from his book
don't know just exactly what John Hay
received Tor his life of Lincoln. one story
| Is that the Century Company made out a
contract and left the price blank and that
II was finally filled in by them for $50 COO
Col Hay talked to me about the book at
the time he was writing IL and he showed
me his workshop. He has a masnifcent
house here at Washington, which is fur
| nished with all the Injuries of a million
aire- The library in 1t is as big as a barn
| as the bed Of a bridal chamber. The work
| on the book was not done here hut in a
little cuddy hole of a room in the attic,
which. had a pine table and half dozen
kitchen chairs and the floor of which was
! bare. I asked Col. Hay at this time as 10
his dialect poems. You know he wrote
somewhat as follows. referring TO the
| angels:
Il think that taking a little boy
| And saving him for his own
| Is darn sight better business
| Than loafing around the throne"
I found him not at all inclined to talk
about It He gave me to understand that
he was sorry he had written it and the
he hoped to do more elegant and better
| work. He has done since then a great
deal more elegant work, but / doubt
whether he has written anything which
| has come closer to the hearts of the
American people than that poem.
Grace Greenwood Is living here at the
capital now. Emma D. e. n. Southworth al
eighty years of age, is writing her eightieth
| novel She has been receiving. It is said
| $4,000 a year from the New York Ledger
| for everything she writes, and the WAY she
grinds out books makes me think Of talk
/ had the other day with Bob Burdctte as
| to his lecture on The Rise and FAN of the
| Mustache." 1 asked Burdette how many
| times he had delivered it. He said, Il don {
| know. Hundreds Of times, and 1 think
| thousands of times. Why, know that lee
| ture well that II 1 would start IL and
leave the stage, / believe the old thing
would go on and finish up on its own hook
! without me-" This is the way with Mrs
! Southworth. Her gold pen keeps gliding on
| year after year, day after day, until one
| is forced to imagine that IL will keep Up
| its speed even after she has passed away
She lives at Georgetown, and she writes
| the same character Of stories today as she
| did when her first story was published in
| the National Era here nearly two genera
| lions ago. Mary Halleck Foote lives here
part of the time Anna Vernon Dorsey has
| her home here, Mrs. Logan is keeping up
| her literary work in connection with her
| magazine, and Kate Field spends a great
part of her winters at the capital
| FRANK g. CARPENTER