Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-12-07
NO "ST0RY."
BY X. CHER.


Publishers say story must be
"story" and what they mean by this
you can decide for yourself after COM
pairing their demands with what they
publish. The best can make of it
is that they expressly take pains to
disguise what they really want, all
their demands being for the purpose
of stimulating the writer to exert
himself; then they uso their own pri
vate Judgment, which is another thing
from their printed demands, in select
ing from the contributions.
When a render brings three things
together, which should harmonic, the
result is a distressing discordance:
~ The publishes high and mighty
demand for the best that the present
brain OF the earth can produ e; ~
What they publish and tacitly declare
to be such; (3) Whas we all know to
be real literature, from the pens of
some who have gone before. The
publisher Q) demands a race horse
(3) and accepts rat. (2)
Herewith 1 have no "story" to suit
these requirements, but according to
my view 1 have discovery worth
making known. Z make no attempt
to fill the aforesaid requirements, for
the principal reason that will not
write to order for any man on earth,
and don't believe any worthy li.era-
ture in the ''story' line wa4 ever pro-
duced in that way. My Ii erary work
Is consistent with my creed that
mans best productions will be on lines
congenial to him. say l have dis
covery.
Who am l?
This is the publishers demand. If
I have no name" no ''rep." my dis
covery is nothing to them. But it is
reader, if you are an ordinary mortal
striving to live this life that is put
upon us, and occasionally wondering
what is the meaning of it all.
1t happened, one day, when 1 was
worried almost to desperation by the
problems which beset everybody, in
one shape or another, in this sitting
struggle to get the better of ones
fellows, that circumstances accident
ally flung me upon twenty mile
walk, from one town to another. [
walked a mile. and my grievances
arose to fearful distinctness in my
mind 1 walked two miles. and pos
sible solutions began to appear. At
the end of 18th mile, l sat down at
the foot of a pine in pine forest,
drew long breath of relief from the
physical exertion, and su ldenly won
dered what it was all about-what on
earth had been badgering me so.
The low, mysterious, world-forget-
ting voice of the pines surrounded
me instead of the hubbub of human
contention. and the sun smiled down
over the great earth in eternal cheer
fulness.
I spurred up my unwilling recollec-
tions, recalled the worst of my griev-
ances, and 10! They were too insight
ficant to trouble one of the ants that
ran over the ground under the pines.
It all amounted to nothing! Nothing!
I had no grievance. AS for those
who we're the cause of these sham
grievances, the reasons for acting as
they did now, for the first time, be-
came apparent. They, too, like my
self, were under the trial aud pressure
of elbow-jostling struggle, nul acted
not from any special antipathy to me,
but to save themselves. Our motives
were very similar.
never should have seen it without
this accidental isolation and ba anc-
ing physical exertion. l would have
kept right on blindly butting my hea l
against the wall. And before going
any further, let me state plainly that
that is my discovery. If you are
worried, take 20 mile walk.
There was yellow haired girl at
the bottom of all my sometime griev-
ances. She was rich and / was poor,
| but perceiving what seemed to be
rare harmony in our natures, 1 had
gath@ed my resources, braced mys elf
for the accusations of sordid motive,
and boldly entered the lists for her
hand. What further acquaintance I
had been able to make with her
seemed to confirm my theory of har-
monious natures, and perhaps I le-
came too confident. At any rate a
slight rebuff, as I constructed it, from
herself, brought me up to the wind,
/ nautically sreaking, all shaking, and
emphasized the enormity of my pre-
sumption.
At the end of these fifteen miles my
individuality returned, AMI while re,