The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-03-23

first poem, knowing nothing of pro-
sody, but feeling that verse must be
euphonious.
II went to Central City after that
where L split kindling wood for board.
Then l got a job in Faulkners book
store, but found the life irksome, and
went to Chicago, where 1 got job in
of mothers. He had never read a book
outside of the Bible. Then l began to
write. My first story, "A Legand of
Pastime,' was printed by Slason
Thompson, who gave me $40 for it.
Then L wrote "A Ghosts Wooing.' This
l read to Kean, who was very angry
and tried to make me promise to tend
to business and leave literature alone,
and he would take me into the bust
ness. But l got a horse with the money
1 made by these stories and rode from
Chicago to New York, wandering
around the country, dependent on the
kindness of farmers for food and lodg-
ing, Until l was 20 years old. l began
to take an interest in politics then,
and made prohibition speech in
Rochester. My horse grew lame and
useless and l wandered through the
BerkshireS on foot, and then drifted
back to Chicago where I went into the
newspaper business, knowing nothing
of life. would go out and look around,
come in and write about what 1 had
seen, but could never find it in the pa
per. The editor didn't know what to
make of me, but Eugene Field, who
was on the staff, kept me there and
was interested in me. One day Stone
said to me: What are you trying to
do, anyway? Are you trying to imi-
tate Washington Irving? This county
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, 1 went out, came back, wrote a
column and a half about what hap
pened on the corner, and from that
time all my stuff was published. Wrote
a novel, Nicholas Blood that l am
ashamed of now and which was never
published. Then l became city editor
of the Toledo Blade, and there 1 met
Miss Maude Wood, young newspaper
woman, whom l married. We lived in
Toledo for three years. / also became
interested in an electric road from Mi
ami to Toledo, and started in the green
house business at one time But I've
had enough of business. Am trying to
get some understanding of life and not
injure anybody, if possible. New York
has always been a favorite place for
me. l have since had a novel pub
lished, "A Princess of Already "
Robert Barr has made England his
home for several years, and the an
nouncement that his last book, THE
Victors," is only now being issued
there, six months after it's publication
in this country, comes as a slight sur
prise unless one has read the book and
realized the entirely American nature
of it. THE Victors" is the story of
an American political boss, perhaps
.1
figure, and with the excitement of
New York city election on last fall, it
was not strange that the American
publishers of the book rushed the vol
ume out then. Whether the newspa-
pers tired every one with their politi-
cal news or whether the interest in the
campaign against Tammany was so
great as to keep readers from taking
up a story of political intrigue or not,
it is hard to say, but certain it is that
the book did not sell as well as the
merit of the story or the fame of the
author would have led one to expect
However, a book is not published until
the people know about it, a fact which
was amusingly demonstrated the other
day, when a New York paper reviewed
1.-THE House With the Green Shutters"
and called II "the book of the week"
The story was published early last fall
by a New York firm, but the local pa
per had only discovered it.
That book. by the way. has had a
curious history. 1t is said that in the