The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-23
AN EXPERIMENT IN FICTION.
An Amateur Undertakes to Write
Boys Book of Adventure.


Hayden Carruth, in Chicago Post.
II once thought" said the lawyer, "of 60
ing into the author business. 1t seemed to
be nice, quiet profession, and fairly re-
spectacle. l looked up an editorial friend
of mine and he advised me to try stories or
adventure for boys-great demand ne as
Sured me. Keep your eye on genuine,
live boy fourteen years Old he said, and
write stirring, dramatic story of adven-
ture with fresh plot and plenty OF action ION,
He suggested further that boys liked wild
animals, Indians and so forth. L went nome
and began to think.
He had warned me that there must be
nothing impossible about my story, nor even
more than mildly improbable, as boys We're
stern critics and sure instantly to detect
these blemshes. 1t occurred to me that o.
tiger was a. good, stirring, dramatic beast,
and / couldn't see anything improbable in
his escape from a circus ana taxing 70 the
woods-an escaped royal Bengal tiger GER
tainly wouldn't go down town and lounge
in front of the postoffice and argue about
the alleged advantages Of large sprocket
bounded him away into some dense and for
bidding woods which L raised up just be-
fore him.
"A reward for his capture was clearly the
proper thing, so l offered one of $780, Then
1 trotted out my boy, just fourteen noble
and needed the money. l gave him his
mothers clothesline and headed him for the
woods. thought it would tighten matters
a little to have him whistle, and you never
heard a boy whistle louder However, my
troubles were just beginning.
Il hadn't provided him with anything ex-
cept the clothesline, and the prospect for
fourteen-year-old bagging a man-eating
tiger q had specified that he was a man
eater with this slender equipment seemed
rather dark of course, l could have gone
back and started him out anew, armed with
a Calling gun and tin pail of chlorotorm,
but the bugaboo of improbability was con-
stantly before my eyes, and clothesllne
seemed to be about the only thing boy
would be likely to take. By way of shut
ting off his whistle and getting down to
business / chased him two miles with
band of Indians This worked well, and /
felt encouraged.
any longer and kept the story down to
1900 words, which the editor had said was
the limit SO bottled up the Indians and
rushed in the tiger Probability made the
boy drop his clothesline and run; there l
was, with the prospect that the whole thing
would end like the historical tiger ride in
dulged in by the young lady of Niger. So
what did l do but just pop that boy under
a big overturned iron kettle. l wasn't so
daft as l may seem, either, because L read
lily accounted for the kettle by saying that
it was in an abandoned maple-sugar camp.
OF course, there was only one thing TO do
now, and that was to make the tiger
scratch UP the soil at the side of the kettle
with the object of getting at the boy. L
thought l would show that he was no milk
sop of boy so L made him strike up MS
whistle again
"At this point I dropped my pen and
counted up the words which had written
so far. 1 was dumfounded to find $500. So
| just cut out the last whistle and got rid
of thirty. 1 was desperate. / had not seen
how any boy was going TO get the tiger
from the outset, and the thing was grow
ing worse and worse, especially now that l
he'd them close together and observed what
a little fellow the boy was and what
very feline monster that tiger was, making
the dirt fly all over the forest as he
scratched and roared. dozen things oc-
CURED to me, the best of which was to have
a tree fall on the tiger and break his back,
but even this was too improbable; besides,
the beast had to be captured alive. Then
an Inspiration worthy of a genius came
to me.
| lust put a crack in that kettle right up
from the edge where the tiger was scratch
ing to the middle of the bottom. Then |
had the boy push the blade of his jack
knife into this. give ii quarter turn, thus
opening the crack; then as the tiger stuck
his nose under and with his red, hoErid
jaws tried to seize the boy l just slipped
one of his ears-the tigers ears-into the
crack, and the boy, of course, practically
without an effort on my part, pulled out
the knife blade and let the crack snap to-
gether on the ear. This left the tiger help
less, as the only way he could escape was
to pull off his ear, something which any
body knows would hurt too much for even
a tiger TO stand l fairly cried out with
Joy as / took the boy from under the kettle
and in 200 words had him swing II around
over the tigers head like an immense
Derby hat, seize the beast by the tail and
guide him to town. Whstling all the way,
the guiding this way: If the boy wanted
the tiger to go more to the left he would
step out TO the right and haul away on the
beasts tail, and vice versa. 1t came out
beautifully Just 3,015 words: but when |
took IL In to the editor offered to cut out
fifteen of the Indian whoopS and so leave
1t precisely 5000. But the story was never
used; so the extra whoops didn't matter"
friend.
intellectual denseness of the editor