The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-01-09
How One Man Makes Literature Pay.
 IEWrhauCa

Exchange.l
 A reporter of the New York 7SaNes called upon a man who makes literature a trade (uot profession), lately, and was let into seme trade secrets. Said "Apollo," as the ZSmes writer calls him:
 "rll tell you about the expansion pro- cess. have friend named Mat, who once wrote an article for leading maga- zine, which, to avoid row with the edi- tor, shall call OEd HNndyed. The edi- tor accepted the article and then sent for Mat. He told the author that his article was too long, and asked him to cut it down. Mat promptly answered that there were three pages dealing with special branch of the subj which might be taken out of the article without injur- ing it. The editor agreed with the con- tributor, and the pages were returned to their author. They were pages of print, not manuscript, you know, containing three thousand words. Mat took them home, wrote an introduction to them, and sold them to literary weekly for good price. Then some months afterward he took the article from the weekly up to the editor of OLd Hundred and proposed to him to expand the article into suit able length for the magazine. The editor agreed, and Mat made about six thou sand words out of his three thousand, re- writing the whole thing, and sold 1t over again. He thus made about SI6o out of the paper, which in its original form would have been worth just $Ioo"
 You surprise me, Apollo"
 |" thought l should. But Pm not through with you yet"
 "Whatp Is there moreH
 "Yes; am going to tell you about the patent reversible poem act"
 What on earth is that2
 "That is my great speciality. Sweet are the uses of diversity and it was in the days of my diversity that conceived this scheme, which have not the moral courage to abandon in this, the time of my prosperity. It's miserable world, you know, as the Mikado remarks, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances. The patent reversible poem first occurred to me thus: was walking along in the country one day and saw an old house. went up and looked in at the window. There was ap- parently not soul in the place. The fire was out and an empty chair stood by the hearth. took out my note book and jot,ed down the ideas that occurred to me, and when l went home l wrote a pathetic poem about the deserted home stead. l sent 1t to a magazine and it was, in professional language, bounced l sent 1t to another, and another, until it had been rejected by every magazine and literary paper in the country.
 "Then scratched my head and did a little thinking. looked at the poem hopelessly. Then my mind went back to the old house, and it occurred to me by some curious freak of thought that my pathetic poem would have been nipped in the bud if the farmer had been at home and had set his dog on me. The next moment picked up pen, wrote an introductory stanza describing the poet looking in at the window of the old house and writing his poem Then gave the poem in full and added stanza describing the stealthy approach of the farmer with club around the corner of the house and the subsequent demolition of the poet. sent the thing to the edi- tor of humorous paper. twas accepted. 1 received $5 for it and became a regular contributor to the paper"
 That was good move"
 "Yes, but snce beat that all hollow"
 "How was that2"
 "I wrote piece of comic verse, built on common plan-that of making three or four serious stanzas and winding up with an unexpected humorous ending. l took it to the editor of the same humor- ous journal. He read it and said it was too good to be used as mere piece of bufoonery. So took it home, knocked off the comic ending, and finished with stapza of concentrated pathos. l sold that poem to leading American maga- zine"
 "Apollol you're geniusl"
 "Thanks, don't mention it. We liter ary fellows don't know so much about fnanciering as some people in Wall street, but fancy we know how to work