Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-10-11
DIME NOVELS FOR BOYS
HOW THE AVERAGE PENNY DREAD
Full Is WRITTEN.

Men Who Can Write One a Week With
Ease = A Novel Written in 1hirty-six
Hours Rules the Authors Have to
Follow - Has Its Rigid Morality.
To the romantic Imagination of the
Small boy the writer of dime novels is
of the same heroic and fire-eating type
as the heroes he portrays, writes Wal
ter L. Hawley in the Washington
Star. The actual fact is so different
that If it were known, the resultant
loss of glamor would undoubtedly be
accompanied by corresponding de-
crease of sales. The men who write
dime novels do not wear their hair
long. They carry no six-shooters nor
bowie knives and many Of them never
saw live Indian or cowboy. The
writing of such literature is business
rather than profession, and the only
special qualification requisite to sue
cess are an imagination of great re-
source and fertility, and an unlimited
capacity for hard and rapid work.
Each publishing house engaged in the
business employs a staff of regular
"iitSio, paying tuOoe WIN w hoIhih6
else a salary, and to those who do
other work fixed sum for the manu-
script and copyright on each story.
Thus Is carried on the business of
embodying and re-embodying the good
old heroes. Alkali Ike, Gentleman Joe,
Big Foot Sandy, One Eye Pete, Dead
wood Dan, Dare Devil Dick, The Man
With the Iron Hand, The Boy Detec-
tive and all the other popular favor
ties, who are still on duty, trailing IN
dians, hanging horse thieves, rescuing
kidnapped maidens, finding lost heirs,
recovering lost fortunes and in tther
ways helping good people out of bad
scrapes and leaving bad people "cling-
ing, weak and despairing, to yield
ing twig, that holds them for one
thrilling moment suspended between
the edge of the cliff and the yawning,
rock-bound abyss a thousand feet
below"
= In addition to the men who are en-
gagged to produce a certain amount of
copy within a given time in order to
supply the regular issues of the
libraries" each publisher has list
of men who can write story to order
at short notice. They are classed as
"extras" or specials" and are called
upon when regular writer is i'll, on
vacation or falls behind in the pro-
duction of copy. These extra writers
are usually newspaper men employed
on some paper in the city or men en-
gagged in some other class of literary
work that does not fully occupy their
time. Nine-tenths of all the so-calied
Observation-Disclosures" stories produced
are written to order. AS a rule the
author does not even select the title
of his story, and in many cases he is
compelled to follow a plot suggested
by the publisher or to use some Incl
dent in real life as basis.
The publishers keep close watch
upon the daily papers for stories Of
sensational crimes and adventure
that may serve as incidents in the fic-
tion prepared for the small boy. and
when great event or an incident OF
national interest occurs there is an
exciting race between publishers to be
the first to put upon the market
dime novel relating in some way to
the affair that is in the public mind.
Within a week of Dewey's victory in
Manila score of thrilling stories in
which that battle was the chief Incl
dent were on the newsstands. When
the sailors of the United States
cruiser Baltimore were attacked in the
streets of a South American city a
few years ago, and there was much
wild talk of war, publishing house
in New York put on sale As hours after
the news of the affair reached this
country, dime novel with the MUIR
dered boatswain's mate of the cruiser
as the hero. The author of the story
wrote for SO hours without rest or
sleep producing 10000 words Of copy,
which went to the printers sheet by
sheet as he wrote it. This is prob
ably the record for rapid literary pro-
rduction. 1t often happens that a
writer of such literature is called upon
to produce story of 10000 to $4,000
words in three days.
Writers of dime novels do not. as a
rule, attempt polished style of Eng
lish, and rarely re-read or revise a
pcge of their copy. The publishers
want action, plot incident, dialogue
and thrilling situations. A successful
writer of dime novels must possess at
least superficial knowledge of great
variety of subjects. He must be able
to write a story of life in the slums OF
a great city, one of adventure on the
western plains, of war in Cuba or the
Philippines, without making any ma
terial error in the descriptive sections.
1t is rigid rule that the plot and in
cident must be plausible. NO matter
how improbable the deeds OF the hero
may be, the author must be careful to
avoid impossibilities and absurdities.
If Alkali Ike scalps an Indian in the
Black Hills in the morning and cleans
out faro bank in Deadwood at night,
the story must explain satisfactorily
how he made the journey from one