The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-23


now Scribner's Magazine-was an evan
gelist and organized the w. c. T. U.
She was very remarkable woman.
81 was very delicate as a child and it
was doubtful whether 1 should ever
grow up. So / never went to school;
in fact, I wouldn't CO. And my mother,
thinking 1 would die from year to year,
did not press the matter. Every sum-
mer she sent me out on farm, where
there were dogs. l can't remember
ever learning to read. Think l picked
it up unconsciously by sitting beside
my sister in the evening and listening
while she read aloud, interrupted by oc-
casional questions from me. Knew
nothing of arithmetic until | was twenty
years old, when / became interested in
it as a study and took it up. l learned
everything that way.
when 1 was fourteen mother bought
home in Evanston, Ill. / was sent to
the preparatory school then. l had
read philosophy, history and everything
could lay my hands on, but system
attic study l could not understand, and
left school for good after three weeks.
So l roamed around Evanston for two
years, and then my sisters health be-
came poor and my mother started us
for the Rocky Mountains. We got as
far as Nebraska, where mother discov-
cred she had no more money Then l
felt | must go to work, and went to a
family friend to herd cattle | used to
go out with them every morning, and
climb a high plateau, where l could
watch the herd. / did this for about
eight months, going out with volume
of Pope or Emerson every morning.
Then 1 wrote my first poem knowing
nothing of prosody, but feeling that
verse must be euphonious.
81 went to Central City. after that,
where l split kindling wood for board.
Then l got a job in Faulkner's book
store, but found the life irksome and
went to Chicago, where l got a job in
S. A. Kean's bank. He was a friend
of mothers. He had never read book
outside of the Bible Then l began to
write. My first story, "A Legend of
Pastine, was printed by Slason Thomp
son, who gave me $40 for it. Then 1
wrote "A Ghost Wooing. This l read
to Kean, who was very angry and tried
to make me promise to tend to bust
ness and leave literature alone, and he
got a horse with the money l made by
these stories and rode from Chicago to
New York, wandering around the coun-
try dependent on the kindness of farm
ers for food and lodging, until l was
twenty years old. l began to take an in
terest in politics then. and made Pro-
hibition speech in Rochester. My horse
grew lame and useless and / wandered
ID I,
drifted back to Chicago, where I went
into the newspaper business, knowing
nothing of life. I would go out and look
around, come in and write about, what
/ had seen, but could never find it in the
paper. The editor didn't know what to
make of me, but Eugene Field, who was
on the staff, kept ME there and was in
terested in me. One day Stone said to.
me- What are you trying to do. any
way? Are you trying to initiate Wash
ington Irving? This country has had
only one Washington Irving and that is
enough. Now, you get out on the street
and look around you and see what's
there and come in and write it. I
went out. came back, wrote a column
and half about what happened on the
corner, and from that time all my stuff
was published Wrote a novel, Mich
olas Blood that l am ashamed of now.
and which was never published. Then l
became city editor of the Toledo Blade
and there l met Miss Maude Wood,
young newspaper woman, whom l mar
ried. We lived in Toledo for three
years. l also became interested in an
electric road from Miami to Toledo
and started in the greenhouse business
at one time. But I've had enough of
business. Am trying to get some under
standing of life and not injure anybody
if possible. New York has always been
favorable place for me. l have since
had novel published, a Princess of
Arcadv.'