The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-14

s<rtsr isssrtsil iRil Sr~ ss.s Irnis t....,
Frappe velvet, the weave that looks as
If chiseMed, make the skirt of this evening
gown. 1t is dark red in tone. and the cor
sage is formed Of beaded net in the same
| tones with steel and silver. Silver ribbon
| girdle-Maison Bernard.
| more illustrated weelSles published in st.
| Petersburg and Moscow, which proved to
| be made up almost entirely of steals
from the English and American publica-
| tions like Golfers Weekly, the Satur-
day Evening Post and the London Sphere
and Sketch, and whose plentiful fiction
| was ALL or almost all. the pirated work
| of American and English authors. Among
the victims were Upton Sinclair, Robert
w. Chambers, Lloyd Osborne, Jack Lon
don and the Willamsons-to name the
| Americans first-and Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, George A. Birmingham E. w.
Hornung Max Pemberton, Stephen Gra-
ham, whose with the Russian Pilgrims
in Jerusalem" has been featured largely
by a weekly which stole it bodily, and
goodness knows how many more.
! 'This wholesale run on American and
British authors" remarked Young, lis
the direct result of the recent conclusion
of copyright conventions with Russia by
France and Germany, the former Of
which countries obtained its convention
slightly less than a year ago. and the
latter only so recently as in August last
Turn to England and America
"As result, the Russian pirates, be-
ing choked off of the works of German
and French authors, upon which they
previously had fattened largely, have
turned TO British and American writers,
and are working the latter for all they
are worth
These publishers have agents in both
New York and London and as soon
as a new work by well known writer
Is published it is posted off to Rus
STA, translated as swiftly as possible.
and put on the market. either in vol
ume form or as a serial in one of the
many weekly papers, such as [ have
been showing you. In fact, so depend
eut are the proprietors of the latter on
their thefts from England and Amer
lea that if copyright convention
with Russia were arranged by both
countries, from 12 to 15 of the most
| important of these publications prob
| ably would be obliged to cease pub
lication altogether. incidentally a whole
/ army of translators would find their
occupation gone, while native authors
would be in clover for the first time
in their history.
"The distinction of being the most
popular of American authors in Rus
sia belongs to Nick Carter or rather
that engaging characters creator. who
ever he may be- Millions of copies of
Nick Carter's' adventures have been
sold in Russia and fortunes have been
made and are being made out of them
without their author being one cent
to the good. Robert w. Chambers and
| Jack London are also popular with
Russian pirates. Winston Churchill for
some reason, appears to have been
practically neglected.
DOyle's Works Popular
'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is another
man who has made fortunes for the
Russian pirates" Young went on "His
| Sherlock Holmes stories have sold by
the million. without the slightest profit
to him, needless to say. AT the present
moment his Lost World is running as
a serial in one st. Petersburg even
ing paper, while another is running
| The. Poison Belt e. w. Hornung and
w. w Jacobs are other hot favorites
and so are II. G. Wells Arthur Morri-
son. George Bernard Shaw and no end
of others. G. X. Chesterton alone of
the English big fellows does not seem
| to have got a Russian reputation as
yet. I have thought of introducing him
myself
mot only do these Russian weeklies
| steal the work OF foreign authors for
their own columns" the editor con-
tinued, 'but they give their works as
premiums, issuing them piecemeal in
weekly or monthly parts. In this way
Kipling, Mark Twain, Fenimore Cooper
i Dumas and many other world famous
authors reach Russian readers for the
first time.
Russia having Just entered into
copyright conventions with Germany
and France" Young added, "the present
Is a particularly happy time for the
United States and Great Britain to
come in. The authors and publishers'
associations of both countries should
get together and bring pressure to bear
upon the foreign departments of their
respective governments and the thing
would come into being with a min
imum of difficulty. This is the history
OF tlre French and German conventions
as the result of which Russian pub
fishers who are prepared to pay for the
work OF French authorsn ow deal di-
rectly with a representative of the
French authors society. The German
convention Is practically new. but n
similar arrangement Is about to be
made. No doubt the conclusion of Amer
lean and British copyright conventions
would be fought by the Russian 'pi
rates but on the other hand, they
would have the whole-hearted support
/ of the Russian writing craft which has
everything to gain by such an ar
/ rangement."
Served Under O'Connor
The author of the above opinions Is
emphatically Tive wire.'' A native of
/ Manchester. he served his apprenticeship
under L, r. O'Connor on the London
| Star, and went later on to the Pail Mali
! Gazette. He took leading part in
! bringing out the Westminster Gazette.
now one of the BEST known liberal PAPERS
| Ia Great Britain, and then went to South |
! Africa, where he was connected with |
| the Cape Times. Later he managed the |
Daily Telegraph of India, as well as a |
| big printing business in connection there
with did stunts in China and Japan WIS., |
tied the United States, and eventually
| founded that smart London weekly Lon
don opinion, for Moreton Vaudeville, and
later on the pugnacious John Bull for
! Horatio Bottomley In the early part
! Of last year, certain English publishing
interests, which control the Russian and
| Siberian year books and other reference
! works, asked him 10 so to ST. Peters
| burg with a view 10 starting a weekly
| paper'there, This latter idea he ''knocled
| on the head as he phrased it, but he
promptly decided to provide Russia with
f. its first monthly i,2o og1zina nd did tbi-