Show THE MS S STORY slay may I 1 tell my story f I 1 am a MS ot 0 in um weight and bulk and in addition to the ali tale which is told through me I 1 have a tale to tell wit a story of adventure by land and sea of experiences in tragedy and comedy with a class of beings known as editors the author of my being was a w oman woman I 1 use the past tense as its I 1 knew her long ago so long indeed that fortune must have crushed her ere this bad had she not been of a firm strong mold which refuses to be crushed even by the heavy weight of an unknown name at the time of my conception she lived with her father in a small cottage in a sleepy old town in the heart of an eastern state its chief attraction was an academy of learning where my author pursued her studies with character and decision doing everything she did well and completely and indeed winning for herself the title of the brightest girl in town she had bad a gift of expression an and d some talent and her friends often said you ought to write a phrase BO so often repented repeated that she began to hava have some little conal dence in it of ber herself self her ifer father was a pensioned officer disabled by a wound from doing manual labor and the pension that he be drew was their main support and while ambition spurred on the daughter to make the most of whatever talent she possessed stem stern necessity that inexorable driver lashed her ter flagging hopes from day to day with a demand tor for dollars dollars dollars with which to supply fast growing needs in a little buck back chamber away from all intruding eyes and even the too garish light of day tale after tale was produced and each with a parcel of hope done up within it sent out to the mercies of an editorial world in p process process of time 1 I too was born and to the mind of my author I 1 was her masterpiece ter piece A true story of a remarkable cha chapter liter of incidents A love story why yes of cour course men may come and men may go but love goes on forever I 1 too went out and my author timidly asked for me the pay which she had been too modest to expect for my predecessors which by the way bad had been the mast most of them graciously accepted and pigeonholed I 1 well remember my first reception it was in the office of a leading religious paper and the editor was a mighty man in flesh and titles and ho he looked me over suspiciously gium illum um A young writer evidently hum ilum crude very crude urn um urn um A love etory story and written by a woman who w ants wants pay par much such presumption had best bo be nipped in the bud he ile seized a pen and scratched off a note which I 1 had ample time to read as we jostled along together in the mall mail bag dhali daa MADAM while your story shows con eld erable merit we regret to say it is u unavale lla v alla fable blo tor for our columns and it Is return returned ed m with ith thanks for the privilege of examination f you aro are thinking of making a living in liters literature t ur 0 I 1 feel constrained to offer you ou a bit efad of advice saw gaw wood or take in was hlo and you will win find it a more pleasant and lucrative e held field of labor than this respectfully yours ours dr IV my author laughed hysterically when she read this tender and sympathetic epistle take in washing indeed holding up her tiny slender hand perhaps I 1 might earn my shoestrings at the washtub and I 1 shall have to learn to cut kindling before I 1 can venture out as a woodcutter I 1 think well test the value of your advice fir first firt t dr W I 1 next went to the office of one of the leading magazines on the principle of nothing venture nothing have I 1 felt that I 1 had come on a fruitless quest when I 1 saw the great number of compan iona tons which joined me upon the road when at last my turn came to bo be opened I 1 found myself in the hands handi of a tired jaded man who plainly showed weariness we annesa of mind and body the reader for the magazine through whose hands all matter must go tor for its first sifting sitting his ills brow contracted as he lie took me up and ind looked at my title then at my au authora thorla name 1 I wish these unknown writers would stop sending in their unprofitable wares 11 he be said petulantly he ile made a pretense of reading a few pages but finding nothing which struck his weary fancy aa as brilliant or original be thrust me hastily into another envelope with a printed blip slip and I 1 was again a rejected US MS lying upon the editorial page of the magarine whereon was printed this item the editors are ready at nil all times to seize upon anything original or unique la to the line of literature litera tuie without reference to the name or fame of its author and all matter submitted is carefully and labor labori bously sifted in the hope of finding home stray gem of literary excellence when I 1 arrived homo home I 1 found my author in a maze of delight a story had been ac ae by a publisher of worldwide worlds ide fame with a word of hearty and bitter better baill a check worth very much more to her ban than its mere face value for it I vas was tha very first penny she bad had ever e er earned by her pen ah you de dear ar thing you she cried waltzing around the room with the bit of blue paper in lit lier ter hand you rel at laist twenty five washings fio so I 1 think dr W well wait walt awhile nat hile before we follow your clever clev er advice she took me out with my printed letter a wooden letter I 1 remember bhe she called it anil and patted me tenderly 1 I tear youre going to grow old and gray in my service old friend she said but bever never mind when beget we art famous wel well 1 lii bave a the laugh on some ot these tony stony i hearted fellows who laugh at us its now and away I 1 went on another tour alis time to a country newspaper of large circulation 1111 1 ill cot not soar too high this time raid said my author iw as ilic athe scaled mo me up the exhilaration of th the check had hail not worn wom off when I 1 returned again and aisa ulm mary could take me back without a it tear or high ai of disappointment 1 I if f I 1 v were ere selling calico she said ph philosophically ito 1 I should not weep or moan because one objected to the color another to the quality and a third to the price I 1 myself should know that I 1 was selling good calico at a fair price and I 1 am equally confident that I 1 am offering a rood story for wile at regular rates which nicais the buyer aown price so no tears if you please miss MW mary because your wares dont hap bap pen to bell sell I 1 went now to a household journal of large circulation and here hero I 1 think I 1 spent the weariest wearle stand and dreariest drea riest time finite ofay of my whole existence locked inta a desk with dozens of othere others awaiting a tardy examination I 1 spent a bholi year of suspense and anxiety there la Is some satisfaction in flying about one seea sees tha the world at all events but to await ones fate in dreary voiceless silence la Is most exasperating therel another letter from that tire SO como 6 woman inquiring about her precious SIS said the editor of the great household magazine fretfully aa as he tumbled roe ine out upon his tits desk some trashy love story ill be bound why cant women write something besides love stories I 1 wonder he ile glanced me over carelessly yen yes yes just aa as I 1 expected Ap angelina gelina and t get mar fa end their thelt earthly career la in ended well miss mary bobolink youre welcome to your story I 1 dont want it r I 1 could scarcely wait to get gk back I 1 waa was so 0 o anxious to know how they fared in my home and I 1 perceived ed at once that I 1 bad had come in an opportune time when my au thor took me out with a trembling hand band her ifer eyes were heavy with much weep ing and she laid mo me down with a sigh only a returned MS 11 she sold said badly sadly and how poor fathers funeral expenses arc are going to be paid I 1 cannot see I 1 went upon a weary round after this back and forth hither and thither and as my authors ame r me waa was beginning to become knew known n editors read me with more of attention and as a special mark of favor returned me with a criticism one said I 1 was too long movement not rapid enough and incident too much spread out another that I 1 needed more careful elaboration mo movement rement too rapid and not enough of analysis and close at to details still another that my subject matternas matter was too unreal not natural enough and too evidently written to pander to a demand for the strange and impossible A fourth that there wag was too mile much 11 of a sameness in my subject matter nothing striking should be condensed to at most one third of its present length at the fifth und and last criticism I 1 that it if my author expected to succeed she must draw her topics from front nature take real incidents with which to touch the great heart ct of the reading public miss mary quite broke down having ears they hear not and having eyes they see not dot she sobbed how illow can I 1 touch the greit great heart of the public if editors persist in standing be tween it and me and the very articles which v aich are drawn from real life are those which come back most frequently and branded as unreal forced and imaginary she tossed me into a drawer lie lle there good friend she said sadly you have done all you could for me and I 1 have but one postage stamp in the world and that is too precious to waste wa sto ste upon a forlorn hope I 1 lay there for five fire years often seeing the face of my author now sad now gay and bright with triumph and success but my rest was not disturbed until one day when an urgent letter came from a well kiowa editor the very person to whom I 1 had gone in the first of my career and who had since been promoted from the position of reader to that of editor in chief we will be glad to publish something from your pen he wrote w rote and anything you send us will receive a cordial welcome her ifer eyes twinkled as she opened the tile drawer where w here I 1 lay come out my friend the day of your triumph is at band hand 11 ehe the said smilingly she read me over carefully and critically you were always a favorite with me and I 1 like you better still after all these the years I 1 find some of the freshness and enthuse asin of my youth here she said to a gen tieman who sat near but haut that story been rejected at that office I 1 think you told me its history once he replied yea yes and there Is the fun in it I 1 dare say it was never nei er examined beyond the first page and that by the farst reader into whose w hohe hands it fell oh I 1 am sate safe enough in ending sending it I 1 assure you my dear I 1 fairly trembled with mischievous ous glee as I 1 found myself again in the familiar presence of the editor ills ilia locks were whitening and he had donned glasses since I 1 left but otherwise he lie was the same his ills memory of me was w as not so vivid b how however v er and he lie read me through with a chuckle of satisfaction and w without the faintest symptom of recognition jotting down dow n this editorial notice for the issue in which 1 I was to appear we present our readers this month with a story from tho the pen of the gifted and fa author mis mary bobolink now mrs marlowe it la is a tale of rare beauty its delicate touches of nature reaching out with wit mi an unerring grasp toward the heart strings of its readers adera re it has always al ys been ouraim our aim to cull the cry very best from the t he fields of literature and in this instance we think our renders readers will agree that we w e have succeeded 11 hal ifal hal hat hi hat laughed mr fr marlowe as he sat by his fits cifes desk in her study two hundred dollars with ith a note of thanks thrown in from a magazine for a story which had once been rejected there lou you did rather get the best of that th it office mary nothing succeeds like success mn mra marlowe replied with a am smile ile but she does not know to this day that he who rejected and accepted her MS la Is one and the same person mrs 17 I 1 7 M howard in journalist |