The siesta over, the afternoon was taken up with much the same kind of
work as had filled the morning. By six o'clock Mr. Pulitzer was ready to
sit in the library for an hour before he dressed for dinner. This time
was generally devoted to novels, plays and light literature of various
kinds. J. P. often assured me that no man had ever been able to read a
novel or a play to him satisfactorily without having first gone over it
carefully at least twice; and on more than one occasion I was furnished
with very good evidence that even this double preparation was not always
a guarantee of success.
There appeared to be two ways of getting Mr. Pulitzer interested in a
novel or play. One, and this, I believe, was the most successful, was to
draw a striking picture of the scene where the climax is reached--the
wife crouching in the corner, the husband revolver in hand, the Tertium
Quid calmly offering to read the documents which prove that he and not
the gentleman with the revolver is really the husband of the lady--and
then to go back to the beginning and explain how it all came about.
The other method was to set forth the appearance and disposition of each
of the characters in the story, so that they assumed reality in Mr.
Pulitzer's mind, then to condense the narrative up to about page two
hundred and sixty, and then begin to read from the book.
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