The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1913-09-12

came much Interested III the boy 5
personality. lie was taclturn TEL
low, with a peculiar little hiss
when amused, instead OF the boy
ish laugh one might have expected,
and he could give the queerest caus-
sic turn to speech, getting Off cpl
rams like little sharp bullets, ev-
ary once in a while, and always I'M
4Xpectedly.
lone night Mrs. Hall said to me:
Do you know that that quiet boy is
wonderful writer lie slips in
.!ere every now and then ind reads
to me stories as fine as any Rider
daggard ever wrote
Mrs. Hall was a highly cult
waited woman and her words deeply
impressed me. After | had gained
Wills confidence he let Inc read q
Jew OF his stories, and found them
gcry fine.
"'Will,' ! said to him one day
why don You try your hand at
writing for the magazincs?' Tut he
lad 10 confidence in himself and
destroyed his stories as fast as he
.'rotc them.
Well, at any rate, said, try
your hand at newspaper work. Bat
he couldn't see it, and went on writ
in3 and destroying.
"At last he got a position in a
land Office and later, when that po-
sition failed him he secured job
as soda water jerker' in a drug
/ store on Pecan street. Soda water
! jerking was, too much for Will
| and the next thing | heard of him
he had gotten into the newspaper
gamc--but that was after | left
/ Austin And when left | did not
stand on the order Of my going
For six months had been work
ing on the book AS July ap-
preached, and with it the compile
ton of the book and the trip to
New York to the publishers, be-
gan to get nervous.
"Ill pack the book in my trunk,
said John. along with the illuStra-
tons and we'll leave tomorrow for
New York via Galveston and when
you come back old fellow, you'll be
famous. I'm going to have this
book brought out in great style
the very best, and you are going to
be known far and wide as the great
est Carbonate discoverer that ever
came over the Rockies.
II sat with my head in my hands
and thought about it. That book
was dear to me. Sometimes thought
| 1t was a great book, a humorous
book, book full Of human nature.
And again | thought that book was
a great hoax and l looked upon my
self as a gigantic fraud. The book
would cost John hundreds of dollars.
What right had l to let him throw
away his money on a book that !
felt was foredoomed to failure?
John loved me and loved John
with a great love.
81 started up the street at last
with the manuscript of Carbonate
Days carefully wrapped up, to de-
liver it to him, feeling like thief
in the night. was tired with the
grinding work l had put into the
book. l felt dull, dispirited, un-
i happy.
"Austin lies along the lovely
curving banks of the Colorado river,
I looked down into the placid waters
and almost wished that l lay under
their cool covering.
IL had spent months over book
that I now considered worthless. A
book that my dearest friend was 60
ing to squander small fortune on
bringing, still-born, into the world.
81 made motion to pitch the
manuscript into the water, and then
| remembered that there were 9TH
ars, who did not love me, who be-
'ieved that could write-men who
',new we'll the writing game-and |
hesitated. Scribner's attracted by
descriptive letters had sent to a
Kansas City paper, had asked for
the name of the writer, ard had
later written me. requesting me to
send them some sketches. But
had been too busy with Carbonate
Days to attend to it.
81 drew the bulky PACKAGE back
and then | remembered that the
trip was less than six hours off
For the train to Galveston left about
five in the morning and it was then
nearly midnieht.
81 hesitated no LONGER. I opened
the package, and deliberately tore
the story into fragments. chapter BY
chapter. Then threw 1t into the