The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-08

Arthur Surfing, II Is Cdlleu inc uldA
of young man who day by day set down
/ his thoughts during a period of doubt
and waiting in which a score of publish
ers refused what was his masterpiece
1t is a record of struggle and defeat
| which should make young writers heal-
| tate before deciding on career OF au-
| thorship. The story of Arthur Stirling
| goes far to prove that literature is one
| thing and a salable book another AS a
matter of fact, few know whether sucn
| a person as Arthur Stirling ever lived.
| Some time last summer a notice of tie
| suicide of an Arthur Stirling appeared
| in one of the New York papers. The
young man was but twenty-five years
of age, according to the report, and, in
the letter to a friend the day before he
wrote of his intention to drown himself
somewhere in the Hudson River The
body was never found, but his friend re-
ceived On the day following the suicide,
two packages which the young man was
supposed to have sent just before taking
his life. In one of the packages was
the manuscript of his tragedy, The Cap
tive" which number of publishers had
rejected; in the other package was the
diary now published
According to the preface, written by
another friend of the unfortunate Arthur
Stirling, the young man was one of the
submerged who felt that he had a great
talent. He was a dish washer, a street
car conductor, workman at various
kinds of labor. His tragedy was COM
posed while he was almost starving and
then followed a more miserable period Of
his life in the attempts to get the work
published. All of his feelings are shown
in the diary. He tells of his vain efforts
in the way of going from one publisher
and the thing is set down with every
evidence of truth. according to those who
arc familiar with the practical side OF
literary affairs. The book is already
called a tale of Grub Street in the
Nineteenth Century. the story of mod
ern Chatterton. Whether there ever
was an Arthur Stirling, one cannot help
feeling that the experiences set down in
the diary were real experiences. The
author of the diary, whoever he or she
may be, must have passed through them
At the same time, one cannot help feel
ing that quite possibly this book is an
other literary hoax and that after thou
sands of readers have sympathized with
the tragic story, some we'll known au-
thor will be found out as the writer Of
the book.
Here are two or three extracts from
the Journal;
Yesterday I was cable car conductor
and today l am a poet! l know of some
immortal poems that were written by a
druggists clerk and some by a gauger
of liquid barrels, but none by a cable
car conductor. 1T sounds interesting
tell us about it," says the reader. SHALL
but not today.
This sounds like testing, but it is not
/ have only been a cable-car conductor
six months, but in that time I have
taught myself to read Greek with more
than fiuency. All you need is good health
and spirits, a will of iron, and very
tiny note book in the palm of your hand,
full of the words you wish to learn. And
then for ten or twelve hours a day you
go about running a car with your body
and with your matchmaking ham
mering, 1t is excellent discipline-it is
fighting all day, "Pous, podos, the foot
pous, podos, the foot-thirty-f fourth
Street, Crosstown east and west-pous,
podos, the foot!'
II was looking at a literary, journal to-
day. oh, my SOUL it frightens me! All
these Libraries of books-who reads them
what are they for? And each one Of
them a hope! And I am to leap over
them all-I-I? I dare not think about
it,"
Il wait to hear from the publisher
merely as a matter of duty. l have never
had the least idea that he will take the
book l have made up my mind to drown
myself. There is no mess about it. and
men do not have to know of it. l have
often read of murder cases. They tie a
rope around the body and a stone to the
rope; but the stone slips out, or the rope
wears, and then it is unpleasant. I
used to say that they We're fools; why
did they not get a dumb bell or some
thing like that, and small chain. Thea
there would have been no trouble"
For several years Rudyard Kiplng has
been working on q series of stories deal
ing with the Navy. Mr.. Kipling spent 81
part of one summer cruising with the
fleet during the manoeuvres and besides
gathering material for several poems, he
has evidently based many of his stories
on incidents connected with this summe :
with the fleet. Mr. Pycroft, the NAVAL
Mulvaney.' is the central character of
all Of these stories, and they are said
to be better than any short stories which
Kipling has done in long time Their
publication in book form may not be
expected 70" several months yet.
There are some thousands of people
just now trying to invent word which
shall mean wireless telegraph message
across the ocean. The word Marconi-
gram has already come to mean wire
less telegram, but the recent success OF
Marconi in sending messages across the
Atlantic has created a need for a special
word to apply here as does cablegram for
| a message by cable. Every day brings
a batch of suggestion to the editors of
| The New York papers and while Marconi
| was in New York more than half Of
| his mail was made up of similar COM
municatons. Aerogram, thergram.
5pecegram and lightogram are some Of