The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-20
From the New York Sun.

ntcHARD HARDING DAVIS. who N says. by the way, that he's not IA literary man, but journalist, may be seen almost any day when he happens to be taking vacation, driv- ing in a yellow cart through the green hills and still greener valleys of West chester county. He is proud of his magnificent health.
 He was reminded of "Gallagher"
 "Oh, that" he replied with a shrug of his well developed shoulders, was | long, very long. time ago. The art of writing storiesi There Is none. mean there Is no art of how to tell a short story or put. together a rovel. Each writer has his own way A young girl of 1T writes. a novel. It's different from anybody else's, but it goes, A man of 70. De Morgan. writes a novel in his own way. It catches. the public
 But I never discuss these subjects. There's nothing to discuss from my point of view. I don't belong to ar tistic clubs of any sort. Some men think if they are artists they must only
 
 men they must spend all their time with newspaper people, They spend all their spare time talking over the meth ods of their work. the incidents con nected with their professions, and they never go outside of them in any way. They think this Is necessary to suc- cess''
 Perhaps that is the way to fail?' No, I cannot say that. Many of the men I know, artists. novelists and newspaper people, who live according to that theory, are very greatly suc- cessful. That is the way in which they succeeded But it's not my way. 'I think it's well to know all sorts of people. If you're writer it's better tomorrow a good many people who are not writers.
 Some authors take themselves. too seriously That was all very well in days of Hawthorne. Lowell, Holmes Emerson and the rest. They were great they were regarded almost with rever- ence by the people of their day, es- peeialIy by those in Massachusetts. An other point is that the material re- wards for writing were less in those days.
 "The law of compensation operates in these matters as in every situation in life. Those men. Hawthorne and the others, gained respect, social position, reverence even, but small material re- | wards. Today so many people write, riol r1e but no one pays much attention to writers That it should be so Is right. 'I see a veteran of the civil war I take off my hat to him because I think | he fought to save his country So soon | as he gets pension l no longer take | off my hat to him. For l think he didn't fight to save his country. he fought for money. That's the law of compensation operating. When you get | the material reward you don't get the other.
 "The writer today sells his story. But he doesn't stop there. He sells it's newspaper rights. He makes 1t into a play and sells that. He sells 1t over in England. He keeps on sellingIt. The returns pile up. You can hardly tell just how much you do get for a story, because you get so many returns in so many different ways"
 At this MT. Davis brought out list of plays that are now being produced in the United States He ran down the names and marked out a play with the comment, That's $250. That was put on in Los Angeles" Within the next five minutes MT. Davis had marked out two or three more plays, which he said brought him the same royalties on each performance. Then he outlined with his pencil Augustus Thomas play, Arizona" and remarked, T wish l had written that.
 "The magazines pay authors immense prices for their york; he continued Two publications in the United states are keeping the rates paid to authors up. I don't know whether it will las'' | but of course were it not payins pus- mess undertaking the magazines swoulo not do it. New magazines are coming | into the field all the time, which shows that there must be money in 1t for tht agazine owners 4s "The hoiduD man nowadays IS th'