Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-11-13
THE lABORER'S HIRE.
Increase In the Compensation For
Literary Work.

Increase In the Compensation For
Literary Work.
The retirement of the Rev. Cyrus
Townsend Brady from the active pur-
suit of his sacred calling to follow the
profession Of authorship-Mr. Hrady's
new story, THE Quiberon Touch" Is
Just coming from the press-suggests,
says che New York Times, passing
comment on the conditions which have
enabled him to do this. One has not to
go very far back in the paths of liter
airy history to find himself in the old
field of poverty and want. Every stu
dent Of letters knows the histories Of
the starving geniuses, the short lived
Chattertons, the impecunious Steeles,
the iinprovident and uncomfortable
Goldsluiths. The novelist Of not long
ago was fond of drawing the picture Of
the poet in his garnet, and even to this
day the dealer in pork or trousers la
bors under the delusion that any man
who writes rhyme does not get enough
to eat.
But the world has changed all that.
Authorship as a business is in these
days thriving. 1t pays to be an au-
thor, especially good one. Even Il
minor one, however, can make living
out of the trade of letters. OF course
the chief reason for this is the inn
mense increase in the reading popula-
ton, brought about By methods OF
popular education. And again the
diminution of the cost of making
books, owing to the vast Improvement
In modern machinery, causes publishers
to be far more enterprising than it
would have been wise for them to be
In the older days, even in proportion
to the size of the public to which they
appealed.
But the author of today does not
rely upon the sale of his works in book
form alone. The popular novel of the
time Is in most cases first printed as
q serial. and authors of repute receive
from the magazines prices which
would make the dealer in pork or
trousers stare. The serial rights of a
good novel are very pretty piece Of
property in these times, and the dis
posal of them is in itself the producer
of reward far beyond the widest
dreams of the unfortunate authors of
earlier days. 1t may interest some
readers to lear;, that authors whose
fame is much smaller than that OF tie
| Kiplings or SteveE*onS have been
known to receive go Il page Q.G00
words, for their work. Mr.. kiplin:
| has been paid as much IS ten times
that figure.
Book royalties are often arranged or
a sliding scale. so tia! after the sale OF
| a certain number of copies the percent
age paid to the author increases. Ortli
nary novels sell we'll up into the thou
sands in these days, while extraordina
| ry ones sell by the hundreds of thou
| sands. AS the author never gets less
than 10 cents a copy. it is easy to see
that he Is paid for Ills work. In add
ton to the work which goes to make
the book every profess onal author now
has other sources Of income. He writes
occa sional magazine articles, reviews
the books of others and sometimes con
tributes to newspapers.
| There is certain amount of justice
in applying the pecuniary standard tt
producing workman. It Is perhaps
true that the actual value Of capital
list cannot be measured by his posses
sions nor that of literary or artistic
creator by his earnings. But the dis
tinction between the old conditions OF
| vagabOndage and those of competency
enjoyed by the authors of today means
something more than an enlargement
| Of the field Of sale. 1t means also the
increase of the valuation set by thu
public upon the product of the literary
worker. This is one of the most en-
couraging signs Of these times to those
who believe in the practical importance
of cnltnrA