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Show THE RICH COUNTY NEWS. RANDOLPH, UTAH 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 Its), 1922, by, McClure Newbpaper Syndicate.) There isnt an earthly reason why should go to work, protested Laura, the eldest of the three Dohson sisters. Laura was the musical member of the family. You certainly can't find the interest on what father left you insufficient and Maude and I wouldnt listen to your contributing anything to the household expenses.. . Joan said nothing, but went on eatwith apparent coming breakfast posure. Maude, the artistic member of the family, took up the protest where Laura left off. You ought to consider how it will sound to outsiders. What will people say when they hear that Jpnn Dobson has had to go to work in you ' un office? without paying any apparent heed to what Joan said. The next day a sudden turn of business kept both Mr. Kenneths in the office until long past luncheon time. Then there was a hurried dispatch of an office boy to the nearest cafe for sandwiches. Id like some tea, said Kenneth, Sr., pettishly, only. Its always cold by tlie time it gets here. Joan heard and presently another office boy was dispatched to the nearest drag store and provision store. By the time the sandwiches and pie had come in from the cafe, Joan had a e humming newly purchased over an alcohol flame. She had borrowed cups and saucers and spoons from two of the girls who sometimes ate in, and she was ready to pass a each of her cup of Steaming tea employers. said Kenneth, Well, Im blessed, Sr., and Joan beat a hasty retreat to her private office. That afternoon between rush of business father and son had a brief con ference regarding Joan. The next morning the younger Kenneth said he had something to say to Joan. "You know my father has original I dare say its his ideas, he began. original ideas that have made this the largest brokerage house in town. lies a great judge of character. Hes been sizing you up. and hes been sizing up the situation here in the office. Hes come to the conclusion that, though you doubtless are a fine stenographer, your real talent is of a what you might call domestic nature. His theory of success in business is to set eVery one to work at the thing he or she is best suited to. He Jins come to the conclusion that what this office needs most is a housewife a sort of expert along that line, if- you understand. Tlie place has never been properly cleaned. Youd have charge of that, with a bunch of cleaners to do as you told them to. Then father has been thinking of starting a recreation room and a lunchroom for our workers. Busy days we always have to send out for meais, and that is never satisfactory. The reason I am talking to you about this is because such a position would be worth nearly twice as much as tlie one you now hold. Good secretaries are not difficult to find. Father seems to think that hed never be able to find any one so well suited as you for this new position he has In mind. Joan listened with color rising. She sighed and looked down when he fin- -. I suppose, tslied. she said, "I ought not to object. In fact, such a job really appeals to me. Ive often wondered why every big business didn't have some one like that to look after things. But but you see, Ive always been called Domestic Joan! Thats why I went to work, so I could prove to my sisters that I was fitted for something else. Kenneth .Tones, Jr., suddenly felt his level headedness vanishing. All he knew was that he saw before him the girl who, for the last few days, had been exerting an unbelievable fascination over' him. And now slie seemed to be distressed. Kenneth stepped toward her ; before he knew it he had laid two hands on her two shoulders. Then the father entered the room and the routine of the day began. Kenneth Jr. proceeded with his talk that evening as he went home with Joan. And that evening when his father asked him for the result of the interview he said. "Im sorry to have butted in, dad, but I asked Joan to marry me and she accepted. Tlie elder Kenneth responded by slapping tlie son violently on the back. Bully for you, he said. What about your selling miniatures and Laura playing at concerts? Joan thrust back. : Entirely different," cooed Laura. When a person has a talent it is quite all right to make use of it but, Joan, you arent talented that is, unless being domestic is a talent. ' There you go ! shouted Joan, wavarms. That's what I expecther ing ed. Just because I know how to cook a little and have tried to do my share by helping Dinah and doing the ordering and keeping the accounts, and just d because I can make a bed so any in can and it, just sleep person because I dont like to have dust an inch thick in my room you call me Domestic Joan. That's what started' me. Ill just show you Im something besides a domestic. I took that course in stenography because I wanted to get out and earn my salt, and Ill show you that it takes as inuchbrains to be a good secretary as it does to paint miniatures or piny at concerts. Im through being Domestic Joan. Thats all. Laura and Maude looked aghast; then Laura laughed. Well regard it as a joke,' Joan. Because, of course, you wont stick it out. Youll soon find that your talents simply dont lie in that direction. Domestic you are and domestic you always will be. Joan had finished her breakfast and wrts out of the dining room door before Laura had finished her remarks. She was in high dudgeon and her cheeks still glowed with pent-u- p wrath when she reached the office of Ken- noth Jones, whither she had been sent by the principal of the school from which she had just received her diploma In stenography. The Kenneth Jones brokerage concern is growing very rapidly, the principal told Joan. They have asked permission to interview any of our graduates. They pay very well, but Mr. Jones talks to all applicants and only takes people he considers very promising. You might call there first. Theres a chance theyll find a place for you. Mr. Jones rather blunt manner did not intimidate Joan that morning. He talked with her at length and studied her as she talked to him. Then he ' called In his son, Kenneth Jones, Jr and introduced him to Joan. My son and I work together. I am training him to take my place when I retire," the senior Jones said, and then, .turning to his son, Take Miss Jonesto our office and give her a trial let' .ter. Test her speed and her accuracy.!' ! The younger Kenneth Jones showed none of his fathers bluntness. In fact. hfc seemed a trifle embarrassed at the task set before him. He sat for a fw minutes with Joan in the richly furnished inner office where he and his ' father both had their desks. Then he started dictation, but the dictation was given so slowly that Joan could have taken it easily in long hand. Then he office showed her into a small private n copy- and told her to "take her. time-imating it." It was an easy enough letter for Joan to produce a perfect ter under the circumstances. Joan waited until noon, when the elder Jones returned to the office, and, after a brief conference between father and son. she was told that she was hired. The rest of the afternoon Joan was left to her own devices and told by the younger Kenneth to snoop around, look through the files and try and get some idea of what the job amounted to. Joan smiled, and Kenneth Jones smiled back. It was a frank, honest smile, but it made Joan blush. Kenneth Jones was thinking: I wonder .whether I can keep a level business head with such an attractive young woman in the office. Joan arrived beThe, next morning - chiefs. When Kenlieof fore either neth. Sr., arrived she was dusting his redusting it, for it had already been .treated to an application of the feather duster bv the office cleaner. Mr. Jones noticed, moreover, that his inkwell biid been fresh. ly cleaned and re (died. What dictatin, Joan took that day v c very slowly given by Kenneth. Jr.. ' so her skill as a stenographer was not when put l the test. That evening, Kenneth. Sr., dropped into his sons ' office before going home for the day, i Joan had a question for him. If you dont mind. I nm going to get hold of the man who cleans tiere Id like to he here in the morning to see that he cleans under the desks. The dust is thick in one of the bookcases, and. by the way. some of your law books need rebinding. May I send them to the bindery? Mr. Kenneth, Sr., gave his consent right-minde- . ; T ynf Seei 'Cjcotk--i Back Uhtj I tea-kettl- HAVE REPEATED ICE COATINGS Explanation of Unusual Size of Hail stones Which Frequently Cause Heavy Financial Loss. Hailstones, as every one knows, occur most often in summer. One might expect that these bails of ice would fall from the sky on the cold days of winter, but it is the heat of summer that gives rise to them, for they can be formed only in thundery weather, When there is thunder about there are always very strong upward draughts of air. As raindrops begin to fall they are caught by these currents and carried to great heights, where they freeze solid. If they now fall to earth they arrive in the form of the small hailstones that are usually seen. Sometimes, however, after falling through the clouds and receiving a coating of moisture, they are carried up again by other currents. The moisture freezes- upon them, increasing their size. Tlie process may go on for some time, in Vhicb case the hailstone receives coating after coating of ice until it becomes us large as a marble or even an egg. Then It falls' with millions of others, destroying crops, tearing fruit off the trees, and even killing cattle in the fields. J Beginning of Negro Slavery. In 101!) a Dutch ship, passing by, stopped to buy provisions from the American colonists, and sold them 20 negroes who were - needed to work in tlie tobacco fields.- This was the beginning of negro slavery in the American colonies, which afterward spread over them ail, and continued after they became a nation. There were white slaves in Virginia, just as there were later in other colonies. These were either criminals who were sent over and forced to work or else they were poor persons who agreed to work for a number of years if their passage was paid to the new land.. When their service was over their master was compelled to give them a sum of money, good clothes nnd sometimes a horse. -- IHustrabions by J. Norman Lxfnd O The salesgirl sends me a scenario of society life; a bookkeeper tries to sell me a tale of adventure in foreign lands has said that the United States is a nation of story writers. I wont go quite so far as to affirm that, but I do believe that of all the people you meet, one out of three has either tried to write for the movies or has contemplated doing so. And that, for the whole of the country, makes a vast total, writes Richard A. Rowland, First National Pictures, in the New York Tribune. The promising tiling abput it all is that what all these thousands of Individuals are trying to do Is not to pour water into the ocean, but to meet a need that really does exist. There is, unquestionably, a dearth of suitable material for screen use. The professional writers cannot keep pace with the demand, nor can they go on writing forever. Novels, some of them later successful, and others that are not, are bought up for tiie screen while still . In proof-sheform. Magazine (stories are contracted for before they appear In print. It Is said that such, at first sight, unlikely material as Wells The Outline of History is to pe used for the screen, and It has even, somewhat jocularly, been suggested that either tlie telephone directory or Whos Who Is next In line for picturlzatlon. Certain it is that the first basic need of every motion picture producer is good stories. Without that it Is foolhardy to go ahead,. Stories replete with dramatic situations and human appeal are what the movie producers are hunting for, high, low and all tire time. The situation is unique. On the one hand a vast number of people eagerly trying to write for the screen, and on tlie other hand scores of producers falling over each other in their nnxfetff to find good material. Yet for one amateur writer who succeeds, a thousand fail. Wherein lies the trouble? What is the remedy? Of the multitude of people aiming at screen story success a big percentage have the desire, but lack the proper mental equipment to further it. Still, there must be thousands of others who have that equipment imagination, education and lei sure, and some others of tlie necessary qualifications. Of these, some are early discouraged by the difficulties of tlie task, and so fall by the way, while others persevere nnd yet fail to sell their scripts. This failure may he laid to one of two main causes. Either behind that perseverance lies insufficient talent, or pereerance is not accompanied by such adaptability to art as eventually to ferry the author across tlie line which divides the amateur from the skilled writer. For after all, as one producer points out. what reason is there why the raw amateur should succeed as an amateur? Except for an occasional instance of native genius, it is only after tli" amateur has practiced and practiced nnd actwaly progressed beyond the amateur stage that success can come, which Is trne of practically all lines of endeavor, not merely of screen writing. Rupert Hughes, highly successful author and now prominent in screen writing, is reported to have collected hundreds of printed rejection slips before he succeeded in selling a story to an editor. Had he been possessed of less perseverance the world might never have heard of him as a writer. Except in an occasional case, the days when oil moments of leisure could bring quick success are geine hy. Scenario writing is a business requiring as much attention as any other business if you are to achieve success. But do not misunderstand me. If you cannot sell stories wrought out in sideline time, that does not mean you cannot practice In 'that time. But dont exp'ect to sell until practice and study have finally equipped you to cross the amateur lino. One great shortcoming, as I see it. in amrfteur writers for tlie 'screen Is a general tendency to overlook the necessity for constant action of a direct or symbolic nature. They send their characters on long journeys while they describe, minute details of preparation and incidents en rohte which do nothing to further tlie imnement or help build toward the climax. Tlie result of such material In picture form would he extremely druggy and uninteresting. Frequently, again, they have but a single situation. but seize upon it to build what is Intended to form five or six reels of picture material. That situation is perhaps unusual, or it may at least possess some slight element of novelty. But that Is not enough. In the great majority of scripts by amateurs the eharaetets are overdrawn, and consequently are grotesque or ineonsistent with the typically human instincts nnd with the things that motivate and actuate (he average person. In other words, they fail of being lifelike, and so fall of conviction. OMEONE Even accusing the studio people of the theft of their ideas who tells the same tale of shortage of acceptable materiaL Of late be has gone mostly to the big novels for material for Norma Talmadge. Lest you be appalled by fhe seeming hopelessness of your case, right here let me cheer you up somewhat. If, as the scenario textbooks tend to make you suppose, you had to turn out the finished product to get your story accepted, you might well feel ready to quit. But the opposite is the case. In ijz jt, the amateur need not, and should not, concern himself with anything beyond a real story, simply and directly told. You need not and should not worry about entrances, exits, fadeouts and other technicalities. Leave that to the specialist the man or wpman whose business it is to put the accepted stff:y Into practical screen form. The amateur is not expected to write conthat Is a job separate and apart and 1s tinuity tlie task of the studio expert "It is true that only a small percentage of tho stories submitted to motion picture producers by amateur authors is accepted, say Marshall Nellnn, one of this countrys most notable producers. Yet the reason for this seems rather obvious. If a man advertises for original plans for a country borne and a hundred different plans are received, 90 per cent being submitted by amateurs and It per cent by professional home builders, there Is little doubt that the accepted plans would be from one of the 10 per cent While among the plans submitted fby the amateurs there doubtlessly would be found many exceptional ideas, yet the individual plans on the whole could hardly be expected to measure up to those submitted by the professionals. Turning for a moment from tlie producers point of view, let us see what is the newspaper critics angle on desirabilities In screen stories. If what 1 quote may seem to smack more of production than of writing, there Is, too, a lesson for the author whose business, after all, it Is, rather than the directors, to supply the situations. Many of the scenes have been made meaningful as motion pictures." (I quote the critic of a leading For InNew York newspaper on a recent film.) stance, there is one In which Henry Garnett, knowing that he must die soon, sits listening to an Inex- orable clock.' It ticks and ticks, counting off the seconds of his life. Finally, in futile desperation, he seizes the pendulum and stops it, but as he bolds the metal bar, a phantom pendulum behind It swings on. Here is cinematography. Here is complete expressiveness within a picture! There it is in a nutshell. A real idea, logically Rnd simply worked out without needless discussion, directly and clearly, to an inevitable conclusion. Therein lies one way where your story wont come back. Hope Hampton, whose latest starring vehicle is Light In the Dark, tells me that the reason so many scenario writers fail is because they cannot or do not put themselves In the place of the audience. In other words, they cannot properly visual- Maybe your trouble has been that you have tried to sell comedies Guy Bates Post, who. In turning from a long and highly successful stage career to motion pictures, lias read scores of manuscripts, says : The main trouble with amateurs is that they persist In trying to write about things they do not know. The sales girl sends me a scenario of society life ; a bookkeeper tries to sell me a tale of adventure In foreign lands! And so it goes. We seek for romance even in our writings. We ourselves may find it thus, but we cannot bring it to others in this fashion. To be Interesting one must be convincing, and we cannot be that unless we really know the life of which we write. But there is a trend botli on stage and screen for intimate stories, and there Is the field for the amateur scenario writer of average experience. Another great fault with would-bwriters is that their imagination is extensive rather than Intensive, with the result that the action Is scattered from pole to pole or even to a locality as unfamiliar as Mars. Many an amateurs story would take two years to pieturize. Richard Barthelmess finds that In his experience nine out of every twelve stories he reads are wholly lacking in one real idea, one original theme. It is said that there is nothing new under the sun, therefore the greater Is the necessity to give some novel twist to an old theme. Without that your story Is pretty sure to be returned with the Mr. Barthelmess descenario editor's regrets. clares that so much space is taken up with unnecessary and wasteful side Issues, not to say dialogue, that in most cases any real meat a story might have is buried under useless encumbrances and so out of juxtaposition to the central story that no editor will wade through It, and your manuscript comes back. "I do not believe, says this star, "that any amateurs story requires more than 1,000 words to set ' it forth' and tell Its plot. Leave the working out to the continuity man and the director. The Idea is what counts. I ,have heard writers complain that after their story has come back they have recognized In a later picture just the sort of action or scene they originally submitted, and these writers have been angry to the point of suggesting, nay, even of ac-- rasing, the studio people of the theft of their ideas.' As a matter of fact, the explanation is that what the author imagined original with himself or her-set- f was notliing of tlie kind. Unconsciously and unwittingly, it may be. there has remained In their minds the unrecognized memory of some scene they have seen In a since forgotten picture and unconsciously it Is reproduced in the scenario. Thus the plagiarism attributed to the studio lay rather nutlior. with tlie would-h- e Plagiarism, unconscious or otherwise, sticks out all over them, says Colonel J. E. Brady, editor of Metro Pictures corporation, who declares flint the number of good stories does not begin to meet the demand for them. "Tlie trouble is that 00 per cent of the scripts received haven't a grain of originality in them. Joseph M. Schenck Is another producer of note e their work. It should always be borne In mind, says this star, that thought and Impression can be effected only by action. Perhaps the ideal film would be one In which there .were no subtitles at all. I do not know whether that could be, but the neixt best1! thing is where the action Is so clear, so convincing, and the conclusion so Inevitable that only a mini- ' ( ize v mum number of subtitles is necessary. After all, you cant blame the producer, even tliqugh he may err in sending your story back. Its different with, say, a magazine editor, and even he sends stuff back lots of It. The magazine editor may, with not very disastrous results, use a mediocre or even a poor story, provided he makes sure his magazine contains at the same time two or three good tales. The strong stories will carry the weak. But with the phetoplay producer It Is very different. All his eggs, so to speak, are in one basket. In accepting a story, or rather In making a picture from it, be risks the possibility of losing something like $100,000. It makes him more than careful of his choice. You can, however, be practically sure of one thing. If yonr story has real and full screen merit and you keep it going visiting long enough it will stop coming back at last. In Its place will come a nheck. More writers than one, by sticking eternally nt it and refusing to quit, have ultimately sold their .re- -' product, for it is the very act of wjrltlng and ot writing that ultimately makes a professional out V an amateur. ' j |