Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-28
THE MAN WHO SOLD HIMSELF

crEvENsoN was still alive when John
81 y n.,i began to write essays, stories.
80 poems and dramas. The master
Fl eat at the big desk facing the big
..troom. to watch. o correct had
.,',.a 10 do with the matter He whs
me master of earthly things. where
pa ~ mastership that Stevenson had
fohn Paul was of the spirit. That
tI.Sson ose was the greatest fighter OF the
h,.,, had already leaked into the world
eu bis sick ROOM And il was well
lv nn,, that when the doctors gave him
s week to live he was ready TO begin
u folio. ,,--,-
- and enterprising digestion, could not
sope to emulate his masters grim strug-
~. vith disease, but the lesson, after
y ras no richer for the sick than for
..a healthy. 1t is as hard to sit still and
,nose when you want to play, as to
y, m and roll ink-pots when you are
~, bllnd with pain and weakness.
Inn paul was "a years old when he re-
II ',ssd 10 be a writer. and began his long
t.stion of stevenson. But John Paurs
~ virtuous imitation. 1t was never
y, ambition TO copy Stevenson's style,
II ~ nv steady application of Steven
i s,r,an methods and courage to arrive
4 s,,ne day at a style of his own. To SUBJ
4 .st.matter he barely cast a thought in
,t,se early days Of his apprenticeship.
\ y Gas style that he was after. even man.
H .s, words, form and the coordination
4 !, rsrts He would swallow a book as
somnletely and almost as quickly as you
.sy swallow an oyster, and thereafter
4 ~ innumerable hours and over innumcr-
,h,s sheets Of paper would set down in
snmerable limitations of those beauties
III aptnesses in which his author seemed
.ost to excel. He learned to mimic
SSackeray and Dickens with laughable
,eatness and dispatch; the Ancient
|usnner" IA holiday tasl); less convinc-
Irlv the elusive Hawthorne; his own
-ood master stevenson, Poe. Bret Harte
nd French de Maupassant.
do not wish to advance that John
psuTs imitation possessed more than n
,or,ieal apc-like quality of his originals.
Tbey were exercises, like the finger work
vblch your virtuOso must go through
vith in his teens If ever he is to make
his instrument sing like bird or roar
like a storm.
John Paul was never going to be n vr-
tnoso of letters "a little bird, not of the
singing kind, often whispered as much
a his ear). but he was going to be a
live
mlrht be that only the most carefully
chosen in the highest places would know
me difference, or even that Time him
,slf, capital unbiasable critic, would be
he first to find him out. Il will do"
wrote John Paul in his teens. "the very
hest that is in me to do. Who cares IL
tha monument that / shall erect tumble?
Not l. For | shall have done a mans
work in a world that is often clamor-
,usy contentcd with less"
stiff words for hoy of II with an en-
hrprsing digestion.
When John Paul passed his eXamina-
tons for college, he returned thanks to
Ms great gift for swallowing books and
REMEMBERING them. lie had never stu
died, except that which for prefer
naturally serious and humorless year or
two he was pleased to call Uo himself
lOne) his art" Nor did the broader
appeal OF the college entice him. He
rgalOwed a little Greek, n little mathe-
natics a little philosophy, because he
was natural-bon swalower; but, for
the most part, he kept steadily, almost |
along the narrow, up-climbing |
path Of letters which he had chosen. In |
class and out he wrote and he read.
The profound Discrimination Of John |
Paul for study and the attending of |
rlaSseS was presently DIOuSnl 10 lIe no |
tee Of the dean. He sent for John Paul, /
md. after reading the young mans char |
leter from Aaron to NerXes, as J. p. |
himself said afterwarD, with one of |
hose swift upward gances for which he |
vas famous. showed n set of teeth sur
phangly white and even to be in the
midst Of so time-worn a face.
7 have your word for it," said the
lean, who still smiled. that you are
really working at something"
"You shall have proof of it," said John
Paul
Il shall be obliged"
But the dean was not obliged-at first.
indeed, certain dangerous fires flashed
rom his eyes, when, on returning to his
aodest house. he found his neat front
all completely disordered by the pres
nee OF three flour barrels, filled to the
rim with manuscripts in John Paul's
eat, illegible hand. But the dean ran J
It OF fuel; the fires died in his eyes. He
bowed his teeth. he smiled, and then
Z laughed a great roaring Homeric
lugh, and, dining that night with the
neritus dean of the law school, he told
be story and the story spread.
In his professors John Paul detected a
ew and gratifying twinkle of apprecia- /