The Double Life Of Mr. Alfred BurtonOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Double Life Of Mr. Alfred Burton
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories
The sub-editor rang for the cashier.
"So you are married," he remarked. "You seem quite young."
"I am married," Burton admitted. "I am not living with my wife just now
because we see things differently. I have also a little boy. They live
down at Garden Green and I send them money every Saturday."
"What do you do? What is your occupation?"
"I just wander about," Burton explained. "I used to be an auctioneer's
clerk, but I lost my situation and I couldn't get another."
"What made you think of writing?" the sub-editor asked, leaning a little
over towards his new contributor.
"I picked up a copy of your newspaper on a seat in the Park," Burton
replied. "I saw that article on 'London Awake.' I thought if that sort
of thing was worth printing, it was worth paying for, so I tried to do
something like it. It is so easy to write just what you see," he
concluded, apologetically.
The sub-editor handed him his ten guineas.
"When will you bring me some more work?"
"Whenever you like," Burton replied promptly. "What about?"
The sub-editor shook his head.
"You had better choose your own subjects."
"Covent Garden at half-past three?" Burton suggested, a little
diffidently. "I can't describe it properly. I can only just put down
what I see going on there, but it might be interesting."
"Covent Garden will do very well indeed," the sub-editor told him. "You
needn't bother about the description. Just do as you say; put
down--what you see."
Burton put down just what he saw as he moved about the city, for ten
days following, and without a word of criticism the sub-editor paid him
ten guineas a time and encouraged him to come again. Burton, however,
decided upon a few days' rest. Not that the work was any trouble to
him; on the contrary it was all too ridiculously easy. It seemed to him
the most amazing thing that a description in plain words of what any one
might stand and look at, should be called literature. And yet some
times, in his more thoughtful moments, he dimly understood. He
remembered that between him and the multitudes of his fellow-creatures
there was a difference. Everything he saw, he saw through the clear
white light. There were no mists to cloud his vision, there was no halo
of idealism hovering around the objects upon which his eyes rested. It
was the truth he saw, and nothing beyond it. He compared his own work
with work of a similar character written by well-known men, and his
understanding became more complete. He found in their work a touch of
personality, a shade of self-consciousness about the description of even
the most ordinary things. The individuality of the writer and his
subject were always blended. In his own work, subject alone counted.
He had never learned any of the tricks of writing. His prose consisted
of the simple use of simple words. His mind was empty of all
inheritance of acquired knowledge. He had no preconceived ideals,
towards the realizations of which he should bend the things he saw. He
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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