in bound blank-books, using but one side of a
sheet. This allowed ample space for changes and corrections, and the
manuscript was kept in place and order. The novelist used tea, and
especially coffee, to some extent as a stimulant, and smoked very mild
cigars. But he rarely took coffee at his dinner, at six P.M., as it
tended to insomnia. The author of "Barriers Burned Away" worked three or
four hours before and two or three hours after lunch. On this point,
however, he varied. When wrought up and interested in a scene, he
usually completed it. In the after part of the day, when he began to
feel weary, he stopped, and, if hard pressed, began work again in the
evening. Once, many years ago, he wrote twenty-four hours at a stretch,
with the aid of coffee. He did not force himself to work against
inclination beyond a certain point. At the same time he fought against a
tendency to "moods and tenses."

The German lyric poet, Martin Greif, writes only in the daytime, because
he can conceive poetry only when walking in the woods, meadows, and
lanes that form the environs of the Bavarian capital--Munich. During his
excursions into the surrounding country, he notes down his thoughts,
which he elaborates when he reaches his quiet study. He is not a ready
versifier, and is compelled to alter a poem repeatedly before it
receives his approbation. At work in the afternoon, he loves to smoke
moderately; but he never uses stimulants. Generally work is hard to him,
but sometimes--that is, rarely--he writes with unusual rapidity. As a
professional writer, he must sometimes force himself to work and must
mount the Pegasus in spite of disinclination, as when, for instance, a
product of his pen has to be delivered on a certain date.

Emile Mario Vacano composed his writings at all times that gave him the
impulse for doing so: at daybreak or in the night. With him it was the
"whereabouts," not the hour, that made the essence. There was a mill
belonging to a good friend of his, where he found his best inspirations
amidst all the hubbub of horses, peasants, poultry, cows, pigeons, and
country life. And he asserted that the name of his friend, Harry Salzer,
of Stattersdorf, near St. Poelten, Lower Austria, ought to be joined to
his. He said that his friend merited a great share of his "glories" by
his hospitality as well as on account of his bright ideas. Vacano never
made a plan in advance, but penned his novels, stories, essays, etc.,
as one