The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-08-30
ROMANCE OF BOOKS.
How Some Famous Tales Came to Be
Written.


grave-they are by no means the least
of the things that tend to make lie
worth living. Indeed, it is no eXag-
geration to say that the love of books
is a passion that nothing but death
can quench. And this attribute was
displayed by Mark Twain, whose last
moments of consciousness We're spent
in the endeavor to read one Of his ia
vorite passages in his favorite book
Carlyle's "French Revolution" Anoth-
or illustration of the ruling passion
strong in death" was afforded by an
other humorist. When James Russell
Lowell and all his friends knew we'll
that for him the silver cord Of life
would soon be loosed, DR.. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes went out to pay him a
last visit at his house at ElmWood
The two brilliant men of letters had
always been like brothers, calling each
other by their first names. AS the
doctor entered the room he said, in
his usual benignant and breezy way:
"Well, James, how are you today"'
And Lowell, book in hand, looked up
with a bright smile as he answered:
ssWendell, I do not know how I am,
and I don't care. I am reading SCOTS
Bob Roy"
Sometimes the fascination of fiction
is shown in other curious ways. For
instance, when "Dom5ey and Son.
was being published in serial form, the
eagerness of the American public to
follow the thread of the story could
not be satisfied. There we're no cables
in those days, and news as we'll as
merchandise had to be sent by boat.
When Dickens had proceeded so far
With the interesting story as to bring
little Paul into a condition between
life and death, the ship that brought
the next number, containing the con-
tinuation Of the narrative, was met
as she drew up at the pier by an anx-
ious crowd waiting for tidings Of the
fate of little Paul. But we need not
go across the Atlantic for examples
of the intense interest that was taken
in the fate of Paul Dombey. In Eng
land coaches were intercepted on their
way from London to provincial towns,
and the booksellers parcels ransack-
ed for the green-covered monthly
number, while passengers from town
we're eagerly questioned 'What about
little Paul?" One recalls, too, story
Of a book Of the past. The inhabi-
tants of an English village set the
church bells aringing when, having
read with breathless interest some
eight or nine volumes of Richardson's
"Clarissa Harlowe," they found that
IN the tenth or eleventh the heroine
was about to be happily married.
And not infrequently the popularity
Of some books has been SO great that
the free lending libraries have been
besieged by those anxious to read them
but who could not afford to purchase
copies. Mrs. Burnett's delightful
Little Lord Fauntleroy" was a case
in point. People almost went crazy
over it, and even stern old maids
would unbend and dignifled young la
dies would lose all sense of decorum
when they were wanting it. They
would wait for hours outside the IL
braries for the borrowers who were
returning the copies, and watch them
safely back, so that they could be
among the first to take them out again.
The vigilance exercised in "spotting'
their return was worthy of a better
cause, and there were often serious
thoughts of calling in the services of
the police, for it seemed sometimes
as though the clamoring claimants
would not stop at physical force if
thereby they might obtain the books
A somewhat similar state of things
occurred in many places when Hall
Gaines "Manxmam" was published.
In Edinburgh the most extraordinary
demand sprang up for it at the libra
ries. A lady on asking for the book
in one of these was delighted when
told she could have it if willing to be
the eighteenth in turn, for, she said,
1--WE tried three libraries before and
the lowest turn I could get anywhere
is the nineteenth"
There are, however, few phases OF
the romance of books so interesting
as The origins of famous works-as
will be apparent from a couple of il