The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1900-07-14
When | Knew
Stephen Crane.
BY VILLA sIBERT GATHER, in the Library.

At that time Crane was but twenty
four, and almost an unknown man.
Hamlin Garland had seen some OF his
work and believed in him, and intro
duced him to Mr.. Howells. who recon-
mended him to the Bachelor Syndicate.
The Red Badge of Courage" had been
published in the State Journal that
winter along with lot Of other syndi.
cate matter. and the grammatical con-
struction of the story was 90 faulty that
the managing editor had several times
called on me to edit the copy. In this
way / had read it very carefully, and
through the careless sentence-structure
1 say the wonder OF that remarkable
performances. But the grammar GER
tainly Sss bad. I remember one Of the
reporters who had corrected the phrase
at don't" for the tenth time remarked
savagely, "If l couldn't write better
English than this, I'd quit"
Crane spent several dsys in the town,
living from hand to mouth and waiting
for bis money. / think he borrowed q
small amount from the managing edi-
tor. He lounged about the Office most
Of the time, and / frequently encounter.
cd him going 10 and out of the cheap
restaurants on Tenth street. When he
was at the Office he talked good deal
in q wandering, absent minded fashion,
and his conversation was uniformly
frivolous. II he could not evade q seri-
Gus question by joke. he bolted. / cut
my classes to lie in wait for him, cont
dent that in some unwary moment /
could trap him into serious conversation,
that il one burned incense long enough
and ardently enough, the oracle would
not be dumb. Twas Maupassant mad
at the time, mslady particularly un-
attractive in q junior, and l made a
frantic effort to get an expression Of
opinion from him on lie Bonheur."
"Oh, you're Moping, are your he re-
marked with q sarcastic grin, and went
on reading q little volume of Poe that
he carried 10 his pocket. At another
time I cornered him in the Funny Mans
room and succeeded in getting little
out of him. We we're taught literature
by an exceedingly analytical method at
the university. and We probably dis
torted the method, and l was trying to
find the least common multiple Of Ham
let and the greatest common devisor OF
Macbeth. and / began asking him
whether stories were constructed by
cabslistic formulate. At length he
sighed YEARLY and shook his dropping
shoulders, remarking:
"Where did you get all that rot?
Yarns aren't done by mathematics.
You can't do it by rule any more than
you can dance by rule. You have to
have the itch Of the thing in your fing-
ers, and il you haven't-well, you're
damned lucky, and you'll live long and
prosper, that's all.'-And with that he
yawned and went down the hall.
Crane was moody most Of the time,
his health was bad and he seemed pro.
foundly discouraged. Even his jokes
were exceedingly drastic. He went
about with the tense. preoccupied, self
conferred air of q man who is broodinR
over some impending disaster. and con.
jectured vsinly as to what it might be.
Though he was seemingly entirely idle
during the few days knew him, his
manner indicated that he was ia the
throes Of work that told terribly on his
nerves. His eyes / remember % the
finest l have ever seen, large. dark and
full of luster and changing lights, but