Show CP fotr 0 A HOMER OM EP JN t C by CROY SERVICE TOE TITE STORY THUS FAR arno amos croy and his wife when first married settled on an a farm in where nomer homer was wai born bora every sunday meant church company tor for dinner and steer weighing the croy crays attended the omaha exposition where nomer homer saw his first horseless carriage motion picture and ad hula dancer renzo purchased a farm nearby rn and d became a welcome addition holthe community homer was the first croy to attend high school at first shy before he graduated he ha felt alt at home he then went to college and signed up dp as the first student la in the first journalism class in america he be edited the rost post dispatch tor for one day arriving la in new york he visit an editor CHAPTER I 1 got up respectfully sit down he said and we sat on the creaking seat he looked at at me puzzled weve bought some things from you we A few I 1 said as if the thing was hardly worth mentioning lets see youre from kansas or missouri arent you yes sir from missouri you have any trouble about getting your last check did to you 1 no sir he looked relieved well sometimes iou you know how things are I 1 nodded to show him I 1 was an old hand at such things he looked at me evidently making up his mind about something youre quite a ways from home arent you its the first time I 1 was ever in new york its quite a little burgl I 1 said and gave a laugh to show how quaint the place was while I 1 was here I 1 thought I 1 would drop in on to you im glad you did you write a piece about the new names that the government is making the indians adopt I 1 moved uneasily you sent it back then he moved uneasily well I 1 knew id seen it may maybe be next time have better luck we both laughed a little how long are you going to be in town 1 I quite decided all the time I 1 was becoming more and more self conscious and think of anything to say when for so long I 1 had looked forward to this very moment we talked about this and that but all the time I 1 was growing more and more in ill at ease case the conversation died away we worked hard and revived it with so little to say I 1 could look at him more closely and as I 1 looked I 1 saw something that shocked me a grease spot on his necktie A great editor with a grease spot even if it was a small one suddenly almost with a blinding revelation I 1 realized that he was human had the same frailties and shortcomings that other people had and I 1 relaxed and became more natural the artificial barrier melted away and we talked in a natural manner really visited it was not long before words were flying and we were laughing when at first my mouth had been full of cotton he followed me to the elevator both of us at ease he became a fine friend of mine and later became magazine editor and still later drama editor of the new york herald tribune I 1 thought I 1 could get a job on the new york world after having been on the st louis post dispatch but it work out that way I 1 went from one newspaper to another but got nowhere after telling my experience peri ence I 1 would add by the way I 1 am the first student in the first school of journalism in the world that usually ended matters for I 1 did not realize how bitter the fedeli feeling ng by old time newspapermen newspaper men was aga against dinst a school of journalism I 1 might as well have said by the way I 1 am a dope addict they could have got cot rid of me but little faster I 1 tried every paper in new york and brooklyn even answered an ad and went to new brunswick N new w jersey the situation desperate for I 1 was selling a few things potboilers rs r they would be called today but I 1 thought they were good at least I 1 wrote them with au all the skill I 1 could summon my weekly letter came from pa dear son it always airways began and ended very truly your father to anyone else the news would be inconsequential to me ft it was important and vital the cutworms cut clit worms were at it again there seemed to be some indication of black rust chicken thieves had been in the neighborhood U I 1 thick one of the deep feelings of anyone coming to new york is to want the home folks to believe he is doing well I 1 was lonesome so I 1 developed many correspondents and to each I 1 painted as glowing a picture of myself as I 1 could I 1 did not say outright I 1 was prosperous but on the other hand I 1 tell them I 1 then I 1 hit on something very nice indeed I 1 became acquainted with a clerk at the hotel astor and arranged to receive my mail there so I 1 got some of their crested stationery and had a fine flourishing correspondence im sure na no one ever guessed I 1 was living in a second class rooming house on lexington avenue at twenty eighth street my seeming prosperity was too goodgo good to last for my hotel friend left and when I 1 tried to continue my arrangement I 1 was sternly rebuked but I 1 had a way around that I 1 still had their stationery and at the bottom of their impressive letterhead I 1 would add temporary address so and so lexington avenue new york meanwhile I 1 had gathered up some other hotel stationery and one day by chance I 1 mixed my swanky envelope and letterhead it was not long before I 1 had a letter from my friend wanting to know at exactly which hotel I 1 was living then explained I 1 had the stationery of two hotels I 1 was chagrined at being caught in my deception but as I 1 read on I 1 found he was treating it lightly in tact fact humorously so I 1 wrote to another friend this time purposely mixing my ingrodi ingredients ants and got a mystified reply from him I 1 began to see the humorous possibilities bili ties of what I 1 had stumbled into it was not long before I 1 improved on hotel stationery which anyone could pick up by getting stationery from that was the way an editor should look any place I 1 could in fact no sheet of bizarre stationery was sate safe it if I 1 could purloin a letterhead from the eden musee and put it in a fiss doerr carroll horse auction envelope I 1 was delighted the way people ros rose e to tl this ds foolery was most stimulating and kept me from being quite so lonesome my impersonal missouri friend did give me one tip he said that theodore dreiser who was editor of three butterick magazines was looking for a cub theodore dreiser I 1 author of sister carrie in philadelphia there were two great names lorimer and bok in new york Dr dreiser elser I 1 seemed hardly to breathe when I 1 was shown into his presence but I 1 might as well have for he seemed hardly to notice me he was tall but not so tall as I 1 and balanced on his nose was a pair of eyeglasses with a cord running down the side that was the way an editor should look but there seemed to be no stovepipe hat then I 1 said something about missouri I 1 must have already mentioned it several times but seemingly he had not heard for suddenly he paused in his pap paper er shuming shuffling and said you say you are from missouri toy yes es sir I 1 where is washington missouri it came with such utter unexpectedness that I 1 had to think a moment before I 1 could answer its in franklin county not far from st louis where they make corncob pipes he looked at me with real interest then asked a few questions about my experience which evidently he had paid no attention to then said ive asked a hundred people that question but not one has known I 1 think ill hire you where my wife is from I 1 was tremendously pleased A new york magaz magazine inel 1 and under theodore dreiser I 1 was terribly afraid of dreiser but still I 1 liked him for he was a curious con combination libina of sternness and gentleness I 1 can still see that flashing eye and that low hanging and I 1 can still hear bear his sympathetic voice if someone was in trouble I 1 had been there only a few days before I 1 was given my first real task the magazine had had a contest entitled my pet animal true story to and ten thousand letters had come in they were stacked in boxes and piled on desks and tables none of the regular staff wanted to read them but when I 1 was given the job I 1 was delighted here was a peek at things other people had written at first I 1 read each one carefully and meticulously making marks on it to refresh my memory memos then I 1 saw that the anecdotes fell into classifications stories about dogs cats ponies spiders and so on pretty soon I 1 learned how to read quickly I 1 would glance at tho the beginning and it if I 1 saw that it was a story about a canary I 1 would jump to the end to find the climax it if the story wa ant as good as the canary story I 1 already had then hen t into the rejects go at last I 1 had read them all and the ones I 1 had selected went to the honorary judges the judges agreed that a story about a pet crane was the best but there were also twenty small prizes then I 1 had my first gliese into the way prize contests are decided there was not much difference between the stories so it was agreed to spread the prizes around geographically and that was exactly what was done one prize went to maine the next to new mexico and so on and ive seen that work out many times since the geographical angle one day I 1 got to see the wheels actually go around dreiser called me the cubitto cub into his office and peering over the top of the glasses dangling on his nose said get the staff together bring them into my office A staff conference was held once a week in this big room but this was not the day for it never before had he called for a conference to be held in his private office it was not long before we were filing in but dreiser kept on working never looking up for he was a bit of a showman finally he turned around took oft off his glasses and quickly popped them back on again which was a little mannerism of his 1 I started to edit this story he said holding up a manuscript and I 1 found this in it ill read it A hush fell over us for we knew a crisis had come he began to read aloud the sum and substance of it was this the magazine had bought the short story from a then famous author and in the story the woman character had smoked a cigarette at the end of the passage he paused how did that get by he demanded there was a good deal of uneasy shifting no one knew exactly it was just one of those things we can change it someone suggested it if that could be done I 1 would not have called you in he said the whole story depends on the tha woman smoking it if the cigarette is edited but there is no story they discussed it in detail and th that at point was true all ali kinds of wicked substitutes were suggested but none would do she smoked or she there was no halfway someone suggested sending it back to the author and letting her solve the problem but she was in europe and the story had been scheduled finally dreiser said the point is far bigger than this matter of a cigarette all the magazines are too nice they dont meet life squarely if we want really to touch the lives of our readers weve got to get down to vitals and stop being prissy the woman in this story is going to smoke there was a moments hush for all recognized the seriousness of the situation it might lose the magazine a great deal in the way of circulation cu certainly a hundred ministers would thunder at last the conference was over but the trouble for the business office soon saw a copy of the story and now there was a conference indeed this time dreiser had to go to their office he had enemies in the business end and they made an issue of this but dreiser was a fighter and by sheer force of personality sona lity won out of course the magazine failed but this was many years later I 1 dont think the cigarette killed it I 1 want to return to the feel of corn growing at night growing weather we can call it it will grow one third as much during the night as it will during the day we say and it would seem to be true true for when you come out in the morning it does look bigger and when you cultivate it strikes you higher on the thigh corn at night has a peculiar way of whispering to itself as if it knew secrets far beyond what its masters know and if you wander noar near a cornfield at night you cant doubt it now and then a night bud bird flies over with a rush of wings almost in your ears now and then a polecat pads by horses look up from their cropping then go on an about their business suddenly the windmill changes gears and makes so much noise that it startles you tho the steers are chewing their fourth stomach one of the steers gets up and goes over to the water tank the cracking of its pasterns pa sterns sounding startlingly loud TO BE CONTINUED |