The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-01

SluIuliy DULL, Oh SIQOOlu,
rather grim visage, with the look Of an
uncompromising fatalist in his black
brown eyes, and asked to submit a
short story. His aspect was not just
that ofaa man who would be writin g
stories. and the assistant EDITORS ham
formed, fleeing sense was of another
OF those poor chaps, who, hopeless of
getting an engine to tend or a gang of
men to boss, have desperately resorted
to the pen; for it was pathetically man
ifeSt that the young man was not in
the capitalist class. Little was said
on either side The assistant editor
| showed only such cordiality as an as
| sistant editor can when he is sitting up
TO his ears in a bath of unread manu-
scripts; and the young man was not
urgent. They parted without ardent
expectations, probably, on either side
| In due course, the story was read, and
found to be a melodramatic, impossible,
unavailable tale of the sea, and was
put away in the files to be held until
| such time as the distressed author
| should call for it. This he did before
| long, and on receiving the story back.
asked to be told specifically what were
| its faults. The assistant editor could
| answer only evasively; he indicated
vaguely one or two disqualifications:
but he could not, in mercy, say what he
| believed-that the Story'S browning
| fault was that it had nothing good in
| it and that it even held no promise OF
better ones to follow.
The young man, no doubt, was dis
couraged; but he was not defeated. Be
fore long he presented himself again,
submitting a second story. The result
was the same as in the case of the
first; and none different followed when
a third and, perhaps, also fourth
story was presented. The assistant
editor encountered nothing in any. OF
them to raise so much as a suspicion
of having in their author coming
man. Then. after a considerably long
er interval than had fallen between the
previous submissions, there came yet
another-received in much the same
brief way as the earlier ones, and taken
up, subsequently. for examination with
no more enthusiasm than the others.
But it proved a revelation. Instead of
a made story, improbable in incident
and unconvincing in character, it
proved to be real and vital in every
line. The whole editorial force read IL
and liked it. 1t was accepted and soon
published. And there followed it other
stories, by the same hand, no less
strong and genuine. And now these
and others have been gathered into a
volume, which the reviewers are many
of them saying it is one of the most re-
markable that they have ever seen of
it's kind. The author is Morgan w.
Robertson.
Now. hope that no literary aspirant
VII infer from this story that the OBJ
vious moral is never to cease from FIR
ing your stuff into the declining ed
itor until you have brought him to
terms. That is like many other war
policieS-eXcellent only so far as it suc-
ceeds-and there are still some facts to
add in regard to Mr.. Robertson that
will provoke. or, at least, should pro-
woke, quite other differences. Robert
son. when he turned to writing, was, in
truth, in just as hard luck as he looked
to be. He had had an experience in
life the full bitterness of which cannot
be signified in written words. Born
with half dozen distinct aptitudes,
and compelled to make his own way,
he had tried first one thing and then
another, only to fall down with a more
or less cracked head in every bout. He
tried being first a sailor, then an en-
gineer, then a-well, l don't know what
he did not try. Often he was at the
point of starving; always he was ind
ing life a very tough and curious bust
ness, and he was getting an acquaint-
ance with IT beside which that of the
ordinary story teller is the merest
childshness. His stories owe their ef-
feet to the fact that they embody this
extraordinary experience. Until he
learned how to make them do this they /
were worthless. but now they are as
extraordinary as the experience itself. !
They are strong testimony, moreover, !
as far as they go (they are, Of course,
rather too few as yet to be conclusive) I
that Mr.. Robertson has chosen at last /
the right one of his several aptitudes
to permanently insist upon. / may add !
that he shows his prosperity; he is a !
much Dleasanter man to look in the I
face now than he was four years ago. /
A friend of his remarked the change
the other day, and playfully asked the |
cause. Robertson's reply was charac- !
teristic. Il now get enough to eat" ;
said he.
Charles Dana Gibson, the artist. has |
concluded his winters sOjourn and /
travel in Egypt and gone for time to |
Vienna. He has almost finished his /
series of Egyptian pictures. and he /
writes that he has had the greatest
pleasure in doing them, and that he be-
lieves they are his best work. They will
receive their first publication in one of
the leading magazines.
l hope that Mr.. George w. Gable,
who is soon to begin a course of read
ings in England and is to have pub
lisned there under an introduction by
- M. bdIIlt. uON6i HC
simes,'' will succeed in effecting some
reprisals in behalf of our native au-
thors. England. as a rule, has proved
pretty poor picking fer American writ
ers: whereas America for the English
writer latterly has proved little less
than an FL Dorado. The English writer
appreciates the fact, too. There is usu-
ally imputed to him, when ne gets back
home from the lecturiIg or reaoilg in
vasion which he is apt not to fail to
effect on our territory sooner or later.
some remark in disparagement of us.
And. as usually. he rises up and de-
MES having made this remark. But
whether he denies ii or not, and whe-
Their he actually makes il or not. ne
sooner or later let's the fact appear that
at least. he knows we
have on US nothing that should be i'm
brushed off. AS market, in
)ther words. he finds US infallibly what
Mark Twain's naughty little boy found
he stolen jam-"bully."
Anthony Hope is an interesting case |
n point. Now whether Anthony Hope !
lid not speak Slightingly of our man ;
lers, as he himself says is the fact. or
whether he did. as some unnamed, ire ]
;pcnsible person has been moved to as !
;ert, yet | know that at a recent meet !
ng of the New Vagabond club in Lon
lon. held in Anthony Hopes special /
honor, he made q speech which Was all ,
n laudation of America as a field for i
he sale of books. He described Ameri- ,
,ans as buying books with an eagerness
md liberality almost unsqualcd. They
Knew. he said-lo people better-wllat
Kind of books they liked; and the kind
hey liked were apt to be the kind we'll
worth liking, and what they liked they
we're quick to buy DR.. Conan Doyle.
Who introduced Anthony Hope on the
occasion, also spoke. with no less en-
husiasm. to the same purpose. The |