The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-30

New York, April 2e.-James Lane AL
len has been living all winter at Wash
ington, where he has been working on
another novel of Kentucky life. He
seems to find that he writes best of
Kentucky when he is away from it-an
experience not infrequent with writers,
due, no doubt, to the familiar fact that
any locality of which one is fond takes
on a special grace ana glow when one
is removed from it. When he wrote
his first short stories. MIR. Allen was
making the experiment of living by
literature alone here in New York. Re
found it the same hard experiment that
it has proved to most Others who have
tried it, and he returned afterward for
several years to Kentucky. For several
years past, however, until he went to
Washington, he had been living mainly
here again. 1t has been "a long, hard
struggle with him, one that none but a
man of heroic resolution could have
gone through. and not until the great
success of ''The Choir Invisible, l sus-
pect, did he feel perfectly sure that the
fight was won. Earlier books. of course.
met with an encouraging reception. but
the best of them left him still with his
way more or less to make. Now he has
only his way to maintain. But even
this is not necessarily an easy and sim
pie matter and so far as mere siren
uousness of labor is concerned, Mr.. AL
lens present differs little from his past.
He goes to his desk each morning with
the greatest. regularity and strives
away there with all the patience of
genius until well on in the afternoon
No reader of his writings need to be
told that he does his work with C are;
anyone can see that every word is well
considered. The publishers are already
announcing the new novel, but it will
not be published until next fall, and it
has not. l think, yet left the authors
hand. Ii is TO have title adapted from
Shakespeare, as so many novels now
do, the passage chosen being THE met
tie of your pasture in Henry VS. ia
NOUS address to his soldiers.
1 have just received from a friend in
London some passages of autobiogra-
ply lately communicated to him by
Frank T. Bullen, the author of The
Cruise of the Cachalot' which so many
readers are now pronouncing the most
enthralling narrative of true sea adj
venture that has ever come into their
hands. These passages indicate that,
if anybody wants to repeat Mr.. Builen
literary achievement in kind as well as
in measure he will have to begin early
in life: for Mr.. Bullen's own career was
one unbroken succession of unusual eN-
periences from the moment of his birth
down 10 about his twenty-ffth year
since when it has had rather more
normal course. L was born in London
in 1857" he says. my father being a
journeyman StonemaSon. My mother
never knew, for while / was an infant
my parents separated, leaving me. their
only child, to the mercy of my father
sister a poor dresslnaker. who never
married. To her tender care / am in
debted for seven happy years"
OF his life with his aunt he adds:
Her usual bedtime was l a. m; mine
was p. m. So, as / slept with her and
she lay soundly sleeping till g. the
bright summer mornings We're almost
unfortunately long to me. But happily.
there stood on the narrow Etelpiece
a few books; a Bible, a cookery book,
somebody's advice to young servants. a
book of common prayer, and Paradise
Lost And when / became able to read,
l used to climb cautiously over the
head of the bed, get book, and steal
back again. Paradise Lost soon SUI
perseded all the others, and, incredible
as it may sound, before l had COM
pleted my fifth year / had read it
through, arguments and all. twice
In my ninth year" Mr. Bulen con-
like a drifting ship out of the peaceful
haven of my aunt's home. Education,
love and sympathy all disappeared. In
their place came hunger, blows, severe, /
eXhausting labor from 6 in the morning
till II at night, and an atmosphere of
vile language. AT last, when | was in
my twelfth year. after an experience of
life in London that would sound in
credible If it were detailed, I ESCAPED
to sea as cabin boy in an old tub of a
bark bound to Demarara."
From Demarara Bullen went to Mex
leo. and by stress of a shipwreck was
landed finally at Havana. There, he
says, L soon found friends. and be-
came deputy billiard marker at the !
hotel st. Isabel. where my tiny size |
fluent Spanish (picked up in Mexico) |
and perfect assurance Cor cheek made |
me prime favorite. An English gen. |
tleman named Dayl1in, holding a high |
official position, wanted to adopt me, |
and with that end in view took me to |
the consul. 1t was a fatal mistake. For /
The consul had lost the run of me. and |
seeing me again, not only refused to |
entertain Mir. Daykin's proposal but /
Immediately put me on board a home |
ward bound Blue-nose bark Then I /
said a long goodbye to comfort again. |
Arriving in Liverpool. / was sent |
adrift, TO find it impossible to get any !
diminutiVe size. AT last friendly |
figure-head carver took me in and gave
me work until he could try and find |
whether anyone belonging to me would |
pay shillings weekly toward my keep
while he taught me his trade. | knew |
he would be unsuccessful. but / had
two months employment. learning so |
rapidly that he was delighted with
me-"
After this. for several months. he led |
the life Of a street arab in London. and |
of this experience he says: But l was
no match for the regular arabs. and |
often ] had to make twopence last two
days. Never shall / forget snatching
a handful of whelks out of big tub in
Billingsgate shellfish market and scut- /
Ting away to a dark corner with them,
only to find that they were unboiled,
and consequently UNBEATABLE, although
hadn't broken my fast for nearly two
days Only because l wouldn't beg.
though. ! succeeded in getting a ship
at last, the Brinkburn OF London, for
Falmouth, Jamaica"
From this followed ten or twelve
years of almost constant seafaring,
marked for the most part by nothing
but hardships and dangers. AT %,
with an all but empty purse and Moth
ing better in prospect than a life be-
fore the mast, he married a girl Just
turned IS He was soon. of necessity
at sea again, before the mast in a
schooner bound for Nova Scotia" Fin
ally. the life became perfectly intelor-
able to him, and he decided to find en-
ployment on land. But things got so
bad" says he. that we laid out our
last half sovereign on food for the baby
and began to starve. Credit we had
none. or friends or relations worth a