The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-08

,a contributor-A RejOinder.
yorsc About Little JOhnny-Some
EDithets-A Literary Strea"
Never Ends-Vogue in the west
From the N. Y. Commercial AdVer'iser
In the editorial office of the Home ana
Hearthstone Oct us say, though the iialiie
,f tho weakly periodical is somewhat oll-
forart> sit half a dozen persons, young anu
old of both sexes, reading diligently an
dav long. Each has at his LETT mana d"
c,,bber-banded bundle of closely written
manuscripts. at his right PAD OIL PliiN-
ish paper; on the desk are wen husseo
looking heaps of manuscripts reJecteu' II
saems without the calling in of the PINK
,,ar.r on their case; and the readers, scrlo-
bling criticism or scanning the pages
capidlv. or contemptuously tossing 10 the
rubbish pile a story or sketch or poem
seem to find excitement, exhiiaratioh al
most, in their labor.
The mink sheets, of course, contain the
r,odar,s criticism He reads the story
osrafullv. or Is supposed to; then If he
thinks ii worth the editorial While' COM
ments mon it's fitness for the Home etc !;
sometimes he recommends 1t as material
badly handled and says ii would De wen
10 huv il for rewriting; sometimes, When
n has touched his personal taste he says,
and gives good reasons why, the paper
should accept it, signing his name WIN
the word heartily before; sometimes Wheh
the manuscript has worried hlm' set ms
private taste on edge, and yet Is plalhly
eood "for our use" he commendS 1t
ID11Y nil
sometimes in this last case he succumbs
"a the temptation, wrings out his brain
for adiectives dredges his mind for con-
demning definitions, and pours the whole
mass reeking on the pink pad which the
author never sees.
Once an author saw. The readers sips
Of criticism go with the manuscript to
the editor-in-chief who decides. The re-
iected stories are then distributed among
fhe readers to be returned to the authors
And the reader must be careful to shake
ont all the slips before he seals up the
manuscript in it's envelope to send 1t on
Then the slips are placed on hle. Ihere
was a reader named Joe, a somewhat
snorting character, who did his days work
with the effective indifference of the boy
who sweeps the office-Joe finds his desk
hur1ened with manuscripts every morn
ing. and he cleans it up that's all. There
was also a constant contributor one VINO
though constantly snubbed by the curt re-
lection of his contributions, ever turned
another cheek and sent, in few days, a
new effusion His manuscripts belonged
to che rubbish heap of immediate rejec-
lion but this writer had name" so
tbat they always had to go from hand to
hand. and at least four or five times
through the process of the pink pad before
,hev could be decently returned to him.
THAT was the rule. The readers remarks
II W
been short and spiteful and TO the point
They were all tired of u. NJ" and wished
he knew. one wrote simply "Mush;" an
other. "Slush;" a third said: "Singularly
duh and enthusiastically futile fourth
said merely: Hopeless" fifth-a wo-
man reader-remarked: Il do not ind in
cidents of real heart interest in this shall
low trihing Bit" the sixth said, with
many men scratches and a blot to mark
his haste; Another from our irrepressi-
BILE. of course not" Joe placed the manu-
script in It's long envelope with his usual
deft manipulation, but he did not snake
out the papers containing the above re-
marks These went 20 -. NJ at his
Grub street home. The routine OF the edi-
torial office went on as before. But next
week. irstead of a contribution from -.
NJ" there came from him a letter and
the slips. an returning to you some of
your property" he said, in part, Il beg
to state fhaf II mas always Deen my pfac-
tice to send the Home and Hearthstone
all my feeblest work, written down, with
effort to your level 1t seems. indeed
that il is impossible for rue 10 descend
quite far enough" The editor-in-chief
lectured Joe for his careless fault; Joe
said, humby that he couldn't explain it,
sir but would never be caught again; the
staff of readers laughed and thanked him.
and when he explained for the tenth time
how he didn't see how it happened they
laughed and thanked him again.
The word "spiteful was used a short
time back advisedly, Like a gathering of
women at the country sewing society the
editors love to give secret pain to their
fellow-readers love TO cherish their in
dividuality and spend their malice and
mako manifest their contempt for the
other mans ponderous parts by a def ex-
hibition of their own. In poem con-
corning "Grandfathers Sunday Bouquet"
which tells in a tender way how little
Johnny. aged 3. invariably plucks for
grandpapa on Sunday mornings a buncn
of dandelions and violets and places them
in a green bottle by his armchair, the eld-
III.