The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-02

Speaking of historical novels.
Mr.. Stanley j. Weyman really has much
to answer for. 1t was he more than any
other who set flowing the tide which has
now grown into such a flood His own
first ventures in this field had a quick and
a very large success. And thew were
well merited it, for they were wrought
out in the most conscientious, skilful way
written from abundant information, and
with literary finish that Mr. Weyman
mad spent laborious Years in acquiring:
nut they suggested to other young writers
what seemed, and what indeed has prov
ed, very easy method Scrap together
from old memoirs and histories a good
selection of romantic incidents, and pre-
sent them in connected and more or less
dramatic order, in a more or less anti
quated phraseology, and there YOU area
recognized, well-paid writer of historical
novels. In Mr.. Weyman's own hands. as
l have Indicated. the method was any,
thing but easy; he from the first strove
Tor something like literary perfection and
for a good while his career was an ex-
traordinarily tough struggle Here are
some interesting literary confessions he
made two or three years ago, to his
friend. r. II. Sherard:
Then" said he-this was after an unto
ly disheartenIng experiments in newspaper
work-then l tried short stories for the
magazines and failed at that until one
day there came into my hands Anstev's
tale, THE Black Poodle" about which
everybody was talking. l said to myself.
Let me see why everybody is talking
about this story and | took it home and
read and reread it, till l came to the con-
clusiou that its captivaton lay in the fact
Of he
manship. | pulled IL to pieces. sentence
by sentence, and saw that each sentence
mad boon polished and elaborated till no
further elaboration was possible SO | de-
termined that ] also would elaborate and
polish, and these things / did in a story
which l wrote and called King Pinpin
and Sweet Give 1 sent IL TO the Cornhiu
James Payn read Ii and so greatly an
proved of it that he asked me up to the
Office and encouraged me to continue writ
ing. But he said, why do you not write
novel? You can never make an income
out of writing short stories t
81 answered: Sir l have no idea Of Moi
-construction-such as is necessary for
the production of a novel And then the
kind man gave me a full hour of his time
in a paternal discourse on the carpentrv
of fiction. He encouraged me to try and
l did try, and again l failed | wrote a
novel of modern life, and it was lamenta
bly, bad. l never made more than $50 (s25M
a year during all those years
1T was by mere accident that was
put on the road which has led newell
towel, to being respectfully greeted h,,
the clerks al that bank over the wav
| was up in London and was sitting in The
smoking room of the New University CIub
thinking rather despondently of NV mast
and even more despondently of NV futIIre
when l happened to notice on the IttIe
table which stood by the chair on which
was sitting a copy of Prof. Baird's His
tory of the Huguenots.' took il up rather
mournfully and turned over its leaves
Those were Rider Haggard's intperial
days, the days when fiction 10 be ponu
lar and marketable had to rumble win
thunder and drip with blood And tho
book In my hand set me thinking that
one might successfully write OF carnase
and the stir of arms in a period which
was elegant and refined and thought of
the Huguenots and ST. BartholomeU,s
eve, and later. as 1 was washing my hands
! thought out the plot of The House of
the Wolf Al the same time l had nos
forgotten what l had learned as to the
absolute necessity of taking pains and
over that story l spent infinite labor
polished and rewrote and touched and re-
touched. and l could with difficulty In the
end allow myself TO let il go forth Won
derlng whether all had been well said no
word or deed forgot. 1t was accepted. and
from the serial use of II and the book
right l derived in all the sum OF 600
81 COO"
! don't think the ordinary members of
the Weyman school have ever yet or in
deed ever will sweat over their xvorty a.,