The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1912-02-02
aEW NEWS Of YESTERDAY
American Dollars That Mads
J. h Famous Novelist Happy.


v0esed " tor enc
q HE Daughters,
0y e. j. EDWARDS.
When William Makepeacs Thaeks-
ray was on his second lecture tour in
the United. States, In 1855. he made
The editorial of1ces Of Putnam's Mag
azine his headquarters when he was
in New York city. The late Park God
win, publicist and sonin-law Of Will
liam Cullen Bryant. was then an edi.
tor of the magazine.
~""Thackeray always had free entry
70 the EDITORIAL rooms Of the maya
Zine; he came and went without cere-
lnony," said MIR. Goodwin to me q short
time before his death in 1904. 81 re.
member that one day enteredlthe Of
flee Gather unexpectedly, and there,
seated at my desk, was Thackeray. He
was all alone, and vas busily engaged
in marking upa bit Of paper.
Gin the course of the conversation
that ensued l remarked that ! had
heard that when it was first proposed
to Thackeray tina: he. visit the United
States and deliver his lectures on The
English Humorists.' he almost resent
ed the offer, because 1t seemed to him
that for him to appear upon the lee.
ture platform il. this country would
be in the natu; of an exhibition of
William Mukeleacc Thackeray. Then
! asked If he had ever felt any sense
Of humiliation OF that account while
lectuling in this country.
~"Thackeray got up, stuck his hands
in his pocket. looked out of the win.
dow for a momen or two, and then
declared most emphatically that from
the moment when he appeared upon
the lecture platform at Boston to lee
ture for the first time in America in
1852, until the first course of lectures
was ended in 1853, he had experienced
not the slightest sense of humiliation.
For that reason. he said, he was all
the more ready to listen to PROPOSE
tons for a second lecture tour. And
then. with a characteristic, whimsical
smile and a merry flash of the eyes.
he added that he thought he could
have swallowed the humiliation. IL
there had .beenFany. when he counted
|sup the ducats. s.
did those first lectures bring you
in more money than you had hoped
sfor?' l asked.
"fMuch more-much MORE was the
delighted response. Before ! read in
the United States 1t was the weekly or
the monthly check from my publishers
which paid my bills and for the care
of my daughters. Now, that sort of
thing is good. but 1t is p%recarious, and,
thank heaven, it is past. Why, do you
know, / am going back to England
the happiest man in the world, l think.
because | have been able to tuck away
about twenty thousand pounds hun
bred thousand dollars of your money
land l have put a good deal Of it into
YOUR Owl securities, of which l have
been we'll advised. SO that l can say
to my little girls when ] get homes.
There's a thousand pounds a year
for you no matter what happens
Then, too, the possession Of this cap
ital, this surety of a steady income,
will leave. me wholly free to under
take some new novels, to devote my
entire time to planning and writing
them
IA little while later Thackeray left
the Office, happy as a clam at high
tide. Going to my desk, l discovered
that he had left behind the bit Of pa
per which he had been marking up. 1
examined it and found that he had
drawn a free-haHd sketch for q cover
sAUrE Putnanissss Mngazin On n side
,was a 'eurnstak, very tall; on the
other side, a cotton plant. Under the
scornstalk wal written the word Long
fellow under the cotton plant was
the word Curtis italicized to Indicate
that the Latin word for short was
meant. Longfellow and George VIII
liam Curtis were at that time two.
conspicuous contributors to the maya
zine. Y.
Il showed the sketch TO Curtis, who.
was on the magazines editorial stan.
when he came in. We decidedst to frame
and keep 1t in. the editorial ofices.
But It disappeared. Somebody COW
eted and took 1t, and for the past fifty
years l have been expecting any day
that this particular Thackeray draw
ing will turn up somewhere in the
United States"
lCopyright. 1911. by r. J. Edwards. All
Rights Reseryed.)
S# i
Nov and Later.
Infant morality 10 q heavy 5drainso
%hAaryhnlc race. and AsDecially ON the