Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1903 — MINCEMEAT HELPED SOME [ARTICLE]

MINCEMEAT HELPED SOME

How a London Writer Managed to Make a Living. Apropos of the question as to writing as a profession pays a good living Miss Elizabeth Banks, author of “The Autobiography of a Newspaper Girl,” relates some of her experiences with London authors, known to the world as successful. “The other day,” said Miss Banks, “I was calling on a well-known woman writer whose books are widely known in England and America, and have been well translated Into one or two continental languages. She writes two books a year—that is, on an average. Her books are not great books by any means,- but they are not bad books, and that is saying a great deaL Over the (teacups we talked books and I complimented her upon the success of her last book. I looked about her pretty home, and I said: “ ‘I call It a sign of woman’s progress and advancement that a member of my sex can keep up a home like this by book writing.’ “ ‘I don’t keep It up by book writing, ’ she answered. “ ’But I thought you had always said that, unlike most other English women workers, you had not been left with an Income by your parents—that you had your own row to hoe entirely by yourself.’ “ ’True,’ she replied, ‘but It costs me 500 a year to keep up this style of living, and I never make more than a hundred and fifty a year on my books. I make another 150 out of newspaper and magazine writing, and I make the rest of my Income out of mincemeat.' “ ‘Mincemeat!’ I echoed. “ ‘Yes, mincemeat’ “She sat back and laughed till the tears rolled down her cheeks, till I got to laughing myself, and our tea got cold, and we bad to wait for another pot to be brewed. “It turned out that this writer of many books had for several years been carrying on a private trade In mincemeat, made by herself with the help of a lady companion. She started among her friends, they recommended her to their friends, they to others, till finally 6be secured a steady income from making mincemeat”