Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-02-15
Pleasures Of Literature
II FIND the life of an editor very

81 T FIND the life Of an editor very
interesting" said Mr.. Dobley at
his newly inaugurated late breakfast,
"and / shall never fail to be thankful
that cast off the loathsome trammels
of the hardware business to soar in
the yaulted skies Of literature"
II thought only angels and birds
scared" said Mrs. Dobley, putting
cream in the coffee. She was really
very much astonished at the manner
in which her liege lord had launched
himself into literature. For some three
weeks now he had been proprietor and
editor of the Green Giraffe, a mag
azine devoted to art and high class
literature. 1t was an expensive affair,
printed on thick paper with ragged
edges and wide margins. and had a
cover one could see a block off on a
dark night, so brilliant was the color
ing.
You are becoming an unconscious
humorist, my DEAR" said Mr.. Dobley,
taking the top OFF an egg gracefully,
'as BELTS the wife Of literary man.
An angel in the language of the up
to-date is backer-a person who puts
money into art for arts sake and also
with a dim idea that it will return in
time manifold. And sometimes an 'an-
gel is also bird"
'It is all so interesting to me, John, y
said Mrs. Dobley, "and I am so anxious to
learn all about it. Yet it seems a little
bit beyond me. There is the cover;
that girl with the purple hair eating
green grapes, and the week before it
looked like an advertisement for a
hair restorer, that awfully purple man
with green whiskers. confess can
not understand it,"
"Last week we had Dom Paul, be-
ieve," said Mr.. Dobley, thoughtfully,
"and the girl eating grapes is Harvest,
I think. Most of these things are sym
bolical, you know
"Well, I sat up half the night think
ing about that girl" said Mrs. Dobley,
"and l could not make it out. Then
there was poem on the first page that
dazed me. 1t sounded magnificently
when one read it out loud, but what it
meant was mystery. I should have
taken it for q puzzle, but know you
don't have puzzles in the Giraffe"
"You refer now to that magnificent
thing by swampleigh. My dear, we
must be vague in literature if we wish
to escape the charge of being old fash
toned. Swampleigh never makes a mis-
take, Take the name Of the magazine.
He suggested it. He told me how it oc-
CURED to him one night. He had re-
tired late and fallen into a light slam
Der. Suddenly he awoke. At the foot
of his bed figure seemed to shape
itself into sort of mist and he knew
that it was an inspiration. First he
thought it was a camel, then it's neck
stretched upward and Swampieigh
heard himself murmur: The Green
Giraffe The very thing! He knew he
had name that would make big SEN
sation.'
''Is Mr.. Swampleigh on the staff?'
"Swampleigh is on the staff, but !
fear very much that we shall lose him.
You see, he has always had dyspepsia,
and this has kept him morbid and
cynical in an his ideas. He hates every
thing. Now, somebody suggested his
trying hot water as a cure, and he's
getting better and more cheerful every
day. He will lose all his value to us
when he becomes well again. You see
nowadays healthy-minded folks who
don't know what it is to be pessimistic
like to read that sort of thing. / think
1t makes 'em feel happy"
'It must be very odd, should think
said Mrs. Dobley. "But you find it in.
teresting at all events and you don't
have to work SO hard. Then it must
be charming to meet all the poets and
writer's, to commune with such gifted
minds-not through cold print as 9th
| crs have to-but soul to soul as it were
"Er-perhaps charming is not exact.
ly the word. They are intensely inter.
esting-and surprising. A few are
| perhaps trifle erratic. never know
when reach the Giraffe office what
may happen before the day is over
| 1t is life of constant surprises. Some.
times it is a glorious poem-sometimes
remarkable sketch = sometimes 9
fight
"a fght?"
eyes, over bills, you know. Mistakes
will happen. We pay a cent a WORD
for our prose, and the boy who counts
the words guesses at it sometimes and
this gives the writer an idea that We
are trying to defraud him. Why, We
had a rumpus the other afternoon in
the Office about eight cents on a mag
nificent article: Arts Eternal Future.
The man wouldn't listen to reason and
wanted the entire machinery of the Of
fee to apply itself to counting the
| words in that article"
"Who won ~
sThe cashier. He usually wins. He
runs compound words together, and
that is where the misunderstanding
arises. But the sidelights that one
constantly gets on the inner person
atty of the artist-of the brush and
of the pen-it is delightful"
SLOW lovely! Can't YOU explain II