The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-29
THE LITERARY OUTLOOK.
NOW THE WAR WORKS AGAINST
THE SPACE WRITER.

II
and Rejected POem-A New Novel
by Joseph COnrad-COnrad's Adven-
4urous Career-The Wages of
>c,vspnper Writers-Nansen's Fine
Profits in the Arctic-MiscelIaneOu
Notes.
New York, May 2S.-At last one honest
tr7ustry begins to be very seriously af-
e4-ted by the war-that of the space"
writer's for the newspapers. The space
writer's supply the larger part of the spe-
cal articles for the great Sunday issues.
They often take subjects on the assign
meat of the Sunday editor but they as
.,rren submit subjects TO him for his ap-
proval. He pays for only such matter as
he accepts, at a given rate word. Many
of these writer's in New York are woman
larsely Southern women. 1t is practicable
for only a few of them to go off and be war
correspondents, but war news and war
"stories" are now the only class of mat
Ter that enjoys anything like a sure call
on space General and miscellaneous
themes. are of secondary Importance, and
articles that deal with them are the first
to be sent out on the sudden arrival of a
new war sensation. Consequently the Sun
dav editors are buying much less of sucn
matter than in ordinary times. And not
only that, but in several of the large
newspaper offices here, I understand, the
managers, forced into curtailments at every
possible point by the extraordinary expense
of getting war news, arereducing the space
writer's pay. Such a condition long con-
tinued would mean almost starvation for
some of these writers. At best their call
ing is a most precarious one. A week in
which they make $40 or $50 is likely to be
followed by several in which they maze
$50 or $40, or So or nothing. OF course,
these figures are not what they ordinarily
confess to; in the open court 5000 a year
As about the least earnings they are wont
to credit themselves with. But even in
their most expensive moments they don't
mind letting you know that their immedi-
ate condition is distinctly necessitous, nd
lust now they complain of their situation
bitterly.
The raw recruits in the ranks of the
space writer's are those confident and con-
fdng young people who, having written
successful poem or story, decide to come
70 New York to live by literature" For
most of them it is about as unlucky
choice as they could make. 1t does not at
ell mean what, in their ineXperience, they
are apt to suppose it will mean-the pro
duction Of other poems and stories yet
more successful and gradual growth in
literary reputation until, finally, the III
dependence of $50 1000 words and imme-
date acceptance of all you write is at
tanned Alas, no! 1t means taking up
calling that is as Independent of verse and
story writing as railroading; and one that
has to be as carefully learned and as
practically pursued, il 1t is to yield fair
wages. as any other. 1t is positively I'M
friendly to pure literary production. The
space writer's great capital is his facility
his ability TO do things with a dash; ne
has no time to waste in the mere vanity
of making things fine.
The new writer's are not apt to have the
older writer's for their earliest and strong
est admirers, and when a new writer does
make a quick impression on the older
ones. it's pretty good evidence that he is
no ordinary man. Joseph Conrad, the au-
thor of "Tales of Unrest" has succeed
ed in doing this. a friend of mine, who
has just returned from England, where
he talked with nearly everybody in the
writing and publishing circles, tells me
that the first person named to him by most
of those he met was Conrad. William e.
Henley j. M. Barrie and George Mere
dUh all spoke to him of Conrad, COM
and expressing high hopes of what he
might still do. ''Tales of Unrest is a col
lection of snort stories, and while his ear
ler book THE Children of the Sea-"
which, by the way, was published in Eng
land under the title of digger of the
'Narcissus' y is a single story, it hardly
rises to the dignity of a novel. Mr.. Con-
rad has just finished writing a novel, how
everyone of which those who have read
it, speak in the highest terms 1t will
q not be published until late in the fall or
early in the winter.
You may have observed that there has
not been much told of the story of Mr..
Conrad's life That is because he does
not himself tell much of it, He writes
so well of the sea because he knows it.
He has had, undoubtedly, rare adventures
on those remote coasts to which he has
traded as a merchant captain, but, for
some reason, he chooses to say little about
them. 1t is not certain even that he is
an Englishman, and 1t is certain that Con-
rad is not his real name.
The naming of characters in stories and
novels is a VIGOROUSLY delicate business;
and when an author is most confident of
having been quite original in it, he is, APP
parently, lkeliest 10 find himself mistaken.
Mr. John A. Hill was telling me day or
two since an interesting recent experience
of his that exemplifies this. A month or
two ago he published I'm one of the maya
zines a story entitled 1.-THE Polar Zone. "
1t represented a young man, while lazily
pursuing his own pleasure at San Fran
cisco, as discovering among the shipping
there a steam whaler bearing the name of
Duncan Mcdonald, which was his own
name, as it had been his fathers before
him. Made curious by the coincidence,
he went aboard 10 learn, II he could, how
the ship came by her name, and found in
the captain and owner an old friend and
shpmate of his father, his father having
been sailor too
In writing the story Mr.. Hill had taken
the name of Duncan Mcdonald quite
by accident simply because it came to
him. 1t was no more familiar to him than
others, and not particularly associated in
his mind with seafaring. But soon after
the story was published he received a let
ter, in which the writer said, Il am GU
rious to know how you happened to use
the name Duncan Mcdonald in the story,
Tor the simple reason that my father bore
the same name sthat he was a sailor, and
engaged at times In the West Indian