The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE STORY. A party of five, all newspaper men, were seated in a small restaurant on Fifth avenue, Chicago, about 3 o’clock one morning. It was a dingy place, and the lunches served were not dainty ones, yet it was a favorite among night men because of its nearness to the three great dailies, the Times, the Herald and the News, while the Tribune was only a couple of blocks away. The quintet consisted of Chase, of the News, Brown and Kent, of the Times, and Hanklin and Brandon, of the Herald, and they were seated at a little round table in the rear of the room finishing a plebeian lunch of switzer cheese, bread and beer, before going home. “Did you ever hear of Landstreet’s ‘indestructible Story?’ ’’ Chase asked, during a lull in the conversation. “What was it?” This from Kent. “One that long- continued ‘respectfully declined’ had no effect upon?” ‘No; not quite. And yet that had something to do with it, for Landstreet always had half a dozen MSS. out and never a one accepted. At last he went crazy on the subject; at least, that is what his friends thought, al- CORNICE OOOLKS (SO)