The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-03
Dm Tho [l6G@papy W@0oldo


us hopes to live to see 1.-THE heavens
filled with commerce and argosies of
magic SAIL"
When the volume of stories recently
published under the title of "a Prince
of Good Fellows was being made up it
was proposed to call them 1.-THE Jimmie
Stories" The present title is doubtless
more attractive. though, with some ex-
PLANTATION, the former would have been
entirely appropriate, for the tales are
all concerned with the young King James
", of Scotland, and, if half of the stories
are founded on facts of his career, ne
was as merry monarch as ever sat on
a throne. The reading public may we'll
be grateful to Mr. Robert Barr for hav-
ing given them this book, for not since
The Border Tales of John Wilson Chris
TOPPER North) have better stories been
written about these characters and times.
In "a Prince of Good Fellows" jamie is
shown as one of band of conspirators
against himself as a beggar, as poet,
as a traveller over his own kingdom, as
an adventurer at home. lover abroad,
etc.-in all of which adventures he car
ries himself we'll. Jamie was often go
ing about among his people, unknown
to them, in order to discover what was
going on in his kingdom and TO learn
what his subjects thought of their young
king. There is a good plot in each tale.
80
Last week there was celebrated in
France the centennial of Alexandra Du-
mas-a fact worthy OF note, because of
the long continued popularity of this
great novelist. Critics will call him
second-rate writer, just as they have
done for years, but in point of demand
for his work on the part of the public
and of attempt to supply this demand on
the part of the author. Dumas surely
ranked above all other writer's. So many
tales are told of the Dumas novel fac
tory that it is probably safe to put most
of them down as untrue. but assuredly
it would have been physical impos-
sibility for Dumas to have written by
hand himself all of the books which bear
his name on their title pages. Dumas
admitted that he employed collaborators,
the public supposing these persons to be
merely private secretaries to whom the
novelist dictated his stories For a long
time a novel a month was issued from
prietor been so prodigal with his money,
he might have been immensely wealthy,
so popular was his work and such good
prices did he obtain. Dumas was once
asked about some inaccuracy in one of
his books.
81 never read the book" he is said to
have replied. Let me see; who wrote
that story. All, l remember. 1t was the
little Auguste Macquet. l must go and
box his ears
Naturally enough during his life time
Dumas was the object of bitter criticism
from his fellow craftsmen. One of them
wrote of the Dumas Novel Factory
(Fabrique de Romans Maison Dumas ct
Cie):
Truly it is difficult to define the limits
of writer's fecundity or to compute
the number of lines he can write in a
given time. The novel especially, being
frivolous work, has the right to hurry
and scatter volumes in profusion. Still
the subject has to mature, the plan has
to be laid. the threads of an intrigue
have to be got in hand, the different parts
of work have to be co-ordinated.
Very well. Allowing for these prepa-
rations, supposing an author to take no
more rest than is absolutely necessary,
supposing him to eat hastily and sleep
little-all impossible conditions-on this
hypothesis, say, the most fecund writer
might produce fifteen volumes year.
Fifteen volumes, M. Dumas. And even
so he would have no time to polish his
style or to correct his proofs.
You published sixty volumes in 1S45.
Very WELL Now we will make the fol-
lowing simple calculation:
THE most skilled copyist, writing twelve
hours a day, hardly copies $500 letters
an hour. At the end of the day he will
have got through 1900 letters, or sixty
pages of the average novel. He will be
able to copy five octave volumes in a
month, or sixty in a year, on condition
that he never stops for an hour, and
never loses a second
Monsieur Dumas, you are very
meritorious copying clerk.
From the list of January to the 31st
of December you work regularly twelve
hours a day, sleeping little, and eating
in haste; you never devote a moment to
pleasure, you hardly ever travel, you are
never met out of doors. Consequently,
on the assumption that your dramatic
work, your correspondence with the news
papers and the theatres, and your i'm
Fortunate callers only take up a bare
half of your time, you have had the
time left, not to write but to copy out,
thirty volumes in the course of 1916. All
the others must be the work of the men
whom you have trained to initiate your
handwriting.
"Ah, that l must thus unveil your
shame and destroy the possibility OF
Doubt"
Altogether about 1000 volumes bear
the name of Dumas, and, in addition to
these, are sixty dramas. 1t is impossible
to determine how many of these were
actually written by him.
***
Not long since, Sir Gilbert Parker gave
utterance to the following ideas as to
the art of fiction:
"A man must know the truth to write
fable.
Fiction can be learned but cannot be
taught.
No great writer has ever had the idea
of founding a school of this or that
In the art of fiction the individual
r. -.