The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-12-03

NEW YORK-From the window of
his room on the seventeenth floor OF
his hotel, Vicente Blasco 1banez, the
Spanish novelist. gazed on twilight
panorama of the city, the southern
half of the metropolis of the western
world, which he was seeing for the
first time, says the Evening Sun.
In the hazy\ evening myriads Of
lights twinkled in the towers and in
the smaller buildings. The miles Of
masonry were intersected by brilliant
thoroughfares, along which crawled
thousands of motors that looked like
fiery insects all travelling in the same
direction.
1T is a great vision" said the Span.
ish writer. "a wonderful spectacle. It
is as if New York had been built by
giants. And behind those lights there
are people working and playing. living
out their destinies, always inside of
building.
New York gives one the impression
of force, the poetry of power, not
military strength but the inherent
strength of the people who built the
city. When 1 look on such a sight
am glad that / have lived in such q
wonderful age"
Blasco lbaneZ says that he "remen,-
bers everything" and perhaps he will
remember that poetic. brilliant, misty
spectacle looking southwark from the
Belmont and put it in the novel that
he is sure to write about America. And
he will remember that trip up tile bay
on the Lorraine when he was passing
the great buildings of Manhattan for
the first time. He says the impression
ctr hn tjr,,o
being.
Speaks Through Interpreter.
Mr.. Ibanez does not speak English
and the interview that he gave to
several newspaper men and women
necessitated the aid of his official in
terpreter, Robert King Atwell, Of the
University of Porto Rico. 1t might be
added that the views of 1banez lose
nothing in Mr.. AtwelPs transmission.
The tall, Spanish writer, clad in
gray business suit, seemed to possess
almost untold geniality and endurance
as he paid close attention to the In
cessant barrage of questions. growing
hoarse at last in his endeavors TO
please all hands.
He is gesticulatory, there is no doubt
Of that, when he grows warm to the
subject, and his voice rumbles like
the surf on the Spanish coast. fine
head that enterprising sculptors will
be bidding for but for all his rather
burly form his hands are long and
slim, with strong and bony fingers.
Asked how he wrote novels, he said
that he never took notes but some
| times studied and read all he could on
the subject in hand for perhaps months
! before he began to write. He remain
ed six years in the Argentine without
writing a line. But when he finally
got busy his great work. THE Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse" was the
result, impelled by his contact with
the world war.
A Composite Character.
II begin very slowly" said 1banez,
describing his method Of work. AT
first it is like climbing laboriously up
the side of mountain. BY slow de-
grees and with great trouble I reach
the crest. Then, once on the other
side. can not stop myself rush
head,ong, whirling. plunging, working
! endlessly until I reach the finale.
THAT Is the way it was with 1.-The
Four Horsemen.' I wrote the novel in
year 1916. Toward the end Of the
stretch to achieve the climax. I did
not sleep and did not have much to
eat. but depended mostly on coffee"
The great chaacter of old Desnoy-
ers in 1.-The Four Horsemen," Ibanez
! said, had been a somewhat composite
one, but that the groundwork was that
Of real old pioneer Of the Argentine
whom he had known. The novelist,
| who was engaged throughout the war
in propaganda work for France and
| lived in Paris, was the first civilian al
lowed to view the battlefield of the
Marine, in September, 1914. The re-
suit was his true description Of what
took place at the Desnoyers chateau.
All the war incidents OF 1.-THE Four
Horsemen" are founded on fact.
Ferragut 6Iasco Himself. 3D..
Blasco Ibanez not only remembers
! everything" but he sees everything, or
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