The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-07

even with a civilization which could |
ana would impose such harsh injustice
in tbe name of the law. OF course, |
when his sentence was up and he took
oeca sion to get EVENLY becoming d
prey upon society-he was apprehend-
ed. sent up again and eventually be-
came a confirmed crook. For days aft
er / talked to this man, now old and
broken with illness, l could not set
the shadow of the bars which had so
shattered his life, both physically ana
spiritually, from my mind My i'm
agination had been fired. the deepest
well of my sympathy touched, and it
seemed to me that as one of the
atoms composing that civilization l
was in part responsible for his mis-
fortune. l began to read every book
l could find on penology and Grim
'. inology; / longed to in some way
atone for my share in the wreckins
of his life, for as atoms we are each
and every one of us to be held ac-
| countable some day, somewhere for
our share in the things done or left
undone for all the wrongs of human
ity.
But here l am preaching you
regular sermon when you want chat
ty letter about my new book. Well, TO
begin with, it is as l have said, very
long novel. l wrote 1t both here and
at my country place in Connecticut.
Tho plot being based upon the story
this boy told me, it can be called, l
suppose, another one of my really
| truly stories-though this time of
sadly different order. / gave it to
George Sully & Co. because they are
| new, very up-to-date and thriving pub
| fishing house who are coming to the
| front with a list that will soon equal,
/. If not surpass, the older houses OF
| this country The book will be on
! the counters throughout the country
| the first part of this month / have
| dedicated it to three prison reform
| workers of today: Judge Morris Wood
| ruff Seymour. who blazed the trail
| for me to write it; 20 Hon. Richard
| NJ Hurd who was my guide, philos-
| opher and friend through the period
1 of it's writing; and to Hon Thomas
| Mott Osborne, the man with vision,
who inspired it. To these men l owe
the securing of much of my material.
Robert CASTOR Herbert. the we'll
/ known artist has carried out exactly
/ my idea of the hero's character in the
1 splendidly original colored Jacket to
/ the book But what is the use of
infinitely describing the volume? You
shall have one especially inscribed to
| your clever self the minute it is OF
the press. Al present am correct
| ing yards and yards of galley proof
and oh. how I hate it! l really Won
der If the general public knows what
| hard work the writing. or, rather the
publishing of a book really is.
First, there's the actual creating Of
the plot and the characters. That is
the all joyous and most interesting
mart Then as the little boy who was
| asked how he knew how to sketch a
horse said: When you've thinked about
a horse, then all you got to do is
to draw around the think Drawing
around the think or plot and char
acters, writing it, in other words, is
the next step. Then. with me at least,
there comes the debating of it to a
steno grapher from my longhand notes.
| Most authors, l think, do their own
tipping, but the two poor fingers that
I've 1aborious taught to pick the keys
stutter SO that nobody can read my
tyring)!
After this stage of the game comes
the correcting and the changing of
ones mind as to what certain char