ing until two in the afternoon. After five P. M. he attends
to his correspondence and daily professional duties. Only two forenoons
in the week are taken up by his duties as judge of the superior court at
Koenigsberg, Prussia. He never copies a romance or novel once written,
but leaves a margin for alterations and additions. When a sentence--not
a judicial one--presents any difficulty, he writes it out hastily on a
small piece of paper before he puts it down in the manuscript. He is in
the habit of revising and copying dramatic work at least three times
before he submits it to a stage-manager. He is very much addicted to the
use of tobacco, and smokes a pipe and a cigar alternately. He smokes at
all times of the day, even during working-hours. Generally he sits down
to write; but cannot bear to have a pen in hand when thinking about the
subject of his work. He is accustomed to walk up and down the room until
his thoughts have assumed a definite form. He works sometimes from five
to six hours successively. He cannot write when anybody is in the room,
and, therefore, always locks the doors before he sits down to his work.
Literary labor is such a necessity to Wichert that he invariably feels
uncomfortable when he has finished one work without beginning another
immediately.

Many of the friends of Jules Claretie, the famous novelist, often are at
a loss to account for his great fertility, and cannot see how he manages
to do all that he succeeds in doing. When this question was once asked
of the author, he replied, smilingly: "I am used to working, love to
work, and work regularly--without excess, and with constant pleasure.
Work is, with certain natures, one of the forms of health." Claretie's
pen is put in motion only in the daytime; at night it rests, like the
genial man himself. When the author feels indisposed, he does not write
except for journals to which matter must be supplied on a certain date;
attacks of neuralgia and nervous headache often interfere with his work.
When at work he is in the habit of humming various tunes without being
conscious of it. When work is easy to him, he sings; but when it is
difficult, a dead silence reigns in his study. Sometimes work proves
exceedingly hard to be done in the beginning, but the longer he writes
the easier it becomes. Claretie notes down all ideas that come to his
mind, utilizing them afterward for his novels. He also makes a detailed
outline of his romances; but his jou