The St. Johns herald., 1902-02-22
MANY AuTHoRs COMPOSE IN REp
Some of the Best Ideas Come to Che
 While Half Awake.

Some or tno Best Ideas Come to Che
 While Half Awake.
 Most people, if asked the question, would say that 'bed" was the place to rest in, not to work. And though this Is true of the great majority of people, there is still a decent modicum left wno find bed" very congenial place in which to do their work, or great part of it, and who, in fact, do not dis guise the truth that they can work there very effectively.
 This plan was followed by the great poet Campbell, who tells us that he lay awake thinking of his projected poem "Lochiel," when there came into his mind, with other poetic thoughts, the idea of the shadows in the room show ing up" as the day began to break, and he at once jumped out of bed and wrote down what has since become a world wide proVerb. Coming events cast their shadows before"
 Many writers owe much of their suc- cess to clever plots and articles which have been begun, worked out, and final ly set into proper form during the time that their authors lay between the blankets. The writings afterward have often been merely mechanical, and even much of that was done in bed; the setting of the plot and the dialogue was the chief thing, as most writers know too well.
 CT frnSf vor1,U ovo1,Sa rao co fd s oaI. ebrated doctor lately to a friend who had called to see him early, and who, on being asked to go up to his bed room, found the physician still enjoying the comfort of the sheets. kindly sit down, my boy, for a minute, till I've done answering these letters. I have my letters brought up immediately when they arrive in the morning and 1 go over them in bed and put down the replies in pencil on the back of them. Then when my secretary arrives at 9 he has nothing to do but go and answer them. As you know, am kept busy from 10 o'clock, when I first ap- pear downstairs, till late at night, and this plan, you see, saves me nearly an hours work with him."
 That students often "burn the mid night oil" in bed is a fact commonly known, but few are aware of the length to which this is carried out, es- pecially in colleges. 1 know a college in London where any night one could find thirty or forty men all working in bed, with note books, manuals, pencils and all in full rig-oTt, many of them having their writing desks before them on the bed. The contrivances for turn ing out the gas without getting out of bed when work is done would do credit to the ingenuity of an Edison.
 And where did you ever find time to get through your classical authors and do your mathematical problems so thor Oughly as to gain distinction" said to a London University man, who had graduated a few years ago with dis tinguished honors. For I knew he had worked hard at his own business all the day from 9 till 5.
 "In bed, old fellow, in bed!' said he. "I used to lie awake in the morning for an hour before getting up and employ ed the time in thinking over the Eucli- dian riders and 'conic' problems that had puzzled me. Almost invariably I worked their solution out in my brain > >yifs-G1Cef saper or pencil while lying in bed And every night before 1 went to sleep went over so many dozen Greek verbs and Latin annotations till they were all just like the multiplication ta- ble to me-"
 There Is another class of men who work much in bed-viz., the legal fra ternity. Not very long ago a leading Q. c. in ali important case only got his brief delivered the night before the case came on for trial at Manchester assizes, and yet. to everybody's aston ishment, he showed next day a most surprising grasp of the case. and dealt so successfully with 1t and the wit nesses engaged in 1t as to bring off his client successfully Asked as to how he had been able to master such an in- tricate brief in one night, the Q. c. re- oiled: '"Took 1t to bed with me and went over 1t this morning. ."-Pearson's Weekly.