The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-04-30
TO YOUNG WRITER'S.
Some Sensible Advice In RefreshIngly
Humorous Garbs


Some Sensible Advice In q RefreshIngly
Humorous Garb,
The following correspondence is now
given to the press for the first time with
the consent of the parties:
WI. NYE, ESQ: Dear Sirs-T am d young
man, twenty years of age, with fair educA-
ton and strong desire to succeed. ! have
done some writing for the press, having
written up a very nice article on progressive
euchres which was great success and pub
lished in our home paper. But it was not
copied SO much in other papers as would
like to have it. and I take my pen In
hand at this time to write and ask you what
there is in the article enclosed that prevents
its being copied abroad all over our broad
land. write just as nope you would teet
perfectly free to write me at any time.
think that writer's ought to aid Zach other
P. o. Box 2o2. ADELBERT L. TEwEY.
l have carefully read and p6ndeted
over the dissertation on progressive
euchre which you send me, Adelbert;
and can not see why it should not be
ravenOusly seized and copied by the
press of the broad, wide land referred
to in your letter. If you have time per-
haps it would be well enough to 90 to
the leading journalists of our country
and ask them what they mean by it;
You might write till your vertebT9e fell
ont of your clothes on the floor; and it
#otild not do half so much good as d
personal conference with the editors OF
America. First prepare your article;
then 90 personally to the editors of the
country and call them one by one out
into the hall, in a current of cold air;
and explain the article to them In that
way yot will form pleasant acquaint-
ances and get solid with our leading
journalists. You have no idea, Adel-
bert, how lonely and desolate the life
of practical journalist is. Your fresh
young face and your fresh young ways
and your charming grammatical i'm
provisations would delight all editor
who has nothing to do from year to
year but attend to his business.
Do not try to win the editors OF
America by writing poems beginning:
Now the merry goatIet Jumps,
And the trffling yaller dog,
With the tin can madlY humps
Like an acrObattc frog.
At times you will be tempted to
write such stuff as this, and mark it
With a large blue pencil and send it to
the papers of the country, but that is
not a good way to do.
Seriously, Adelbert, ] would suggest
that you make a bold dash for success
by writing things that other people
are not writing, thinking things that
Othef people are not thinking, and
saving things that other people are not
/ saving. You will say that this advice
/ is easier to give than to take, and
/ agree with you. But the tendency Of
/ the age is to wear the same style of
/ collar and coat and hat that every
other man wears, and to talk and write
/ like other men: and to be frank with
/ you, Adelbert, | think it is an Internal
4 shame If YOU will look carefully
/ about you, you will see that the
1 preacher, who is talking mostly to
4 dusty pew cushions is also the preacher
who is thinking the thoughts of other
/ men. He is Impending" his barrel of
sermons annually, and they were made
/ in the first place from the sermons of a
/ man who also appended" his barrel
! annually. Go where the preacher is
/ talking to full houses, and you will
/ discover that his sermons are full of
/ humanity and originality. They are
not written in a library bv a man with
/ interchangeable ideas, an automatic
/ cog-wheel thinker, but they are pre-.
/ pared by a man who earnestly and
honestly studies the great, aching
heart of humanity, and full of SINGER
/ itv, originality and old-fashioned
Christianity, appeals to your better inn.
/ pulses.
How is it with our poetry? As 4
1 fellow-traveler and sea-sick tourist
across LIES tempestuOus tide. / ask
! YOU. Adelbert, who is writing the
poetry that will live? Is it the man who
is saving out and sand-papering STAN
zas of the same general dimensions as
some other poet, in which he bewailed
the fact that he loved a tall, well-be-
haved. accomplished girl. sixteen hands
high who did not requite his love?
All, no. He is not the poet whose
terra Gotta statue will stand in the
cemetery, wearing a laurel wreath and
a lumpy brow. Show me the poet who
is intimate with nature and who stud
les the JOYS and sorrows of the poor
who smells of the clover and writes
about live, healthy people with ideas
and appetites. He is my poet.
/ apologize for speaking so earnestly,
Adelbert, but / saw by your letter tina
you felt kindly toward me, and rather
invited an expression of opinion on my
part So ! have written more freely
perhaps, than | otherwise would. VIZ
are both writer's, measureably so a
least. You write on progressive
euchre, and 1 write on any thing that
can get hold of So let us agree herr
and promise each other that, whateve
we do, we viii not think through til,
thinker of another man. The Grea
Ruler of the universe has made anC
placed upon the earth a good man!
millions of men, but he never mad
any two of them exactly alike. ",
may differ from every one of the count
less millions who have preceded us
and still be safe. Even you and /
Adelbert, may agree in many matters
and yet be very dissimilar. At least