Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-04
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRlCEWELL.

man who takes to the pen or typewriter
is a failure to wish TO write well.
No matter how clumsily he writes
or how pointless. II nevertheless his
work is imbued with q plain desire to
write well, somehow there viii be some
thing about 1t. an inner spirit, II the
reader wiz, which justifleS his work TO
men.
1t Is only when o writer plainly shows
the reader that he has no conception
whatever OF o proper appreciation OF
the cardinal virtue Of writing well Tor
the sake of writing well that the latter
is inclined, If he knows something OF
world literature, 70 turn dear ear 10
him.
Whatever q writer's faults may be
and the best Of them have many-a
reader will respect him If he shows that
he has his mind bent on turning out the
best work that he is capable OF creating.
4
Stevenson, the beloved r. L. s. OF fact
and fable, could not touch an idea or
put pen to paper without creating q
picture worth looking at.
His book about the South Seas Is
worth more to many a reader than all
the list OF subsequent writings about the
delectable isles.
His vivid feat Of imagination, Treas
ure Island" which he wanted to call
The Sea Cook" remains one Of the
worlds best beloved adventure stories.
His essays. even including the openly
stylistic "Virginibus PueriSQue." carry a
reader along from the flrst line to the
last.
There is something about them which
rings true not only in and because OF
themselves, but even more because they
AHyfA Of NKfh
valued the art OF writing and who set
out 10 be the best artist he could in
his chosen medium
1t Is right here that the theory Of
hard works falls down.
Labor may be for brick walls and
pyramids, for automobiles. for fence
posts, for q thousand and one construc-
tons, but 1t will not suff1ce, at least in
entirety, for writing.
There have been scores of writer's who
have put their names to many and
thick volumes who yet have gone down
to oblivion before the onslaught of time.
II Zola's 80 novels yet remain to the
world, it is mainly because there was
something behind, in and OF the writing
besides the gigantic energy shown.
The great Frenchman. too, had an
idea OF what he wanted to do with
words. and he wrested them to his
bidding, sometimes gently. sometimes
harshly, but always with effect.
The edtfice Of = typical lola novel Is
not Of poured concrete, every particle
like every other particle; it is rather as
X 1t were made carefully with q proper
foundation, its walls built up Of brick,
its pinnacle topped. even as the Wash
ington Monument has its peak OF gliS-
tening aluminium, with q point Of pur-
pose.
The writings Of Robert Louis Ste
Venson. as we may go back 10 them to-
day, strike us, above all, as the work
Of a man who took pride in his crafts
mRnship. Although 1t came natural to
him, in way, he had to have the de-
sire to do his best in order to achieve
the splendid things he did.
Before all, he wished to write we'll
He had q true sense of perspective in
the writing sense, he knew the finer
felicities of sentence structures. OF word
blocks. OF structural ideas. Compared
with his strong. delicate work, much OF
the writing of today Is mere word
butchery.