The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-12-21
$3.50 = + + + + + + J. l.
= TRICKS OF WEARY ai,ruorr
a Dime Novel sweatshop-rb. .
= Suffering Man. =
= + = u + + + 1! + + + =

y - =
When a man who writas Ii;
els for living reels off thirty thou
ana words a week year in ana -
out 1t tells on his nerves and sn,r,"
tlnes on his conscience He then 60.
ABOUT making the work easier and a.
Vlses labor saving scheme that ~
lows MIN more leizure for exn,orin-
the hooks of New York's red inl d.
hernia no-
One man so afflicted has nlaced ii.
name high on the scroll of cbean o.
ton by conducting a literary sweat
shop in the bosom of his family tn
plan was simplicity itself owing 70 tho
kind of story he was writing at ~.
time VIC
He was engaged on a series Of II
dian novels that appeared weekly with
the same principal characters At tho
opening of each story these person
ages would be chasing bandits or 9th
er varmints Of the plains. and at ay-
cry other chapter the author hppueht
them to standstill before a camnfre
where one Of the hunters entertained
his companions with a long warn that
mad nothing to do with the story it.
sell These yarns were copied YER
batlm from q pile of old CLIPPINGS bv
his wife and mOther-in-law on extra
machines rented for the occasion
while he wrote the main part of tho
narrative on his own type writer
This ingenious plan reduced his labor
fully one-half, and he had the addi-
tional satisfaction of making his
mother-in-law work for her keep,
Another weary authors scheme for
lessening the labors of writing took =
different turn. In his yellOWbacks
every sentence was Photographed. This
enabled him to fill the regular quota
of measured text when the story was
actually One-third short.
He was told not to do it any more
but still he was equal to the emer
gency. Then newt time he introduced
a suffering character, whose talk
spread over pretty much the who,e
novel.
The stammering individual always
took so long to say what was on his
mind that one day when talking in
the woods to a lost companion ant
walking in a circle, as people general.
ly do under such circumstances. he
finally came back to the starting
place and ran into the first words he
had said. This startled him so that
he suffered more than ever for the
next few pages, and the author was
told to hang, shoot, stab or drown the
character in the next issue under pen
atty of losing his job.
The most imaginative among dime
novel writer's do not always depend
upon their own originality for plots
and incidents. 1t is not uncommon for
these men to use as material clippings
from magazines and newspapers One
author in particular cuts out all the
accounts of funny things occurring in
the police courts and works them up
as a kind of crime and cussedness
Every irascible person of pronounced
eccentricitieS who ever went before a
city magistrate in New York with an
absured complaint against his neigh
Dor during the last five years and got
himself written up for the amusement
of newspaper readers has furnished
material for some spirited scene in
this authors dime novels.
A certain writer o. this kind Of fic-
ton relates trick played on him by
a collaboration in the days when dime
moves were longer than they are now
and the compensation made it worth
while for two men to write one story
between them. After his partner had
finished the first chapter of their in
itial collaboration it was handed over
with the following announcement:
There I've just thrown the heroe
over a thOusand-toot cliff and told the
reader that nothing could prevent the
lad from falling to death on the rocks
below. 1t is up to you to save the
boy
The other writer said nothing. but
sat down and wrote furiously for an
hour. Then he quickly handed the
back. A glance at the sec
Ond chapter showed the funny man
that his friend had completely ignored
the events in the first part Of the
story introduced a new set of char
acters and left the hero still hanging
over the cliff, waiting to be rescued
by the creator!