The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-10

Even at That Time He Had I'm Hand
the Work That Was to Place Him
In the Front Rank of English Let
ters-Was Not u Success Re-
porter, Though He Was n Brill
liant Writer.
Early in the winter of 1S7s-SO Robert
Louis Stevenson got job-the transact
ton didn't even rise to the dignity of ''ob-
tanning position1-in the city depart
ment Of the San Francisco Chronicle
Forthwith he inaugurated a brief but
hardly dashing reportorial career, which
was numbered by days. His first assign
mentor detail. as they call it in San
Francisco-was=to cover some holiday do
ings arranged by the Salvation Army for
the entertainment of the very poor and
their children az
Stevenson wrote a gorgeous story, in
which all the information bearing or the
local aspect of the festival was carefully
ignored. A man who saw the copy and
told me of the incident said it was a
piece of work such as 0nly Robert Louis
Stevenson could turn off,. though nobody
in that office then knew or cared who the
long. gangling, Ill dressed, starved looking
Scotcnman might be. ;t..z.
The story. however, was hopeless so
far as the requirements of the city editor
were concerned, and Hudson, who was
then acting in that capacity, on the
Chronicle, acrimoniously asked his new
man if he knew where the festival had
been held, who the committeeman in
charge were, and If he had not got
list of the merchants who had provided
the presents for the children, to all of
which Stevenson replied that he had not
thought those details at all worth while
y brisk young police reporter was hur-
riedly sent out for q few facts concern
ing the matter and Stevenson was told
that his copy would probably prove avail
able for a Sunday special. The story was
miSlaid, however, and never saw print at
all.
His next detail proved even less fortu-
nate He was told one evening that he
should go out to the Preside next morn
ing and get the facts relative to the in
stallation Of a new and extensive system
of waterworks. whereupon he raised eacA
particular hair on the fretfuI Hudsons
head by replying, with much ease of man.
ner, that he had an engagement for the
next day and regretted he would be IN
able TO go to the Fresidio. after which he
was incuntinently ana picturesquely fired
by Hudson and there is no record that he
ever again tackled reportoriaI work He
did some special articles for the Sunday
edition of the Chronicle. but there is 20
Indication that he thought highly Of
them. for he never rescued them from the
files.
Stevcnson's life in San Francisco Gov
cred period of nine months and included
the most miserable days of his life.
PhySiCal4y he was ina, fearful condition,
the consumption heavy upon him and he
Finally he was on7the IRA gged edge of de-
spair. He went from doctor to doctor,
seeking Treatment on credit and was
turned away by them all until the ILL
Tess which overlook him in the spring
of 1880 nearly killed him. Then Mrs. Fan
ME Osborne, who afterward became his
wife, secured the services of DR.. Bann-
ford, who gave Stevenson generous and
skilled treatment.
Meanwhile, during the winter, being I'M
able to obtain credit from the doctors, he
was reduced to the humiliation of asking
medicine and advice at the municipal free
dispensary. The grim horror and irony
of the business is accented when you re-
call that at this very time the man was
toiling like a worker in metals over the
finest piece Of narrative prose which has
been given to our language by this gen
GRAFTON Of Writers-to wit. Prince Otto
The essay on ThoreaI was In hand, too
and the Amateur Immigrant had been
sent in manuscript to his friend and coun-
seIor. ('olVin, only to be returned r.ddled
with meTciTess criticisms E'7'
Some of the best works Which was to
come from his pen was either actually
under way Or shaping itself in his mind,
and the stress Of composition was sup
ported by diet which would have been
the death of any man not sustained by an
tneXhaUStible nervous force
IT, a, ~
house at No. COS Bush street, 81 so a week;
he worked by candle light and sometimes
ate at Joe's coffee house, a restaurant
kept by an Italian and now patronized-
at least once by all Stevenson sentiment
talists who visit San Francisco His
breakfast was roll, cup of coffee and
a pat of butter, which cost him 10 cents.
Dinner. when he was prosperous, cost 80
cents, and was a table d'hote Supper
was repetition of breakfast, the cup of
coffee being sometimes replaced by
bow of soup.
Friends in England and Scotland wrote
him sagacious letters of advice at this
period, and more than once his tired sick
soul rebelled. He wrote to an English
correspondent: "NJt one soul ever gives
me any news. Everybody writes me SER
mons, which is hardly good for a man
who lives all alone on 45 cents a day and
sometimes less"
AS poverty plncned tighter ne expert
mented with his viands. A doughnut was
tried in place of the rolls, and when the
50-cent table d'hote was beyond his means
bowl Of soup was made to serve the pur-
pose of the midday dinner
HE was a weird sight in those days"
says a San Francisco newspaper man who
saw Stevenson about the Chronicle Of
flee. His face was CHASTITY in It's pallor,
his clothes seemed to haye been flung
upon him, and his trousers and his shoe
tops disagreed by at least two inches.
have seen men jump at the sound of his
cough and rub their eyesSat the first sight
of his eye. His manner towards his equals
betrayed a conscious sense Of superiority
or, perhaps, it was 3only a lack of
sympathy-and he was awkward to a de-
gree. 49,
at is easy to see now that contact with
q sympathetic man friend would have
meant great deal to. him during his mis-
cradle winter in San Francisco, but he
didn't seek friends and the newspaper
men, who, as class, are apt to get bru-