The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1902-11-18
O~oNDENsING Novels.
A New Trade Which Is in Growing De-
mend and Requires Brains.
New York Sun.

sers," said the publisher, pointing t.
a tall slender young fellow wearing
glasses and with a number of books
under his arm. Ellis business is con
densing novels, and when a man be
comes an expert at it he doesn't have
to look for work.
"This has been a very busy world
for some time. There are thousands
of people who want to keep up with
the novels of the day, but haven't
the time to read them as they are
originally written. So there are hun
dreds of readers and elocutlonisss
who go about reading condensed
novels to literary circles, clubs, church
societies and private families.
"The demand for readers for pri-
vste families is growing astonish,
ingly. The readers 60 to this house
or that one night a week, or possibly
twice a week. The head of the house
invites in a few friends, or maybe he
and his family have the reading all
to themselves.
"They don't want a continuous
performance; they must have at least
one story an evening. II the stories
they want are too long for one even
ing they must be cut down to fit the
time.
"That fellow who just walked
into the ferry boat tackled
The Crisis" a little while ago. The
order was to cut the book down to
two hours.
HE found it took eight hours to
read it as it was written. 1t took him
over a month, working regularly a
part of every day or evening to cut
it down. Then the people who hired
bin made up their minds that it
must be shorter, so he had to 60 to
work to hack it down to one, hour
and q quarter. What do you think of
"He did it, although it was a
fearful job. It took him longer to
cut off that last 40 minutes than
it did to get rid of the first six
hours.
1T requires more brains some
lines to cut a book down than it
loes to write it in the first place.
of Importance mnst be left
'ut. Allthe strong features, the pref
y scenes, the amusing dialogues and
20 on, must be left in.
"It is really surprising, however,,
Iow little that is importint is cut
'ut. If you had read the original
and then heard the condens
d story you would have to cudgel
our brain a little to make out exact
what is missing.
"There's a knack about it, as
1ere is to anything else. The con
enser must first read the story care
lily to get its general effect. Then
q very often reads it to study the
"At first reading he has seen pas
'ges that may be dropped and no
10 be much the wiser. On second :
he takes out even more, and
soon he has the thing cut
OWN perhaps half. "Very likely
: will now take a copy Of the book .
I'd cut all the pages loose. The
ages he has marked out he throws
7ay, and the fragments of pages
pastes together to make the re-
lisite number of lines for a page.
HE is now getting things down to
working basis, and here it ia that
5 real genius comes out. He plays
:ange tricks with that story as he
es on, and he often surprises him
If at the things he dares take out.
7ery now and then he reads the
ndensation to some member of his
nily, or to some friend who had
I'd the book, and CD whose judg.
mt he can place some reliance.
They tell me it is really most en-
work, while it is very fati-
ing at the same time. That fellow N
o went into the ferry boat just now 9
IN enthusiast. He makes far more t
ney than many of the chaps who =
te tie original stories. Honestly, @