The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-01
DOES WRITING PAYe
Hr L. J, vAScR.

kOWSA NAAO RAVASSSA0n VI AeSASeSa through many year of storm and stress. I say followed" because in his wooing. he persistently ran after the fair and fickle dame ere he won her hand and her dowry. Happily, he is we'll mated, and has been married almost long enough to have silver wedding.
 The answer l received may be tersely summed up thus: "Writing pays if you know how to write and what to write" Now, the two prop ositions contained in this answer are worthy of brief consideration.
 First, how to write: The young writer usually starts out, think, possessed with the one idea to get what he calls style! He expects to make writing pay by the mere ele- gsnce of jeweled words, high-sound- ing epithets, and well- balanced pe- riods. Thus, many promising writer has found himself wrecked, at the outset of his literary venture, on his style. Plainly speaking, writing tor style does not pay. For, remem- Der that there are too many literary lapidaries who can cut, set and poll ish the jewels of rhetoric with more subtitle skill than yourself. Thou sands of manuscripts have been "re- turned with thanks" with whosc form and expression the most exact ing editor could not find fault. h. deed, many an editor has confessed that 1t was with deep sigh that he tossed the beautiful thing into the waste paper basket. Again, what boots 1t to gild one's writing with pretty colors, if the covering be only brass?
 Take the writers Of fiction who build up year after year their pretty Queen Anne cottages of words. Of course, the disappointment is keen when we find that, after all, their houses are tenanted only by ghosts of ideas. "I could write" said the witty Tom Hood, "as fine plays as Shakes peare's, if I only had the mind but the worst of 1t is, never have the mind" Ahi there's the rub. The writer who does not know how to write will rarely have the mind.
 Secondly; The writer who ex- poets to make writing pay must know ,chdt to write. He should be quick to see what people are willing and ready to read, and what editors are ready and willing to pay for. l some- times think that many of our "popu- lar" writers have been not unlike the spies sent out by Joshua to explore the land of the Philistines. These writers return and report strange tales of giants, or give rumors of the mysteri- ous queen, Sue e-tcho- must be- obeyed,- and the people listen to them. Indeed, the Philistines are really queer set st the best. They call for edition after edition of "Ouida's' writings, because they want to read about red headed Circes who lure husbands to their ruin. They want to learn on the other hand, how good -goody" people talk and make love, 30 they ask for forty and fifty thousand each of the late E. P. Roe's novels. They all read Howells, because they want the min- ute descriptions of my lady's ward robe, and of tempests in teapots. They all take James, because they want the vivisection of butterflies and the spicy talk of aristocracy. They want detec- tive stories from the newspapers, 90 they ask at the libraries for Charles Reade; If it is fifteen puzzle they want, they ask for the author of "The Lady or the Tiger2" They often do not know what they want, so they take to some "osophy," "ology," or else to the woods.
 Again, the writer who wants to make his writing pay must take his wares to the right market. Writing, 1t is said, is, in the eyes of nearly all editors, . commercial speculation. They only buy what they think the people will read. Hence, writers find that what will not suit one will suit another. What should we think of the farmer who took his eggs to the butcher, and his meat to the grocer? Is 1t any wonder, then, that writers go around knocking ct the editorial gates vainly seeking admission9 Of course there will always be hundreds of poor Casaubons with their "keys to all mythologies," which nobody wants. The plain truth is that there are other requisites beside literary merit esssR- tial in making writing pay. In other words, like philosophy, writing for the wrong market bakes no bread.
 Now, there are a great many mar kets for the right kind of writing. Whether as reporter, correspondent, or as special writer, the reward is in proportion to the merit displayed. The reporter would think writing did not pay if he earned lees than twenty five dollars a week. So, too, would the correspondent consider himself ill-paid at les than double that amount. The amount offered by