The sun., 1919-03-23
The Elder Dumas
Offers Most Lurid
Example of Writ
ers Who Gained
Wealth Only to.
Throw 1t Away.
Money an Obses-
sion With Balzac,

Lady Roses Daughter" and Flea
nor" have been estimated at $4,000
book. Anthony Hope Hawkins,
Maurice Hewlett, Thomas Hardy, W.
w. Jacobs, w. ]. Locke and Florence
Barclay are probably among the for
tunate ones Of letters whom Arnold
Bennett had in mind and Katherine
Cecil Thurston. from THE Masque-
raider" alone, and regardless OF its
English sale, was paid by her Ameri-
can publishers somewhere between
$40. 900 and 100000. In contrast, take
a book that is remembered wh>-e ''Ths
Masquerader' has been comparatively
forgotten. In England the rights Of
Beatrice Harraden's "Ships That Pass
in the Night" were sold for twenty
pounds. In the United States half a
dozen different houses published tho,
story, only one Of which made anN
payment to the author.
One OF Poe's Gems Mt IS.
Above all, in America, conditions
have changed since the days when Poo
pocketed a So bill in exchange for ons
of his gems OF the routre, and hurried
out to purchase groceries for the Ford
ham cottage. perhaps weakly to be d.
yerted to more deleterious eXpendi-
ture.
Conspicuous with his 100000 word
volume every other year Is Winston
Churchill, that most admirable exan~
pie of literarf order and industry. Ac-
cording to one man of NARROWLY.
statistical mind Mr.. Churchill is an\
object for tho attention of the guar
dams of forest conservation. -Four
thousand spruce trees had to be cut
down in order that "Richard Carvel'
might be printed Considering tho
| book in terms OF dollars instead o.
timber "Richard Carvel," from royal
ties Of print and OF decentralization,
yielded Mr.. Churchill a return Of about
| $500, 900.
Harking back to another generaaon
there was the case Of Mark Twain
analogous TO that of Sir Walter Scott
| Involved, when he was almost 60 years
OF age, in the failure of Webster & Co.
Mr.. Clemens. within ten years, was
| allie TO pay off the debt, and. In add
ton, to acquire for himself hand
| some new fortune. Thirty odd years
! ago everybody was reading the big
four of Archibald Clavering GunterJ
"Mr Barnes Of New York" "Mr. Pot
| ter Of Texas" Miss Nobody OF No
where" and THAT Frenchman."
"Mr. Barnes" the first of them; iaG' q
been rejected by practically every pub
fishing house in the land laforc tn"
author printed 1t az his own expense.
and in the course Of a few years do
posed Of something like a million and
half copies.
Several publishers were similarly
hostile 10 tho manuscript OF Gen. Low
Wallaces Ben Hur." They congratI
ulated themselves on their Judgment
for the first two or three years after
house had been found reckless
enough to try tho venture Of publica-
ton. To-day "Ben-Ilur's" last hone OF
success would probably be buried bv
the remnant" clause. fatc that would
| be shared by Blackmores "LorDAN
! Doone." But the time came when tic
dusty copies were withdrawn from tia
storehouse and the sale began. For
thirty-odd years it has been going on.
Long after the authors death the ar
nual income from the tale was appro.
| imatcly $4,000. Indianapolis has ever.
| had many literary exhibits. One oc
them has been tho apartment build
| ing called the Biacherne. There" eN-
! plains the native with wave eloquent
Of pride, ARE the Ben Hur apartments.
Gen. Wallace erected them from part
of the profits of the book"