ng ruins. As a result, my first novel, 'Barriers
Burned Away,' gradually took possession of my mind. I did not
manufacture the story at all, for it grew as naturally as do the
plants--weeds, some may suggest--on my farm. In the intervals of a busy
and practical life, and also when I ought to have been sleeping, my
imagination, unspurred and almost undirected, spun the warp and woof of
the tale and wove them together.... I merely let the characters do as
they pleased, and work out their own destiny. I had no preparation for
the work beyond a careful study of the topography of Chicago and the
incidents of the fire. For nearly a year my chief recreation was to
dwell apart among the shadows created by my fancy, and I wrote when and
where I could--on steamboats and railroad cars, as well as in my
study.... When the book appeared I suppose I looked upon it much as a
young father looks upon his first child. His interest in it is intense,
but he knows well that its future is very doubtful." Mr. Roe always
wrote from a feeling that he had something to say; and never
"manufactured" a novel in his life. While writing he was absorbed in his
work; and made elaborate studies for his novels. "I have visited," said
he, in reference to "Without a Home," "scores of typical tenements. I
have sat day after day on the bench with the police judges, and have
visited the station-houses repeatedly. There are few large retail shops
that I have not entered many times, and I have conversed with both
employers and employees."

Mr. Roe did not make "outlines" or "skeletons" to any great extent, and
when he did so, he did not follow them closely. Indeed, he often
reversed his plan, satisfied that following an arbitrary outline makes
both story and characters wooden. He held that the characters should
control the author, not he them. He usually received the suggestion of a
story unexpectedly, and let it take form in his mind and grow naturally,
like a plant, for months, more often for years, before he began to
write. He averred that after his characters were introduced he became
merely the reporter of what they do, say, and think. He imagined that it
was this spontaneity which, chiefly, made his books popular, and said
that to reach intelligent people through fiction, the life portrayed
must seem to them real and natural, and that this can scarcely be true
of his characters if the author is forever imposing his arbitrary will
upon them. Mr. Roe wrote