The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-03-13
PERSONAL VIEWS
OF YOUNG WRITERS.

Hugh Cunningham, aged 13, OF. Ala
media. has some excellent suggestions
to offer to the boys and girls concern
ing the pending competition sHis letter
is given in full, as follows;
1 read with interest the. article about
The competition and beg leave to make
the following suggestions;
That Is be the age limit
That the girls, out of courtesy, be al
lowed to have their choice as to whether
the girls or boys shall first publish their
That some prominent literary people act
as judges, one man and one woman
That as some children are better at
versa, each shall write his or her choice,
and that the best. of these be published,
/ fully agree that the articles should
not be more, than 600 words in length
The foregoing letter is selected from
a host for publication because 1t is so
practical and definite.
Beatrice Bailey writes from Rock
vile, Gal, as follows:
Here is my suggestion for the new con-
test in The Call on the Boys and Girls
page. am member of the c. R. c., and
so l suppose | have right to make one:
l think that such a contest as you sug-
gest would just be grand. | think that it
would be best to have all the competitors
write stories, for. If some write essays and
some poems it would be hard to choose
the winners. 1 would suggest that at some
other time We have poets page and ind
out who the best poets in the State are,
that is, the little poets, not grown-up
ones. think the judges in the contest
ought to be educators and journalists, or
else just educators, and the committee
ought to be composed of two men and two
women, so that the men cannot be partial
to the boys and the ladies cannot be par
tial to the girls. / don't think any one
above II years of age ought to be allowed
to compete unless they are grammar
school pupils.
l hope you have the contest and I hope
the girls will win.
Probably Beatrice Bailey, on second
thought, would prefer that there should
be five judges, so that there might be
no possibility of a tie. But her sugges-
ton is excellent that women and men
should be judges. Perhaps four Judges
to be named might be authorized to
name the fifth judge. What Beatrice
says concerning the difficulty in judg-
ing correctly, ''if some write essays
and some write poems is submitted to
the boys and girls for careful consider
alton. She does not agree with Hugh
Cunningham upon that point The
discussion is open to all the boys and
girls of the Pacific Coast.
The question is asked by several:
What will be done with the stories
and essays written by the boys and
girls which fail to be placed upon the
competitive pages?" The question is
timely The answer is that all stories
that are good enough will be published,
and due credit will be given to the writ
ers. The pages upon which the COM
petition will be based will hold only a
limited number of articles. Other good
work will be used upon the Boys and
Girls page later
Floyd Smith. 81 Bartlett street, San
Francisco, writes:
l think that the limit of age should not
be 16 years, because some who are over 16
are in the high schools and could write
very good stories. l should like the sto-
ries to be fiction. I think that if Mr.. Web
ster were appointed to name the jurors it
printed first in previous competition,
and 1 think it would be right and fair to
give the boys the first page this time.