Life — April 2, 1898 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

280 -*LIFE- y POPULAR Always Beans. 5 eS patron of NEZAS sport, living in , Kansas City, has a) otterea a hand- ft some belt for six days go-a you-please Inter- national reading match, to be held at the Madison Square Garden in April. Authors who enter must read from their own works. The belt will be presented, with ten per cent. of the gate money, to the reader who delivers himself of the greatest number of words in six consecutive ds Among the entries already received are those of Hall Ca Manx Wizard; “ Marry” Crawford, who holds the world’s rec for the forty-eight-hour word match; Coney ” Doyle, the F anda dark horse from Philadelphia, who may or may not be the popular “Dicky” Davis, who has already become a familiar figure to the Aubitués of the Garden. The contest bids fair to be a most exciting one, and as a test of endurance it must rival any exhibition ever held in any garden anywhere, from Eden to Madison Square. Certain American authors, who read publicly from their own writings, having made representations to the Treasury Depart- t Major Pond has paid no duty on Mr. Anthony Hope Hawking, it is highly probable that Mr. Hawkins will be contis- cated by the government under the smuggling act, and placed in bond until such a time as be may be auctioned off to the highest bidder, Literary Gossip. A TALE OF A TROPICAL ISLAND. « « * R. EDGAR FAWCETT having publicly expressed his disapproval of the writings of Robert Louis Stevenson, the publishers of the latter's works have decided to withdraw all of Mr. Stevenson's books from the market and to destroy the plates. Arrangements are being made by means of which all unfilled orders for Mr. Stevenson's volumes will be filled with large paper copies of Mr. Faweett’s “ Buntling Ball,” bound in crushed calf. We learn with very deep regret that a careless servant in the employ of Mr, Hall Caine recently sold seven barrelfuls of that gentleman's notes for his new book, ** The Magoozalum,” to atrav- cling junk-dealer. This act is only paralleled by the destruction by fire of Carlyle’s original manuscript of the French Revolution. Mr. Caine has employed those two astute detective authors, Dr, Doyle and Mr. Fergus Hume, to endeavor to recover as many of the lost notes as may still be in existe Owing to the intense drudgery of writing a novel, the venerable George Meredith, on and after May Ist, will write under a new system of his own devising. Instead of writing his novels back- ward, as has been his wont, he will begin in the middle and work both ways at once, having recently become ambidextrous. We shall watch the outcome with interest, . * * RUMOR has reached us from Philadelphia beginning with bis fiscal year of * Bok will exclude all three ed authors from - his list of contributors. We have expected this for a long time. In these days, when authors ask so much per word for their writ- ings, charging up from fifteen to twenty cents for each single word in their names, it is estimated that Mr. Bok