AN AUTHOR.

Glazier in search of a publisher for "Capture, Prison-Pen and
Escape."--Spends his last dollar.--Lieutenant Richardson a friend
in need.--Joel Munsell, of Albany, consents to publish.--The
author solicits subscriptions for his work before
publication.--Succeeds.--Captain Hampton.--R. H.
Ferguson.--Captain F. C. Lord.--Publication and sale of first
edition.--Great success.--Pays his publisher in full.--Still
greater successes.--Finally attains an enormous sale.--Style of
the work.--Extracts.--Opinions of the press.

Still very young, and knowing nothing of the trade of the Publisher,
Glazier found his way to the Empire City, and, manuscript in hand,
presented himself before some of her leading publishers--among them, the
Harpers, Appletons, Carleton, Sheldon and others.

To these gentlemen he showed his manuscript, and received courteous
recognition from each; but the terms they offered were not of a
character to tempt him. They would publish his book and pay him a small
royalty on their sales. His faith in his manuscript led him to expect
more substantial results. The subject of the work was one of absorbing
interest at the time, and if he had handled it properly, he knew the
book must meet with a commensurate sale. He therefore determined, if
possible, to find a publisher willing to make it to his order, and leave
him to manipulate the sale himself. He was already in possession of
many unsolicited orders for it, and although knowing nothing of the
subscription-book business, determined that, when printed, his book
should be brought out by subscription.

Meanwhile, he was, unfortunately, like many incipient authors, without
capital, and could not therefore remain longer in New York for lack of
means, having literally nothing left wherewith to defray even his board
or procure a lodging. He was, consequently, compelled to leave if he
could obtain the means of doing so. He had arrived in New York with
sanguine expectations of readily meeting with a publisher, but
discovered, from bitter experience, as many others have done, that
authors and publishers not unfrequently view their interests from
divergent points. Courteous but cool, they offered the unknown author
little encouragement, who, but for this, would have made the metropolis
the starting-point in his successful literary career.

At this juncture he called on Lieutenant Arthur Richardson, an old
comrade of the "H