The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-26

tracted at one time and another not a
few transient patrons, because 1t was
reputed to be a favorite dining place
with Thomas Janvier, Mr. Howells,
and others of their kind. And a little
French restaurant over on Washington
square has enjoyed like strokes of
patronage under similar repute. But
in neither, 1 fancy, has the curious
visitor often found a reward to his
mind; and if YOU went to either today
in the hope of literary celebrities, you
would find something quite different
This mutability of the literary center
is not to be imputed wholly to the
fickleness of the literary stomach No
doubt the writer. like any other man,
finds any hotel or restaurant deterior-
ate on acquaintance and yields to the
memorable disposition to move on, in
the hope that the next place win not
prove as unsatisfactory as the last
But, after all, the fundamental reason
for there being no abidingness in the
literary center is that in reality, it
has not existed in the earlier and more
Bohemian days, but there is no such
thing now. Even the Authors club,
which exists in name and has itself
very comfortably housed in the Carne-
gle building, at Seventh avenue and
Fifty-sixth street, is after all, rather a
lifeless and incoherent association.
Authors as such have in New York
next to no social relations with each
other. They form their social con-
nections largely irrespective of their
calling, and the fact that a man writes
carries no implication that he has
mainly writers for his friends. AS for
Bohemia, it does not exist, except as
a few of the youngsters, for a brief
season, play at being Bohemians.
There are struggling writer's in plenty,
or,
places and in very odd ways, but there
is none of the romance of Bohemia to
enliven their environment to them
Among the younger writers none has
shown a more heroic persistence than
Mr. Clinton Ross. He came out of Yale
college a few years ago with the pros
pect before him of being able to live
his life very much as he chose. But his
outlook suddenly changed. and he
found himself under the new necessity
of making his own living. There was
but one thing that he really cared to
do, and that was to write. He had
already experimental somewhat in it
in an amateurish way; he had even
published a small book or two-at his
own expense So writing being, above
all else, the thing he desired to do, he
decided it should be the thing he would
do, and he buckled to it. No man could
have worked harder. 1t was solely as
a story writer that Mr.. Ross proposed
to live, but story writing, as a liveli-
hood. everybody agrees is simply i'm
possible. One can count it up for ones
self; the calculation is easy, ten accept
able stories a year, which is more by
four or five than any man, however
gifted, can possibly write, at $50 each,
which is more than any unknown au- |
thor can hope to get except in his |
luckiest hits" Despite the calculation, |
however Mr. Ross somehow did it. |
Still, even he hasn't depended on the |
short story exclusively. He tried his |
Iand pretty early in the struggle on a |
short novel, and he has now written a
number and placed them rather well. /
He was further fortunate in that his |
Oent enabled him to take advantage of |
he tide that has lately set in for his |
.orical stories. He has made good use |