Omaha daily bee., 1898-06-19
WARS STAMP ON LITERATURE
Sharp Rivalry Between Publishers Of
Magazines and Newspapers.
DEMAND FOR WAR TALK AND PICTURE:
Literary Industry of Mrs. Custer
Royalties on Understanding
Criticisms-Literary Notes
and incidents.

1t Is not the editors OF daily newspapers
alone who have made costly arrangements,
in hot haste. by cable and telegraph. for
representation by writers aud artists at all
possible points Of conflict in the war.
Latterly the newspapers, with their special
Saturday and Sunday features have
seemed to be tramping rather ruthlessly
into the immemorial province OF the editors
of magazines and the publishers OF books;
but in the matter of the war, the latter are
rather calling the turn on the newspaper
editors.
There Is scarcely a we'll known corre-
spondent or artist at the front who is not,
in a way, representing either a magazine
or a publishing house as well as a news
paper, and already monthly magazines have
published articles descriptive of the current
movements and engagements, and publishers
have begun to announce books on various
phases Of the war. l know of one instance
in which all of the arrangements for text
and pictures for a considerable book were
made by cable to Hong Kong, at a rate Of
perhaps s1.60 a word. 1t was for a book on
the campaign against the Philippines, and
the value of concluding a contract at the
earliest moment possible, even at unusual
cost, lay in the fact that the man who is
to write 1t is the only correspondent. and
the man who is to illustrate it is the only
artist on board Admiral Dewey's fleet.
Never before has there been q war in
which pictures have cut so important a
figure as they will in this. To meet the
standards and requirements of the times,
war books, no less than war dispatches.
must be illustrated; and they must be illus
trated from life. 1t is their sense of this
fact especially that has put publishers on
their metal, and set them running q race
with each other equal in pace of the race
of the newspaper editors. For accounts OF
the events by eyewitnesses there might
safely be a certain trusting to fortunes: for
the eyewitnesses are bound to be many,
and to find one who could tell a fairly good
story, though he had not been specially
delegated to that business, would not be Sc
rash n chance that many a publisher might
not take it. But for the original illustra
lions, the arrangement must be made now
or, in all likelihood, never. Returned sailors
|'and soldiers, a few months hence, will
supply Stories in abundance; but not. ir
any great numbers, photographs and lie
drawings.
An Industrious Author.
Mrs. Custer is expected home this month
from a %sojourn she has been making il
Egypt. Among her friends the fact that sht
has gotten to Egypt has a special signf,
amy SiiftC thC lu6 utttt VI ilSl bua
band, General Custer, now twenty-five year.
ago, threw her upon her own resources, sh'
has been, with her writing and her lectur
ing, a remarkably hard working woman
Her industry has been fairly well rewarded
She has been able to maintain here in New
York a comfortable and attractive home
which has been an assembling point for lit
erary and artistic people; and now ant
then she has secured holiday enough to en-
able her to pay a brief visit to Europe. Blu
through all the years she has been too bus,
to accomplish the one journey on whicl
she professed to have particularly set he
heart-a journey to Egypt. Next year
think I can manage it," she would say; an,
she continued to say so year by year, unit
finally, half-sympathetically, half-scoutingly
her friends grew to dating to and from tn
time when Mrs. Custer should 60 TO Egypt
So to them, scarcely less than to Mrs. Gus
ter herself, the final accomplishment of thi
long-dreamed of expedition is an event.
From keeping her home in an apartment
t in the heart of the city, Mrs. Custe
t changed, a year or two ago, to the subur1
of Lawrence Park. This Is a pretty village
some fifteen miles north Of the city, wher,
all the residents own their houses, and
few special restrictions prevail to keep u
the tone and desirability of the place
!, Among her fellow-townsmen here are Mr.
: VIII II. Low, the artist, and Mr.. Edmunt
Clarence Stedman, the poet. But her pres
= ent return home is not to be for long; sh
is going to England, i understand, to spen,
I the summer.
l The impression prevails that for authors
Z and especially for American authors, royal
|. ties on books are mainly a dream and al
!, aspiration. If an author gets his book pub
IIiSbad without nnct Tn bippca1f tho o,r,o,
. belief is that he has done all that he coult
reasonably expect to do. And this is
quite just belief, SO far as unestablishe,
authors are concerned. But the ~royaltie
account has grown to be a very importan
n item in the publishing business and pub
fishers are forced, in planning their venture
!, and shaping their affairs, to give it mucI
( consideration. Take Eugene Fields book
for an example; most people would say
probably, that, while those books nigh
t have made a fair profit for the publishers
v they could not have yielded much to MI
Field. or, since his death, to his repre-
u sentatives. Yet l understand that tn
u royalty must by now have rounded out int
!, quite a handsome sum. In quite a shol
period, l am told, the new edition of Henr
Georges works, Of which as yet only thre
or four volumes are issued, has yielded h
e FAMILY SZ,OOU In royalties. Inere are
l. number of authors whose books, taken yes
by year, are as good as the proverbial whei
10 in the mill.
Is HOwelI's Humanitarianism.
"a The humanitarian impulse which hi
10 prompted most of Mr.. w. d. Howells lat
! essays, and which shows so strong in
number OF his novels, does not expend itse
n with him in merely literary endeavor. +
n makes frequent excursions into the ca
lie side, to visit the schools and social clul
and various establishments maintained Il
rs the relief and Improvement of the pc
III people who live packed almost to suffocatit
a In that quarter, and gives them his e
IN enlargement and sometimes takes part
~ their special exercises and entertainment
~ For example. he is not an infrequent visit
at the university and college settlemen
~ and has become very well known to Il
boys and girls who constitute the membe
lis ship OF those societies. With some Of the
he he has even established a rather close pc
s. sonal friendship and has given them on o
~casions special advice and aid, and now a
then he is one of the readers or speakers
p the weekly, or f~ortDightly, entertainment
;" Of the Social Reform club. In short,