The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-02
Began Story Writing Career on
High School Paper.
WROTE OF TRAMP LIFE
Hobo Dialect Story Under Name
of" Frisco Kid"
Young Author Spent Spare
Time Talking Socialism.

front OIL american nOVellSCS, ana Dy
the ever-increasing popularity of his
BOOKS bids fair to retain the position to
which he has attained. "a Little Jour
ney" to his Oakland home, by one of
the literary enthusiasts, has already
appeared in print, and the book people
are eager to grasp any new bit Of in
formation about this virile young Cali
fcrnia writer. says writer in the San
Francisco Call. With this article the
Cali places before the reading public
for the first time a resume of the very
first writings of Jack London-of Jack
London the poVerty-stricken student
and budding socialist; not of London
the author of three and four edition
novels.
London has been called the American
Kfplins- His blunt mans strength has
even been said to have out-Kiplinged
Rudyard himself. Without making any
leading statements upon the question
it may be said, however that, like Kip
ling, London's storytelling fever would
out several years before it began to
assume a readable form. Again, like
the English author, London's first at
teDpts at telling a tale were given to
the narrow world of a school paper cir
culation.
The first published literary effort of
Jack London appeared in the Oakland
High School Agies of the date of jan
nary Is, 1895. 1t was entitled BONN
Island, an Incident of the Sealing
article of the school periodical by the
enthusiastic school boy editor. A typi-
cal school boys article was this. 1t
began:
How many beautiful unfrequented
spots there are that are practically I'M
known and unheard of; unknown ana
unheard of, not only by that great
class, the stay-at-home people, but by
the wandering sightseer.
- y,
And waste it's sweetness on the desert
air.
This piece of descriptive writing-alli
young aspirants indulge in that rudi-
naentary branch first-detailed an Incl
dent in London's own life when he was
an A. B. before the mast four years
previously. But it was SO far superior
to the usual hodge podge of youthful
filled the pages of the Aegis that
general rnurmur of surprise swept over
the budding literati of the school. The
Aegis salon, of which the writer of these
columns had the honor to be a humble
member, gravely gathered in conclave
and discussed the merits of this rough
sailor who had suddenly appeared to
snatch the laurel buds from the youth
full brows of aspiring genius.
But London would not down In the
next issue OF the Aegis there appeared
a more aspiring piece-"F'risco Kids
Story" 1t was a dialect story. couched
the monologue of Frisco Kid there
WAS narrated the simple little story of
youth from a mansion in the city who
had strRyed away with tramps and
finally met his death while still of their
number.
That was before Josiah Flynt had
written his tramp stories. Frisco Kid"
was in a new vein so far as the limited
circle of a typical high school boys
knowledge of books carried him. This
little story by young London, with it's
sudden dash into q terra incognttas its
fanciful diction and clear cut pathos,
SO different from the usual waterfall
type of a sad story" broke down all
barriers, and London was tacitly ac-
knowledged the star writer of the
school,
A strange fellow was that young sail
or tramp-for tramp he had also been
before he came to the high school. With
his salient jaw sticking out over a gray
sweater his rumpled hair and gray
eyes, sparkling sometimes almost to
savagery, he was not fellow to invite
a confidence from the younger boys, his
schoolmateS, and consequently he was
looked upon with a respectful awe by
his associates. Some even called him an
anarchist; this because he used to go
down to the City Hall square on Satur-
day night and harangue the laboring
men and loafers upon the tenets of
socialism.
In fact. London could not refrain
from voicing his sentiments on that
question to his schoolmates. In the
Aegis of March 1, 1895, there appeared
under his name a remarkable screed
entitled "Pessimism, Optimism and Pa
triotisn." a weird combination of alb
stractions indeed.
Again 1 hear the reader ask, Who
are our pessimists?'" vociferates the
young socialist in his plea: and he an
swers: "They are the pulsating life
cells of our nation, its flesh, bones. and
sinews. They are those who know not
and know not that they know not They
with existing conditions. They are
pessimists who. if they had the brains
of our oDtinists. would sustain. reno
vate and advance with healthy slim
wishing to recreate. they ignorantly
destroy. Our anarchists, socialists, and
labor leaders. with the great masses
which they represent are the comDo-
nent parts of that great tidal wava of
humanity which a few of our talented
observers have already taken notice of
and classified as the coming terror "
Needless to say that this remarkable
monograph by London served only to
mystify the callow intellects of its high
school readers and confirm their sus-
picions of his anarchical tendencies.
Fallacious as his arguments might have
been. there was strength TO that lit
tie essay which in the light of later
DEVELOPMENTS can be considered as the
straw which pointed the wind.
That was the single occasion, how
ever. on which London sought to lead
his schoclmates out of the wilderness
His next Aegis publication was much
more subdued. being a little Japanese
sketch under the caption, "Sakaicho.
Hona Ash and Hakadaki.'' a simple lit
tie thing, pitched in minor chord
Then followed "a Nights Swim in
Yeddo Bay" the recountai of a rollick-
ing lark on the part of the author
while with his ship in Japanese waters
A sea sketch called the Run Across
and another Frisco Kid story, neither
of extraordinary merit, next appeared
in the Aegfs. These were followed by
two stories. written lust before London