Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1899-09-15
Filled with Rejected Drafts of What
He Wrote.


Writing of Bret Harte in California
in the Century, Noah Brooks tells
of the story-writer's fastidiOuSness:
Harte's first literary work was done
in San Francisco. after he had tried
his hand at school teaching in the in
terror of the state, and had ventured
tentatively in other casual pursuits, az
was the manner of all the Argonauts
of those days. In 1863, while he was
setting type il the Office of the Golden
Era, literary weekly paper Of some
local renOwn, he offered to the editors,
with much difiidence, occasional con-
tributiOns, which he had already set up
in his cOmpOsing-stick They were
short and unambitious. but they were
so highly approved by the managers of
the paper that the young author was
encouraged to offer more of the same
sort. A year later Harte accepted a
writing engagement on the staff of the
Californian, another literary weekly,
then edited by Charles Henry Webb.
better known to old CalifOrnians by his
pen name of John Paul" Harte be-
came editor of this newspaper in 1868,
when Webb relinquished its manage
ment. Another contributor to the col
umns of the Californian was Samuel l..
Clemens. who was then making his
first essays in composition under the
since famous sODriquet of Mark
Twain. Like Goldsmith's parson. who
oil vi O. an
year, these two young writer's were
we'll content with a compensation that
would now be regarded by either Of
them with amused contempt. In the
Californian. Harte printed nothing
more ambitious than bits of verse and
slight local sketches in prose The I'll
ties Of some Of these were Side Walk
ings, "On a Balcony" and A Boys
Dog" Nearly all of them. l think.
were hunted up and reprinted in more
enduring form when harte had become
a celebrated author. His celebrity gave
these trifles an Importance which he
never dreamed they would acquire.
Harte always manifested in his work
that fastidiOusness in choice of words
which has characterized him ever
since. 1t was humorously complained
of him that he filed the newspaper
office waste-basllets with his rejected
manuscripts and produced next to
nothing for the printer Once. as
signed to the task Of writing an obit-
uary article that was not to exceed
two stickfuls' in length he actually
hlled waste-basket with fragments of
copy which he tore up before he pro-
duced the requisite amount of matter.
Going into my own editorial room.
early one afternoon, | found Harte at
my desk, writing little note to make
an appointment with me to dine to-
Sether later in the day. Seeing me. he
started up with the remark that my
early arrival at thc Office would obviate
the necessity of his finishing the note
which he was writing, and which he
tore up as he spoke. When. this little
matter settled, Harte had gone out.
crumpling in his hand the fragments
of his unfinished note. CHANGED to
look into my waStebasket and saw a
litter of paper carrying Harte's famil-
lar handwriting: and, turning over the
basket with quiet amusement. | dis
covered that he had left there the re-
jected manuscript Of no less than three
notes, which any other man would
have disposed of in something like this
order: Dear Brooks: We will dine
together at Louis Dungeons at G.: 80
p. IN. tonight"