Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-03-23
MY SHORT STORY.

At last my story was done. My
friends had always told me that l had
literary ability, and now that my man.
uscript lay completed before Inc l felt
that they were right. l had written 1T
over and over again, polishing crude
paragraph here and strengthening a
weak one there, putting in touch of
rhetorical ornament in one place and
removing it where it seemed overdrawn
in another, until l thought (and my
wife, too) that the style was just per-
feet
Then my wife copied it off in her
own hand. to make sure that it should
be perfectly legible, and we both went
over it together, to see that the dots and
crosses, hyphens and quotation marks,
capitals and punctuation were all i'll
due order, for we were determined that
the editor of The -- Magazine should
not be tempted to rejection by any
carelessness in the preparation of the
manuscript. A stamped envelope was
inclosed for it's return, if not available,
and the story was consigned to the
mail.
For the next two or three days |
spent most of my spare time in trying
to moderate my wife's hopes, by point
ing out how many different questions
had to be considered in deciding upon
any given manuscript, entirely apart
from its literary merit My confidence
was beginning to wane, and was anx-
thaf ha,. do oh / Snn II
not be crushed if my story should be re-
jected. Then l received a short notice
stating that the manuscript had been
received and would be examined and
reported upon at an early date.
By this time we had said all we could
think of on the subject, and our conver-
sation turned upon other themes, but the
eagerness with which the mail was scru-
tinized whenever the postman came
betrayed readily enough what was up
permost in our minds
At last, after full month of wait
ing, the longed for envelope came | sat
down at my desk to open it, making a
wretchedly inadequate pretense of per-
feet composure, and my wife stood look
ing over my shoulder. With trembling
hand tore open the envelope and drew
forth small slip of paper:
"Your manuscript, entitled "A Moon
light Romance, has been accepted for
publication. Remittance for the same
will be made in due course.
There it stood in black and white,
with the EDITORS signature at the bot
tom. My wife threw her arms around
my neck with shout of joy, and up
set the inkstand in my effort to make a
fitting demonstration of my feelings. l
was at last an author, and posterity
would read my name and fame in the
histories of English literature, along
with the accounts of Dickens and Scott
and Cooper and Holmes and Howells!
My wife had hardly had time to recover
herself sufficiently to 81 eak before | was
deciding which one of the great maga-
zines should be permitted to publish my
next story and what style of binding
should choose for my first collected
volume.
AS soon as our excitement subsidized :,
little we began to speculate as to the
probable amount of the promised remit
tance and the time when it would come.
On the latter point we soon decided that
payment would probably not be made
until the story should be published but
ON the former we found more difficulty
in coming to an agreement. calculated
that the story would make l2 to IA
pages, and did not expect more than
$50 per page, or somewhere i'll the
neighborhood of $3.50 for the whole.
But my wife was quite sure that it
would be more. She had read that as
much as $500 was often paid, and some
times, when the writer was very popu,
lar, even more than that. OF course
was not yet known as story writer,
but the story was so good, and the edi-
tor would be SO anxious to secure my
future work, that she felt sure he would
pay at least one half more than | sug-
gested.
After two or three days of happiness,
during which l made a rough draft OF
three more short stories, purchased q
ream of writing paper and meditated
more or less concerning a serial, we
began to talk about what we should dc
with our money for the Moonlight
Romance. We decided at once that
must have the works of such of the
standard English novelists as were not
already on my shelves. These, in good,
plain editions, made for use instead OF
show, we thought could be had fol
about $50. Then l felt sure that my
wife would have many distinguished
callers as soon as my literary position
should become known, and her parlol
was rather shabby. So told her she
must have it repapered and put down q
new brussels carpet That would take
$50 more. We had both staid close al
home all the previous year in order tc
save money for the last payment on GU,
house, and SO we concluded to take q
trip on the lakes, which would cost
about 800. We did not feel like doing
this, however, without some additions
to our respective wardrobes which
would take probably $50 more. As these