The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-10
in THE LITERARY FIELD
SOME WOES OF WRITER, As RE-
LATED BY ONE OF EXPERIENCE.
Value of the Personal Element I'm
Literature-PensiOns to Writers
Good Books Forgotten.


in that company of ambidextrous. hit-and-
miss individuals who turn out now bit Of
verse. now a slice of prose. and lie down
tired every night, only to spring up, An
taeus like. every morning. ready for the
fray.
OF course. there are authors" 1t must.
indeed, seem nice to be an author; to sit
under the great trees of a summer estate
overlooking the ocean, and dictate the lines
Of the next nOveI-the chief burden of life
being to deposit each day the royalties from
the last The writer does not deposit his
checks; he indorses them at once TO his
grocer or his landlord.
l am a writer 1 have tasted all the bit
terness Of rejected manuscripts. and 1 have
Tipped the sweet of accepted. If the bitter
ness has so far much o'erbalanced the
sweet, on that account the sweet has been
the sweeter. 1 am not an author. When
L scan his picture showing him lolling on
his wide veranda 1 wish 1 was; and when
l read his books l sometimes am glad am
not.
Putting aside the pains and pleasures of
q writer in his professional capacity-which
in themselves would form a large volume
| bound IN silk watered with tears and polka
a mover among his fellOw-mcn. lie is
neither all fun. as some persons take it.
nor all business, as others assume 1 do
not knew why it is that a writer is sup
posed to have no thoughts beyond his work.
/ He is given no license to do anything but
scheme and contrive at q penny a line. L
presume that an author is similarly con-
/ sidered. just as from personal experience
1 am dead sure that a reporter is popularity
! accredited with always having a pencil in
/ one hand and notebook in the other.
| If you are writer, then you cannot lie
on the grass and gaze skyward without in
viting the assumption that you are gather
| ing a poem; in reality, you probably are
| wishing that you had not mixed straw
berries ana cream as an offering to your
i Lnlcky interior.
| Does anybody let drop a bright remark,
/ or tell a humorous or pathetic anecdote,
/ then you are pictured as carefully noting it
/ for future use.
You a vampire. parasite. living upon
your helpless friends and enemies, and
sucking each happening as dry as a year
/ old lemon.
This responsibility of being writer is
awful.
! or perhaps you are looked upon as a crea-
ture of elegant leisure, whose time is his
own, and consequently unlimited. You it
Is VINO o can 90 to every ball game or can
/
commodate your hours to suit the cOnve-
| nience of Tom, Dick and Harry. You are
| a free lance-a term which conveys to the
| average mind delightful vista OF per-
/ petual vacation.
Since you are thus unhampered, and
swimming easily with the current, ii is
| your pleasant privilege to contribuate gra-
/ tultOuSly TO various enterprises.
| Do you live in town village, then the
| special editions of your local paper-say at
| Christmas and on Memorial day, Easter
| and Fourth of July-make no bones about
j soliciting something from your pen.
| The lawyer is not expected TO prepare
| brief gratis; the physician is not expected
| TO take a case gratis; the dusky citizen
| who mows your lawn is not expected to do
| that gratis; but the writer is confidently
asked to supply gratis just as much as ever
| he can.
The programme for the forthcoming en-
| tertainment at his church needs something
| real bright to make it attractive you
know, and the writer is waited upon by
| his minister, or by two or three ladies of
| the congregation. They not only present
the matter 10 him as shining opportunity.
and fattering acknowledgment and rec
| ogniton of his talents, but before they have
| lett they have instructed him what TO say.
The bait held out TO him is fame
| NOW, nave yet to learn of writer who
scared 10 any permanent pinnacle through
| the medium of an oyster sociable pro-
| gramme. have even never known of one
| who through his efforts secured, as a re-
| ward, single oyster the more in his sOupl
| The high school young people wish a top
ical song for their prospective minstrel
| snow, or whatever ii may be, and without
| hesitation the writer is turned to as a
| friend in need. The song is written in
spected by the high school in toto, altered
and amended to suit the whims of the
juvenile, but none the less acute critics,
and eventually is sung.
That is the end of il.
Doubtless IL seems very simple-a very
simple matter-to compose that programme
| stun, or that topical song. Did not the
| ladies outline the course of the one and
| did not the SchoOlboys suggest the pOintS
| TO be covered in the other? Certainly Then
| all you had TO do was to put the pieces to-
gether and trim the edges and iron the
seams; and, presto completed
Comparatively few persons but could do
| the same, had they the time And the
| writer is supposed to have all the surnIus
| time in the world.
l remember concocting a topical song for
a high school and outwardly l was glad to
do II. l spent three days on it, and worri-
| some days they were, too. Finally l sub
mitted It, Then l waited to hear how if
| took, when rend Ared; but the proposed en-
tertainment never came off. being, for some
reason or other, indefinitely postponed.
The schoolbOy committee-no, there was a
miss or two on it-has my song 1t went
to the tune of Marching Through Geo
gia"-my own brilliant idea!-and vet 7
cannot help feeling bit sore because never
was thanked for my effort, or formally an
| priced of the pOStpOnement of the enter
tainment. and reinvested with my manu-
script Evidently the singing of the song
was what counted, not the writing of il
Had l devoted those three DAYS to maya
zine possibilities L might have made as
much as ten dOllars-or five. Wen say five
in order not to be extravaganza in the state
ment-
1t is necessary to be strict in mentioning
remuneration, because as a rule the public
has an extremely highfaiutin notion regard
ing the payment of writer's.
About how much do you get for poem
like that?'
"Oh. eight or ten dollars
=
whole pager
mo: just the same
Don't you get more when it's illustrated.
them"
Not cent"
"Pshaw; 1 figured you were getting at
least twenty-five dollars!'
This last said in such a commiserating
tone that the writer. up to the moment
quite self-satisied and thankful for what
his gods. the editors, We're doing out TO
him, begins TO experience vague discomfort
and shame. and wonder if ne isn't being
sighted
Upon the other hand a number of persons
do the writer the doubtful honor of DEEM
ing ten dollars an excessive sum for merely
a dozen or so lines that rhyme at the ends
That is what embOldens them to ask for an
oyster sOciable leader
We writer's are queer fish. Some of us 7
dare say seize upon a chance TO Tilt:
Bring your wives and sons and daughters
And your dollars, halves and quarters
To the Zion chapel fair:
All OF POdunk will be there"
as choice advertising of our cIeverness
Heaven pity the writer who is suner-
modest He stands in his own light.