The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-08
FAME IN LITERATURE,
AdOlphus GOtthis opens the Way TO sehinS
SOS ZOO Copies OF HIS Great Work.

SOS 900 Copies Of HIS Great Work.
son the right, 4" shouted the Seeing Things
Coach lecturer through his mesaphone'
4fs the historic st, Paul's Chapel
And forty necks that had just been oraned
to the left to look at the General Postohce
were twisted violently for the new slght'
Just then a traffic squad man hiteo d
finger, signalling for the trucks ana cars
to go ahead east or west on Fulton street,
and Seeing Things, like every other south
bound vehicle, came to such a sudden stop
that Its forty men and women passengers
all rose from the leather oushions as n
eightseer and then went back with q jerk,
The end OF the ~megaphone shot up In the
air too and a bit of useful Information ABOUT
Washington's pew Twas lost on the upper
airs, unless somebody on the roof OF the
Park Row Building caught 1t.
tablet to Gen. Richard Montgomery,
who fell at Quebec" resumed the lecturer
Monument to Thomas Adds Emmett, the
Irish hero Of '98.
"The gentleman with the SLOUGH hat, with
a notebook in his hand, examining the OLD
English ivy on the south wall is Adolphus
| Gotthis, the famous author OF The House
With the Set Tubs Probably getting
local color for his q great work.
Then everybody did ait up and a
notice. What was Washin tons pew, with
all the monuments thrown In, compared with
an author, q live author actually at work
putting local color into a red notebook?
To be sure none Of the sightseers had
ever heard Of 1.-The House With the Set
Tubs" but Of course none Of them would
admit it to his or her seatnnate and thus
confess intellectual inferiority to a mere
megaphone man. On the contrary they
fell to talking about the book, for Adolphus
Gotthis was, to all hands, the chief sight
Of the ride.
ats strong book. said the out OF town
school teacher cautiously to her neighbor,
who happened TO be a village preacher
taking the Seeing Things, ride to get ma.
terial for a sermon on the w~ickedness OF
great cities.
"Yes,' he replied. but there is that
undercurrent Of oynicism running through
it, a willingness to peer at. without trying
to improve the false conditions that are
undermining our nation: But l am very
glad to have seen the author
Then the minister jotted something down
in his notebook. His bluff a been so
elaborate that the teacher didn't, dare, to
talk more about the book with him, but
it was rapidly getting a reputation on that
OdC "lCtl tlO nitpN- hhAa DSAN
finger the other way and Seeing Things
went forward with a lurch for more sights
in lower Broadway. ~
Not even old Trinity, could eface the
picture OF Adolphus Gotthis leaning against
the ivy and the trick was completed by
the following through the megaphone:
aThe new Custom House straight ahead.
built on the site OF a row OF mansions OF
old New York, one of them supposed to
have been the original Of THE House With
the Set Tubs.'h
And when that coach had finished it's tour
forty sightseers scattered to the book store,
where they astonished the clerks by de-
handing Adolphus Gotthis's book.
Meantime the author had left his post
by Thomas Adds Emmet's shaft long
the arrival of the next coachload. And as
he munched he congratulated himself on
his scheme and dreamed Of fame and royal
ties about to m
He had already had his picture taken
enough for distribution to all the periodicals
and he was even then planning out the
magazine article to explain WHY. when and
where he wrote THE House With the Set
Tubs" 1t would surely be called for, be-
cause the plan with which he had come out
ton and a stroke Of genius, no matter what
the book was. No weary. waiting nor hum
drum, antiquated exploitation methods for
this rising young. author. He was rolling
his own logs right onto the toes OF the
people and the megaphone lecturer had
become his willing agent on a promise of
10 per cent. OF the royalties.
Five Seeing Things trips a day. he
calculated; forty passengers every trip:
200 copies a day to start off with. Every
sightseer tells at least -four friends: 900
copies a day in New York alone; 3e5 900
comics in the first year; two, four, seven
editions; not enough to supply the de-
mand. And every city in the country has
Seeing Things coaches
But the back Of the 10 cent check which
the waiter had handed him for his sand
wich and glass Of milk would hold no more
figures. so Adolphus Gotthis hurried back
to st. Paul's and resumed his rapt express
sion by the ivy just in time for the next
coachload Of tourists.