The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-10-12
ONE DOLLAR A WORD.
Famous Men who Can Easily Get This
sum For Writing.

sum For Writing.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Aug. 2l.-There are num-
Der of men who have no reputation as
writers who would be able to command at
almost any time higher rates for magazine
or newspaper articles than almost any of
those litterateurs who have gained fame
by reason Of their writings. Mr.. James r.
Keene, who is well known as one 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 paid. As Mr..
Keene sometimes has found his fortune APP
precate as much as 100000 in a single day,
it is easy to see that if 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 early days
of his poverty, when he made his living as
newspaper writer, that Mr.. Keene over
came his dissemination to write was in the
summer of 1871, just after he had held at
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
panic as this country has not seen except
| ing possibly in 1857 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 Mr.. Keene was stricken with an
| illness which threatened to develop into
| paralysis of the brain. He was removed to
Long Branch as soon as it was possible to
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, F. Marion Crawford, and had
been SO highly pleased with 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 il
found publisher, and thus it was that the
story which made Marion Crawford fa-
nous, Mr.. Isaacs," came to be written and
printed and Crawford's career determined.
| Mr.. Keene 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 expe-
rieuces 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 great specu.
lator, you might become 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 no
tells The room was very simply furnished
and it seemed impossible to believe that
the man who lay there content apparently
with the almost humble surroundings OF
this 10 by II room was able, if he chose, to
buy the hotel and good deal of the ad
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..
Keene 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 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, ,itn Il h.. fnr,a "a
ton of the month 1t was republished
either in whole or in part in a great mum
Der of newspapers. 1t commanded atten.
ton not only from financiers, to whom
every word uttered by Mr.. Keene then and
since upon financial matters was received
with absorbing interest, but it also made q
deep impression upon literary men on &C
count of the singular purity of its 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 check for 81, 500 for it, but the grea
financier did not and would not write fo
pay He earned fortune while he wa
debating that article, for the Telegram
which he received announced that suddel
appreciation that day in line of stock
held by Mr.. Keene was SO great that if h
chose to sell his profits would be $3.50 900.
EX-Speaker heed has only recently beel
, tempted to write, and for his writings h.
has received price quite as large as tn
handsome sum once paid Mr.. Gladstone b,
an American publisher for a magazine al
ticle. Governor Mckinley was offered s., 90
for 1000 word article; Governor Russell
of Massachusetts a sum almost as large
but for little longer article. Secretar,
Carlisle, if he could find time to write
| could materially increase his income nv q
doing, and there is not one of the NOR
prominent politicians and financiers VIII
could not more than match the earnings O
= some of the greatest of the litterateurs, pro
vided only they were willing to accept of
fers which have been made to them. 1t i
noticed, however, that the timidity or re
pugnance which used to prevail among mel
of affairs about writing for the publi
prints is very rapidly passing away.
Z. j. EDWARDS.