Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-03-19
IDLE THOUGHTS.

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I better write about?" ooh it doesn't
matter a continental what you write
about. Just write about any old
thing and sling in few pictures and
put a vaTiegated cover on it and then
die and you'll be famous and I'll
manage your estate and be rich"
7 smiled at this idea then, but ]
al forward noticed several instances
wherein the fame Of a so-called auth
or was founded largely on the fact
that he had forethought enough to
attach time fuse to his earthly eX-
istence so he would be Jerked hence
at the proper time. Take for in
stance the case of Edward Noyes
Westcott. Edward used to be a
bank clerk or some such James Cor
bett dignitary till he cook a sudden
pain in his stomach and decided to
become a great novelist. He had
never been a great novelist before,
but he got a bottle of soothing syrup
and some anti-brain flag and a bot
tie of liniment for writer's cramp
and set them up in the window by
his bed and put hot water bottle to
his feet and wrote David Harum.
There were several thousand books
just as good Wondering on book
store shelves in dust and neglect
but Edward knew a few things
about the dying trick above men
toned and as soon as he got his book
done he curled up and died a few.
His obituary made the loveliest kind
of advertisement and the hireling
critics told us
Q, here's the new sensation book
A work Of SO much force
The first edition all blew up
And smashed a cart and horse.
A friend who read the manuscript
Without sufficient care
Was torn to rags although he had
Six cables round his hair
and lot more to
the same effect till the common herd
climbed into the band wagon with
the faddist and critics and everyone
read the book with the understand
ing that it was the proper caper to
go into bowling ecstacies.
Then we had a spasm or two over
Steve Crane when he died. Steve
started out to be a great author by
raving about red grass and pink skies
and blue snow and so won the hearts
of the faddists that they declared
him the creator of new style. Ii
he had been drygoods clerk with
such delir1um tremens conception
of colors he would probably have
lost his job. Another beauty of
Steve's style was SO delightfully."-
scrambled that you could never ex-
actly tell whether he was speaking
of the star shot universe or a dead
cat in an abandoned cellar. This
characteristic lent to his stories the
charm of mystery and sudden
change. There was a fellow down
home who had something of Steve's
style at times and it took four of us
to hold him but he finally took the
Kelley cure and braced up. Other
examples might be cited-among
them that of Du Maurier, the author
of Trilby and Paul Leicester Ford,
the author of Pete Stirling-but it
will be seen from careful perusal
Of the foregoing that modern liter
allure is considerably polluted with
prune soufde. Of course it isn't
always necessary to debut some
thing erratic is generally necessary
to modern literary fame. Having
survived my youthful desire to win
renown by writing a sensational
book while the undertaken measured
me and having risen to the heights
of legitimate allwool fame I feel it