Accidentally or otherwise, this
editor lost my note and signature, and then denounced me by name
in a newspaper as a "literary thiefess;" having printed the
verses with a nom de plume in his magazine without my knowledge.
It was awkward to have to come to my own defense. But the curious
incident gave the song a wide circulation.
I did not attempt writing for money until it became a necessity,
when my health failed at teaching, although I should long before
then have liked to spend my whole time with my pen, could I have
done so. But it was imperative that I should have an assured
income, however small; and every one who has tried it knows how
uncertain a support one's pen is, unless it has become very
famous indeed. My life as a teacher, however, I regard as part of
my best preparation for whatever I have since written. I do not
know but I should recommend five or ten years of teaching as the
most profitable apprenticeship for a young person who wished to
become an author. To be a good teacher implies self-discipline,
and a book written without something of that sort of personal
preparation cannot be a very valuable one.
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