The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-09

the result. II may be that a pure,
brilliant, sparkling diamond Is fastened
in the shirt ront. But the uncouth set
ting dims its radiance and p%rovokes in
the artistic mind a revulsion Of feeling
which involves the condemnation o. the
stone as well as the badly assorted rat
ment. The roubl is that the ambi-
tious to shine in public print are prone
to overdO a good thing To the ultimat
extinguishment. or at the least effectual
hiding. of the good thing. a story thus
~mlshandled reminds me OF one thing.
That is a magnificent structure OF
granite and marble. a dream OF artistic
and architectural beauty. plastered
over with a veneer of nasty brown,
sandy. hairy mortar.
Faults OF style are, of course, the Dor
ton Of the youth who lacks experience.
This rule applies to football as readily
as writing. Such faults can be reme-
died as easily as falling from the ira
ditional log unless they have been per-
sisted in SO Ions as to become a portion
OF the writer's being. When a ship has
been at sea for a long time she is sent
e. the docks to be scourc1 n her
copper-sheathed hull cleaned Of the
barnacles and weeds which accumu-
late. Given a man who has fallen into
q rut in his work, Of whatever nature,
II he ever hopes 70 advanc he II
go into a literary dry dock and be
scraped thoroughly before he can re-
gain smoothness and come up again to
his trial speed.
No language ever devised by man is
so versatile as English: no people on
the earth ever handled a language with
as much skill as the American. Single
words-take your choice of any in the
lexicon-will sing the entire gamut OF
human emotions and sensibilities and
make the scale chromatic. There is no
limit to the shading and cOloring or
spoken language under American ham
ding. Combinations of words Of the
EngIish language, Americanized or not,
are limitless and the meanings they can
be made to express are beyond the COM
putation of the most profound algebralst
the sun ever dawned upon. Yet nothing
is of such frequent note in public print
as badly handled stories.
In the effort to do something more
tina let the story alone and rely on its
intrinsic force to convey its meaning,
the beauties of the tongue become lock-
jawed until a totally different meaning
than that intended is conveyed. In the
ambitious and worthy desire to produce
a hing of beauty the artist lays on his
colors with a whitewash brush when the
delicate Instruments of the miniatures
are im~peratively demanded. The result
| can Only bc ii blbANH. W HNi'N
agency could make it anything else and
by the time the reviser has done witt
II. IL is a veritable crazy quilt spattereo
all over with sublimity and idiocy.
The need for haste i'm the telling of 9
story for the public is the primary
cause for many a badly handled piece
of news; the attempt to do fine writlnl
produces infinitely more. The remedy
for the former is easy. Min out or every
IN a1-ion D1nntG are done at SuCh {
distance from the home office that th'
writer has ample time to frame up IN
story on the way in. Then having re
ported his find he can write 1t OF IRON
the reel. In an hour by doing this h
can have a clear, w~ell-cOmposed, force
full story. which viii tell what he eN
pected TO tell and which will appeal e
the reader. If he settles down in M
chair and l~aboriously grinds out a col
umn or so of hyperbole and other thing
Of the kind he viii get no thanks from
fellow workers or the reading publlt