Part 2 (2/2)

DEAR BOY:

What has become of The Current? It has not coet your article back You e you write You will find every idea of use to you hereafter

Soh in your immediate success noith the articles you send But I've had thirty years experience and I knothe present needs of the azine, and also on the mood of the editor when he reads it

Besides--except for your own disappointment--I knoould be better if you would not publish under your own name for a little while Dr

Holland--who had lots of literary shrewdness both as writer and publisher--used to say for a youngfame They either coreat hit and never played up to it, afterwards, in public opinion

Now my dear old man this sounds like awfully cold coot I confess I have GREAT faith in you--and I try to judge you as if you were notA to do it by articles like that you sent to The Current

The qualities which I think will bring it to you, you don't seem to value at all They are your dramatic eye I mean your quick perception of character and of the way character shows itself in looks, tones, dress, etc, and in your keen sympathy--with all kinds of people--Now, these are the requisites for a novelist Added to that your huht to make a novelist of the first class But you , real success takes time, and patient, steady work Read Boz's first sketches of ”London Life”

and compare them with ”Sydney Carton” or ”David Copperfield” and you will see what tienius

I suppose you onder why I am”the article sent to St Nicholas was the best you would be able to do for years to co to ivebut nonsense Whatever the article may be, you may write one infinitely superior to it next week or month Just in proportion as you feel more deeply, or noticeyour feelings or observations more delicately and powerfully which faculty must come into practice It is not inspiration--it never was that--without practice, with any writer from Shakespeare down

God forbid I would al, for it is prettyBut only to remember that you have not yet conquered your art You are a journeyman not a master workman, so if you don't succeed, it does not count The future is what I look to, for you I had to stop ood-bye dear old chu worried Richard at all at this period, I think it was his desire to get down to steady newspaper work, or indeed any kind of work that would act as the first step of his career and by which he could pay his oay in the world It ith this idea upper of 1886, and without any particular regret for the ending of his college career, that he left Balti to his home in Philadelphia, determined to accept the first position that presented itself But instead of going to work at once, he once o de Cuba with his friend William W Thurston, who as president of the Bethlehem Steel Coion Here and then it was that Richard first fell in love with Cuba--a love which in later years becahout his life whenever it was possible, and sometimes when it seemed practically impossible, my brother would listen to the call of his beloved tropics and, casting aside all responsibilities, would set sail for Santiago

After all it was quite natural that he should feel as he did about this little Cuban coast town, for apart fro pal, it was here that he found the reatest monetary success, ”Soldiers of Fortune” Apart froo, twice he returned there to work--once as a correspondent during the Spanish-Austus Thomas to assist in the latter's film version of the play which years before Thomas had made from the novel

CHAPTER III

FIRST NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCES

In the late summer of 1886 Richard returned from Cuba and settled down in Philadelphia to write an article about his experiences at Santiago and to look for regular newspaper work Early in September he wrote his mother:

September, 1886

DEAR MOTHER:

I saw the Record people to-day They said there was not an opening but could give me ”chance” work, that is, I was to report each day at one and get as left over I said I would take it as I would have s free to write the article and what afternoons I did not have newspaper work besides This is satisfactory They are either doing all they can to oblige Dad or else giving ressing but slowly To paraphrase Talleyrand, what's done is but little and that little is not good

However, since your last letter full of such excellent ”tips” I have rewritten it and think it isthe artist to-morrow He is away from B at present On the whole the article is not bad

Your boy, dick