The San Francisco call., 1895-07-15
Bret Harte's Editorship of the
Original Overland
Monthly.
GOLDEN ERA" SPACE WORK.
Charles Warren Stoddard Has Writ
ten a Novel to Be Published
This Year.

Monthly, spoke of the contributors whose
literary work did SO much to win world
wide recognition for the magazine
Eyes, l consulted Bret Harte about start
ing the magazine" said Mr.. Roman. "I
did not know Harte at that time, but
Charles Warren Stoddard spoke SO highly
of him that made his acquaintance and
unfolded to him my plans for establishing
literary monthly on the Pacific Coast.
Harte did not seem to be much taken
with the idea and was inclined to discour-
age the enterprise on the ground that the
field was too narrow.
after lapse of some time I resolved to
publish the magazine and engaged Noah
Brooks, DR.. w. c. Bartlett and Bret Harte
to get out the first number. paid each of
them $50 month. Harte, who was then
employed in the United States Mint of
this City, had more leisure time than
either Bartlett or Brooks and so gave more
personal attention to the work of reading
manuscripts than the others did.
Before the second number was pub
lished Harte came to me and said, L will
do all the work if you will pay me what
you have been paying the three-$150 a
month.
81 assented to this arrangement and
Harte became editor of the Overland
Monthly"
Replying to general line of inquiries
Mr.. Roman said he understood that Harte
was now lion in English society. "Herte
made money here in San Francisco, in
Boston and New York. said he. MANY
of his friends and admirers advanced him
money. Osgood of Boston paid him $10,
600 for years work, and Bliss, of the
American Publishing Company, paid him
large sums of money. The question, what
does Harte do with all the money he
makes2 has been asked of me hundreds of
times. l do not know, and do not care to
know. 1t has been suggested that he gam
bled and lavished his wealth on women,
but the subject never interested me. His
letter to Hay, acknowledging the efforts of
friends to keep him in the consular service,
is the only acknowledgment of kindness
that ever knew Harte 10 make"
Charles Warren Stoddard, the poet of
the South Seas and professor of English
literature in the Catholic University of
America, has fond memories of Bret Harte
and the kindest of admiration for A. Ro-
man. OF the latter he said yesterday:
"He is Roman in the broadest sense. 1t
was his work, his money and his faith
that established the Overland Monthly.
81 knew Bret Harte very well, F" resumed
the genial professor in his kindly remin-
iscences of the early seventies. "Harte
was very good to rue, indeed, and l shall
not forget him. Neither shall / forget dear
old Joe Lawrence who paid me the first
money ever earned. When he called me
into the editorial Office OF the Golden Era
and asked, Did you write this, indicating
something that had been published in his
paper, [ replied in the affirmative, and he
then said. Young man, continue your
work for the Golden Era. l will allow you
dollar column 1t was the happiest
day of my life. l was to be rich wealth
and literary honors were to be mine. Dear
old Joe, he was good to Charley"
The reverie of the poet was interrupted
by the abrupt question: "Is Mark Twain
broke?" Meanwhile some of the sdear
old has beens' who had been gazing into
empty space came back to earth and
awaited the reply.
'He is not dead broke but he has lost
great deal of money, and has had some
trouble. You wouldn't fancy it, but
Mark, with all of his reputed shrewdness,
is dreamer. Howells told me that the
humorist had spent whole lot of money
on type-setting invention. When the
machine was supposed to be complete and
needed only an ingenious contrivance of
delicate mechanism to perfect it, Mark
paid an inventive expert or genius fabu-
lous monthly sum to complete it. Think
of hiring a man at $1,000 month to finish
a job An idiot only would complete the
task and cut off the salary. l would have
too much business sense myself to COM
plete a job that was paying me $1,000
month SO long as it was unfinished
'I understand" resumed the professor,
"that Mark will soon visit San Francisco
on his trip around the world, and l pre-
sumo he will lecture here. He cannot be
very poor, for when he was married his
father-in-law gave him an establishment
OF house, horses. carriages and home
equipments costing $50,000."
Mr.. Stoddard was asked: s'What are
you doing yourself in literary work-do
you write as well as lecturer"
With the glow of California summer
on MS Cleek ana the ISnL OF an evening In
Bohemia in his eye, the poet exclaimed:
81 have written novel, My Sweetheart
but that is not the title of it. The title is
secret, and my name is not to appear as
the author of the book"
"Does MY Sweetheart live on paper, or
in the imagination, like the Annals of Bo-
hemia'?"
"Bless your heart, it is type-written-
ninety thousand words. Now, 1 cannot
tell you ali about it to-day continued the
author, because it is long story. Three
years ago l spent my summer vacation at
Mrs. Dennison's beautiful home in Cam
bridge-you know, the mother of Selim
and Fred Woodwork. Willie Wood
worth is tutor at Harvard, and the little
girl-now charming and beautiful young
Iady-is there. Life was made so pleasant
for mel Well, finished my novel there,
rolled up the manuscript and resolved not
to look at it again for one year. At the
expiration of year l unrolled it, read it
over and rolled it up again. Another year
elapsed. l read it again and had it type
written.
"When | told this to one of my friends
- No,ry Work who ia prominont writar