“The chapter on Julius Cæsar in this book was written chiefly on the
train while we were travelling together in the West in 1898.”
* * * * *
The first thing upon entering his room at a hotel, Mr. Crawford arranges
his writing materials, always in the same manner. The table is placed so
that the light will fall from his left. He sits with his side to the
table, his right arm resting on it, and the paper parallel with its
length. He writes a very fine hand, and very rapidly, punctuating as he
goes along. When a page is finished it is finished, and a work of art.
He arranges his bath and toilet articles, also, in a uniform way
invariably. He never patronizes a local laundry. He has two leather
trunks, made to order, that hold two dozen shirts; when one trunkful of
shirts has been used he sends them to New York to be laundered, and the
other trunk of fresh shirts arrives by express in time for his need.
The novelist carries a hand valise that he had made to order, with very
long handles, so that it barely clears the pavement when carried. This
enables him to get through a crowd without annoying others with his
valise, for it is never in the way. His silver monogram is on every
article of his toilet and writing equipment and his travelling-bags.
He wants his room at a temperature of sixty degrees, and so has it. He
is very kind and polite to servants, and sees to it that each one who
serves him is justly rewarded, not only pecuniarily, but with kind
words.
Mr. Crawford asks the name of every servant or waiter who attends him,
and addresses him by his name; and if he has occasion to refer to any
hotel where he has been, he can recall the name of the one who served
him.
He always has a drawing-room in the sleeping-car, and I know of only one
instance, in a journey of seven thousand miles, where he failed to
secure one. He arranges his drawing-room in exactly the same methodical
way as his hotel room. He has a hanging alarm clock that is always in
sight.
He sees the bright side of everything, and never says an ill-natured
word. He is not fond of company, and receptions are especially irksome
to him; but under such conditions he is always the perfect gentleman.
It was a long time before I could persuade him to prepare a lecture and
devote a season to the platform. In the spring of 1898 he called at my
office and asked me what my proposition was. I told him that I would do
the same with him that I did with Stanley and others: make it a
partnership arrangement, he taking two-thirds of the profit and I
one-third, and I personally conducting the tour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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