The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-09-21
A Bohemian Romance
How Eusebtus Smith Came to q
Decision as to Publisher
Of His Novel

ooC1S1On Us 10 d xupASAST
Of His Novel
The publishing firm of Lansing &
Lane was exceedingly anxious to OBJ
tain book manuscript from the popu-
lar young author, Eusebius Smith.
Young Smith had gone up like rock
ct, so to speak, and was now scintillat-
ing broadcast in the armament, with
no apparent exhaustion Of pyrotech-
MICS nor intention of returning darkly
to earth, after the manner Of the
proverbial stick. He had sprung into
immediate and gratifying populari-
ty" according to the reviewers, upon
the publication Of his first volume,
1.-THE Wings Of Salt" and was, there
fore, a typical modern man Of letters,
worshiped by all femfninity with a
kind Of Hobsonian hysteria and sur
reptitiously envied by every man jack
of his own sex and particularly of his
own profession.
To announce q new volume Of Fuse
bius Smith. lansing & Lane perceived,
would be the browning achievement Of
the year for any American publisher.
II would be the talk Of the book world.
heralded and advertised far and near.
The sales would Immediately advance
by overlapping thousands toward the
phenomenal. and all the literary and
trade Journals would be describing the
changer, By day and by night, Of multi.
Piled lightning presses upon the tons
of white paper flowing into Eusebius
Smiths new book. That Mr.. Smith
already had book manuscript on the
eve Of completion all the literary gos-
sips averred. The interesting question
was. What publisher would get. it,
Presumably the Chapwells. said ev-
erybody. The Chapwells had publish
ed Mr.. Smiths two former volumes
r pushed them, or at least steered
H. to enormous sales. But popular
g. Of letters are freaky. You can't
b I'd on them, especially If they are
* !. Variety Is the spice Of life,
" in the matter Of publishers, and,
though an author has been well served,
he is never quite sure that he may not
be served better by another agent So,
while the Chapwells were rubbing
their hands with mingled expectation
and nervousness, the other publishers
were guardedly putting their best foot
forward, in the customary approaches
to the literary lien of, the day.
Mr.. Eusebius Smith complacsnhy al
bNed himself to be wined znd Sfnen,
went to ride with the ladies OF rich
publishers families, tried the shooting
0i various choice preserves, aha, in
fact, accepted all the delicate co4irte.
sizes extended him in a manner as affa-
bly, unconscious as that which marked
the proffer of them.
But in the meanwhile he was debat-
ing. The Messrs. Chapwells had treat
ed him fairly enough in the matter of
royalties on his first two volumes and
had made him handsome cash offer
for the third-but there We're others.
Richards had made him a better cash
offer by $500. Orchards! BahD Lam
sing Lane produced much better look
works Of art, externally, whereas the
Chapwells' books were mere blocks Of
paper and pasteboard-clay paper at
that. But Lansing & Lane were chary
of advertising and Indifferent about
pushing a book. Furthermore, they
had fallen out of touch with the book
sellers, having refused to allow the
latter the customary underselling priv
ilege. Lansing & Lane provided choice,
select books for the select few-books
of literary favor, without literary sub
stance, the cream puffs of literature.
Their books were VIGOROUSLY unsal-
able and were commonly printed
from the type in editions of $50, half
bf which found their way to parlor
tables and the luxurious dens of liter
airy men Of leisure and the other half
to the omnivorous junk bag No; it
would be suicidal to give the new man
uscript to Lansing & Lane. Even his
own popularity. modestly reflected Mr..
Smith. would scarcely float book aft
er having their imprint.
Still there was an undeniable fasci-
nation in looking over the new issues
Of this firm. each one unique model
Of dainty book designing. 1t was gen.
ny admitted that no house could
pete with Lansing & Lane in re-
e t. to artistic bookmaking
.sebius Smith had to drop in at
e r Offices every few hours, in spite
Imself, to see what new delight for
eye and the touch was on the point
Of coming out This tendency on bis
part was. Of course, warmly encour-
aged by both MI. Lansing and Mr..
Lane. and the leather upholstered easy