The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-08
From the Louisville Cou

I'm thS i<oulSNillt 1OuTlef-JOurndI.
wv W. JACOBS, an English writer
M of fiction, whose works are
" a popular in America, is quoted
as saying that there is great deal of
nonsense about the writer and his de-
votion to his work. The author, he con-
tends, does not Give his characters"
His personal experience is that his hu-
NOR never makes him laugh and his
hair-raising stories never cause his hair
to stand upon end like the qulls of the
9retful porcupine." He concerns himself
with getting the check and loves his
well-paid achievement. Work, for its
own sake, he hates. Leisure is his grand
passion.
Ones personal experience is, of course,
purely personal. Of course, there may
be authors of distinction who care no
more for their work than diggers of
bitches who, although they prefer to
feel that their work is well done, like
a holiday more than they like a days
work. But if it is true that any number
of writer's of fiction are bored by their
work their experience is less happy than
that of writer's of less pretentious kind
Newspaper writers-from the cub re-
porter upward-like their calling If they
are worth their salt. The newspaper
writer who has lost his enthusiasm as
a seeker for material, or as craftsman,
must abandon his calling and seek an
other If he. wishes to get on in the
/, ~, .t.l,
he is sufficiently calous not to feel
keen regret over a blunder he is no
longer useful and is in danger of being
eliminated when the Improvement of the
staff is under consideration. If his yes
terday's contribution-wnich may wrap
a package or light kitchen fire tomor-
rows of no interest to its creator to-
day he is becoming dead wood and is
likely to disappear when the next prun-
ing takes place But it is not the fear
of calamity to come that keeps alive the
enthusiasm of newspaper writers for
their work. 1t is the vitality of the
characters, scenes and situations with
which those who chronicle or discuss
facts must deal
The writer of fiction pulls the strings
that work a puppet show. OF course, he
does not live his characters. Mrs.
Glyn might wish to live the part of the
heroine of Three Weeks" and THERE
fore might, in Imagination, live the
part. But Robert Hichens wrote Bella
Donna,'' Daudet wrote "Sapho' and the
younger Dumas wrote La Dame aux
Camelias.
The novelists enthusiasm Is for his
craftsmanship rather than for the char
acters whose perfection, or whose i'm
perfections, reflect its quality. 1t is easy
to believe that some of them have Mr..
Jacobs confessed interest in the net
proceeds rather than in their art it.
SELF although the proportion must be
small. 1t is also easy to understand why
writer's who deal with lesh-and-b blood
characters and constantly with new ones
find that their interest remains alive
without any effort upon their part
Nearly any days issue of daily news
paper contains, in compact column,
a life story with sufficient material in
1t for the novelist to elaborate into
book. All of the stoclS-in-trade charac-
ters of fiction appear In the daily grist
of news-all of them and many not be-
fore met with in real life or imagined
by novelists, humorists, dramatists or
poets. Characters of all kinds abound
under the headlines. Hair-breadth es-
capes that would make an audience in
theatre gasp are narrated In Il para
graph Heroes incredibly brave, incredi-
bly, unselhsh. incredibly lucky; heroines
who immoate themselves as uncom-
plainingly as victims of the Hindu "sut-
tee" are numerous. About equally so
are the heroines of real life stories of
Ibsenic or Strnd5ergian gloom who play
their sorry parts in dramas of catastro-
rhe.
The Ibsen trick Of leaving the first act
unwritten and taking up the thread Of