Judge — November 18, 1899 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A LITERARY SISY- = Ss Sey] bad regained my critical PHUS. ¢ i r P< soar i point of vy. On the «6 LIOW is it we have ff eee 4 next reading I was forced seen no book from — : : to admit that in my first your pen during the past , eae ty cutting I had been too year?” inquired the inquis- i} : ? —s lenient and saw that all itive member of the au- ae Cae % - 2 ~ that was of artistic value thors’ club. » ; f hi in the tale could easily be Fhe eminent writer fi | : q compressed within the smiled sadly and then re- ge » limits of a short story. plied, “The conscientious |i i a ey > \ E2| Setting to work, 1 con- pursuit of high art is not F f : ; densed the novelette toa without its sorrows, and |e 1 4 short story and laid it Thave had troubles of my 2 ie : . 3 : SVM aside to ripen once more, own,” : | WAFA By this time 1 began to “1 want to know!” [ie 4 - ie. ‘¢ doubt the value of my persisted the inquisitive E . me? ] idea and, to make a long member, dropping for the } "3 . 4 ‘ : story shorter; I cut down moment into a New Eng- - 2 ’ y 5 the manuscript toa sketch, land idiom. i . 4 “ and finally ended just “ Well,” said the em- 2s 2 P t where I began, with the inent writer, “I will tell | t j : four-line joke, which real- you all about it. Ten [7 { ‘ 1S 4 | ly told all there was to months ago I was sitting ; 4 REN ee 4 tell. Though it was hard, at my desk dashing off j : I made a joke of it; but some facetia for one of Rie Aras ‘ a | by doing so I satisfied my the magazines to which 1 | ~ : ‘ J oe artistic conscience.” contribute, and which uses $ ; ‘ “It must have made unsigned matter of that \ : a good joke,” said the in- kind, when an idea oc- quisitive member. curred to me. I started to write it out as a four- line jest when I saw pos- sibilities in it that made me decide to expand it into1a sketch. While writ- ing the sketch its possi- bilities dawned on me, and I saw that I had ma- terial for a short story. As the story progressed the idea expanded until | found myself writing a “One of the best in the world,” said the emi- nent writer; “but I got it back from the editor of the magazine this morn- ing, with a note telling me that he was obliged to re- ject it because it is old.” eS A number of fledge- aw umeauen es ling authors who had lis- Mrs, Gazzam—" Woman's work is never done.” tened to this narrative Gazzam—"* Why don't you do it, then, and stop talking about it?” gazed at the eminent writ- er in silent awe until one humorous novel that in my enthusiasm I thought would be the crowning of them remarked to a publisher with whom he was trying to scrape an effort of my life. For months I labored at the novel, and when it was acquaintance, “* Now I understand the secret of his success.” completed laid it aside, as is my custom, so that I could come at it in cold "Huh!" growled the publisher. “How could such a born liar help biood and give it a final revision before submitting it to my publisher. writing entertaining novels?” When I began to revise I saw that my enthusiasm, that bane of true art, had led me to encumber the story with a great deal of irrelevant matter. WHY IT’S TURNED DOWN. and I promptly proceeded to cut my novel to a novelette. Having com- pleted this task, I laid the manuscript aside as before and waited until I COULDN'T SAY. ConeN— Did you ever notice dot matches vill neffer burn vhen you vant them to?” Awrass (drewsily)—"* No, Cohen. I (hic) neffer owned a match-factory.” comicbooks.com