Show THE MYSTERIES OF LITERATURE A spinster of our ac acquaintance acquaintance acquaintance whose SOle soie contribution to literature has been an impressionistic dress pattern In Harpers Bazar Hazar re received received the following request from the editor of the Tiptop Magazine Wont you let us see some of your work We especially desire de Ire at pres present present present ent bright cheerful and amusing short stories of from 1500 to words and pay generously for them th m Wo We trust you will keep us in mind when next you complete a manuscript Our spinster acquaintance had never essayed short story writing but so fO warm and personal an Invitation would Inspire anybody dY to a trial She spent a month or more constructing a abright abright abright bright cheerful and amusing tale of 2987 words counting compounds as one word which she dispatched In a aflutter aflutter aflutter flutter to the Tipton Magazine In the course of f human events the manuscript came ba back k accompanied by a printed slip expressing stereo stereotyped stereotyped stereotyped typed regrets The spInster author was surprised not because her story was not accepted she shot was a modest soul but because a manuscript so warmly and personally solicited had been so coldly and impersonally re returned returned returned turned Thousands of authors have hav had a like experience and have hav marveled there thereat th re reat at It Is one of the mysteries of liter literature literature literature which we have promised to un unravel unravel unravel ravel This is the explanation In order to obtain a steady st ady supply of the bright cheerful and amusing musing and strong virile virne and dramatic sto stories stories stories ries which they present monthly the editors of the magazines find it necessary necessary necessary sary to circulate the country so to speak Clipping bureaus supply the names of people who write and to each Of these the office boy dis dispatches dispatches dispatches patches a cordial Wont you send us something letter Unfortunately Q rf t for o the feelings feels s pf of the aut the tl e n hl li win re to a warm and personal so 80 are not passed upon by the theoffice theoffice theoffice office boy oY but by the editor In his sanctum who disdains to ba be aware of ot just who those ladles and gentlemen are to whom the office boy has dis cis dispatched dispatched patched his touching missive and of ot course the th editor abate one jot lot of ot his cold formality to senders of ot unsolicited manuscripts Suggestion to Publishers why not let et the office boy return the manu manuscripts manuscripts manuscripts scripts with th an elegant let letter letter letter ter Editors should be quite up to date as well as business men who ad advertise advertise advertise vertise We shall shaH spend the summer In France said a friend the other day Where I cannot say as yet What we should like would be toe to combine he the the pastoral life Ute of the French pray provinces provinces inces with the gayety of ot Paris The which reminds us na of one of ot the school We have a mental picture of ot Bliss BUss Carman Carmen Carm n in m a So dress suit and opera hat playing a pianola in a Grecian dell with Daphne stand standIng standing Ing By to tan Ian the th mosquitoes away We seem to be In for tor an as epidemic of ot Indian plays Some are good and more are bad but all are serious For the American Indian is as funny tunny as the thee earache rache e What with Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer on the restricted list Mark Twain Is having the time of ot his life Ute laughing at himself BERT LESION LESTON TAYLOR |