The New York herald., 1922-10-08
CHRONICLE AND
COMMENT sAR1sz44 b ARTaqR MaI1scr

had employment in the Salem Custom
| House. F. Hopkinson Smith was not only
an author and an artist but lighthouse
| builder as well. Edmund Clarence Sted-
man turned to Wall Street, and always
contended that the complete change from
the turmoil OF. the board" to the quiet
of the study enabled him to write better
verse.
DUT perhaps the most striking example
u of an American author assuming
double task was Henry Harland, who,
known in later life as the editor of the
Yelloio Book and the author of such
novels as "The Cardinals Snuff Box"
my Friend Prospero'' and "The Lady
Paramount" first attracted attention by
the tales he wrote under the pseudonym
of Sidney Luska." The desire to write
came upon Harland in 1884, when he was
% years of age. At that time he occupied
minor position in the New York Surro-
gates office, and his hours were long-so
long, indeed, that to find time for literary
labor he had to adopt scheme which
practically heightened the ordinary day.
Directly after dinner he would go to bed
and sleep until 1 o'clock in the morning,
and then, fortified by large cup of black
coffee, would go to his desk and write
steadily until breakfast time. After break
fast he betook himself to his Office and
performed the days work with apparent
zest.
THE first fruit of this arduous labor
L was CAS- 1t Was Written" fam
tastic, somewhat crude, but powerful story
of a Jewish musician in New York. Har-
land at the time was living in his fathers
house in Beekman place, that quaint little
street perched upon the brink of the East
River almost in the shadow of the present
Queensborough Bridge, and the Terrace by
night was introduced as the background
for the beginning of the tale, and Beck
man place played it's part in nearly all
the subsequent stories in the same vein.
The slight success of MRS. Peixada,"
which followed "As 1t Was Written" en-
abled Harland to give up his position in
the Surrogates' office and devote himself
entirely to literature, and after the two
books mentioned quickly came "The Yoke
of the Thorah," MY Uncle Florimond"
and 'Mr. Sonnenscheins Inheritance"
Also of that period was Grandson
Mather,' which may be regarded as
largely photographed. In 1889 Har-
land dropped the Sidney Luska" and
went to England, where he remained un-
til his death late in 1905.
ENNGLISHMEN, too, have their limita-
~ tions, comedies Mr.. G. K Chesterton
in the course of what Saw in America"
(Dodd, Mead & Coz. Most of them know
good deal of American fiction, and
nothing whatever of American politics.
"They know more about the autocrat of
the breakfast table than about the auto
crat of the army and the people, the one
great democratic despot of modern times;
the Napoleon of the New World. The
only notion the English public ever got
about American politics they got from a
novel, Uncle Toms Cabin; and to say
the least of it, 1t was no exception to the
prevalence of fiction over fact. Hundreds
of us have heard of Tom Sawyer for one
who had heard of Charles Sumner; and
it is probable that most of us could pass
more detailed examination about Toddy
and Bulge than about Lincoln and Lee"
TWO weeks ago there was reference