Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-20
About the Late O. Henry
f. C. Kelly in Cleveland Plain Dealer.

eNelHnu Eldiu
fact, worry over these probably had
something to do with bringing on his
last Illness. When the present writer
called at his hotel in New York re-
Gently he was lying in bed dickering
with a representative of the firm that
has published most of his books, try
ing to arrange for a lump sum of adj
vance royalties sufficient to square up
all debts then outstanding.
No matter how much he needed the
money, o. Henry wouldn't sit down
and write anything unless he mad
the feeling" Not long ago as he ana
a friend sat in a New York grill Henry
took a slip of paper out of his pocket
and remarked: Look here, these fell
lows are bothering me to write them u
story, but I'm not going to do IT,
The friend looked at the slip of pa
per. 1t was a check from one of the
best known magazines in the United
States. And 1t was made out in blank!
He was TO fill it In with whatever sum
he thought proper. When he got into
the writing humor again he filled 1t
out for $1,000, went to his rooms in the
Caledonia apartments on West Twenty
sixth street and dashed off the yarn.
His disposition was to put off the
work of writing from day to day ana
hour to hour, until he was obliged to
get at it. few years ago he had
aR1eeu TO WTlte IL ohOAS ApA
one of the big magazines.
The editor called him up one after
noon. Porter" says the editor, 1--WE
must have that story by tomorrow in
order to get it into the hands of an
artist to have the illustrations made"
"Ill have it ready by tomorrow some
time" replied the author. "All you
need for the illustration is a picture or
young woman handing her husband
watch fob. and he is giving her a
pair of side combs, although Sne IS
wearing extremely short, curly hair"
Now the fact was that until he got
on the phone o. Henry hadn't thought
up a plot for that Christmas story, ex-
cept in vague way. He had thought
some of writing a story-now to be
found in his book, 1.-The Four Mil
lion," about young couple in moder-
ate circumstances who sold their
choicest possessions, she her hair ana
he his watch. to buy the other a suit
able Christmas present. However, he
had not definitely decided on that plot
until the EDITORS hurry call made 1T
| necessary for him to outline something
for the artist to do. Then he went to
work and wrote the story to fit the
picture.
Rich as o. Henry's writing Is in
classical illusions, most of his reading
of the classics was done between the
that he did more reading in those years
of profitable sort than he has done
since Among his favorites in those
days were Burton's ANATOMY or Mel
ancholy" and 1.-The Arabian Nights
Allusions to "The Arabian Nights"
may be found in more than half OF
the things he wrote in recent years.
For a time he worked in a little drug
store down in Texas and in several of
his more recent narratives he makes
capital of what knowledge of pharmacy
he was then able to gain. This drug
store training crops out, for example,
in his story, "A Ramble in Aphasia,"
contained in the last book he had pub
lished-a story, by the way, which In
the humble opinion of the writer mere
of, should give o. Henry consideration
as a. great humorist If he had never
done anything else.
Shortly before his death o. Henry
had about two-thirds completed a short
story for one of the big magazines.
Whether he ever finished it this writer
does not know, but the editor of the
magazine was even then apprehenslVe
of the authors death and sent one or
the associate literary editors over TO
q. Henry's rooms to get him to tell
how the story was going to turn out,
so that it could be finished II need De
in near o. Henry style by someone else.
The editor also considered the POSI-
manuscript and Offering a prize to the
writer who would write the best end
ing to the narrative.
o. Henry was also at work on a
novel, the first one regular novel he
had attempted, but ones Information
Is that it was not near enough to COM
pletion to be published.