Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1895-10-03
At NINETEEN End TWENTY.
seven.
BY EMMA N. WISE.


first story was published. 1t was not the
first one she had written by any means.
Ever since she had been able to form the
alphabetical characters and join them legi-
bly, her fertile brain had been weaving al
sorts of possible and impossible romances,
mauy of which she had forwarded to pub
fishers in various PARTS of the country, be-
Ieving with all the fervor of her youthful
egotistn that her crude sentiments still
more crpdely wrought would inspire In
some editors soul the same faith in her
greatness which she herself already pos
sessed.
But somehow her contributions always
fell short of the mark of excellence neces-
sary to insure them favorable considera-
ton, and manuscript after manuscript was
returned TO her and was securely locked
away In the old drawer of her old fashioned
bureau, which had been dedicated, with a
good many tears OF disappointment, as a
repository for all rejected offerings at the
shrine OF literature. BY the time she was
nineteen there were probably hundred
or more of those hapless productions laid
away either to be ANONYMOUSLY forgotten
or to be resurrected and revised when her
mind should become sufficiently matured
to sft out whatever meritorious material
there might be III them and use it to good
advantage.
She worked steadily for more than three
months on her STORY of the Steamer
Kendrick." One night she finished re.
writing il for the twenty-first time, and the
next day she sent it to Jesse Arnold. editor
of Ironton Inland Weekly, with five line
note, asking him to read it carefully, and
even If he could not use it to let her know
what he thought OF it.
OF all the editors in the land she seemed
to have chosen him as her most favored
target, why she could not have told, for
she had no personal acquaintance with him
and his letters accompanying returned
manuscript had been even more curt and
forbidding than those of his brother pub
fishers. But for all that each unhappily
ending venture only added fresh fuel to her
zeal to secure foothold among the ranks
of the Inland Weekly's contributors and
compel its chief by sheer force of her inn
portunity to acknowledge her developed or
potential ability.
Her "Story OF the Steamer Kendrick"
was not work Of genius, but there were
phases of the plot that were strong and
passages that were unusually well con-
ceived and executed, and after reading it
three times Jesse Arnold, who was con-
scientious editor, decided to keep it. He
accepted it with that feeling OF uncertainty
with which an insurance man issues a
policy on an extra hazardous risk, and
t,,la faH hipnenlf FL, xuIr
with equal delight when it turned out to
be preferred. The public liked the story,
and several critics who condescended to
review the Inland Weekly praised it. Per-
haps Editor Arnold himself was more fully
aware OF the glazing absurdities in the
piece he had brought out than were any of
its readers, and each favorable comment
that came to his notice only made them
all the more apparent. At last lie con-
cluded to write to his unknown literary
protege and warn her against certain errors
which might be pardoned in young
authors first story, but which, if often re-
peated, would be serious drawback to her
advancement in her art. Before he did
30, however, she sent him another hastily
written story, and letter which was a
strange tumble Of gratitude to him for
bringing her before the public, thankful
ness that she had been so well received,
and unstinted expressions of steadfast
belief that she was fairly launched on q
sea of success, where wrecks and disasters
were an impossibility. In conclusion she
limited that he ought to be eternally CRATE
full to her for allowing him to print story
which would, in all probability, shed lustre
round his own reputation as well as hei
own.
That evening he wrote the contemplated
letter
''You are in danger OF being spoiled
he said in part. "You need advice and
feel that have the right to address you
in the capacity OF censor. Remembe
that you are in an up-to-date world and
the literature that will live will be the very
essence, the embodiment of that world.
Visionary, idealistic sketches such as yours
may make very good reading, but they are
not the true stuff. You have unquestioned
ability, but il you wish to succeed you
must turn it to the portrayal of living men
and women, not the imaginary puppets
that you have manipulated for the mos
part in your STORY OF the Steamer Ken
drick." Take your hero, for instance. i
may be quite comforting for a time to
come in contact, through the medium Of
printers ink and paper, with an Apollo, O
mental Hercules, spiritual god and q
financial Croesus, all combined in ont
American man. and New Yorker at that
but doubt IL any of us would relish close
acquaintance with him he would be apt
to prove unpalatable. Besides he would b.
an excrescence on the human race, ant
after your second or third story the public
would have none OF him. So take warn
ing. Make your hero n real man-full o
imperfeetions IL need be--and let the god'
take care OF themselves"
Esther Lindsay read AMI reread the edi
tors letter. He had not intended to make
It unnecessarily pointed or critical, but o
all the characters she had ever conjured vi
her last hero had been the object of he
most sincere admiration and the admoni
ton to shun him and bis ilk touched her il
the most vulnerable spot.
al want that man to understand me,
she said TO her mother, after having
dreamed over the contents OF the letter TO
a couple of nights, land in order to brinl
that about am going down to Ironton +
see him, for 1t would Re utterly useless TO
me to attempt to explain In writing jus
what stand have taken on this subject.
Her family know her too well TO remon