Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 48175-h.htm or 48175-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48175/48175-h/48175-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48175/48175-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/littlevisitswith02oris Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work. Volume I: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48174 Transcriber's Note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). A table of contents for this volume is contained within Volume I. [Illustration: JOYS OF HOME] LITTLE VISITS WITH GREAT AMERICANS Or Success Ideals and How to Attain Them Edited by Orison Swett Marden Author of “Pushing to the Front,” etc., etc., etc. The Success Company New York 1905 Copyright, 1903 By The Success Company New York Copyright, 1904 By The Success Company New York All Rights Reserved XXXIV A “Printer’s Devil” Whose Perseverance Wins Him Well-Earned Reputation as a Fun-Maker. THE felicity of F. Opper’s caricatures is marvelous. His drawings for the Dinkelspiel stories, by George V. Hobart, in the New York “Morning Journal” have drawn to him the pleased attention of those whom he has caused to laugh at the happy expressions of his characters,—at the ridiculous expressions of the characters,—during Mr. Dinkelspiel’s “gonversationings,” particularly at Mr. Dinkelspiel’s earnest look. He is a caricaturist of the “first water,” and in this connection I may say that a caricature too carefully drawn often loses its humor. Still Mr. Opper has proved his ability to finish a drawing smoothly. Those familiar with the back numbers of “Puck” will concede this and much more. His life is an example of determination. I called, by appointment, at his house in Bensonhurst (near Bath Beach), a pretty suburb within the precincts of Greater New York. We stepped into his library. He drew my attention to the pictures on the four walls of the room. “Those are all ‘originals,’ by contemporaries,” he said, “and there is one by poor Mike Woolf. We were intimate friends, and I attended his funeral.” STUDIES OUT HIS IDEAS. The conversation turned toward Mr. Opper himself, and I asked:— “How is it you can conceive so many ridiculous ideas and predicaments?” “It is a matter of study,” he replied. “I work methodically certain hours of the day, but very seldom at night. We will say it is a political cartoon on a certain occurrence that I am to draw. I deliberately sit down and study out my idea. When it is formed, I begin to draw. I never commence to draw without a conception of what I am going to do.” “And when did you first put pencil to paper?” I asked.