The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-08

in getting his stories published in most
Of the best magazines in the country.
Later on in his career, however, he
saw the folly of writing short stories
for a living; he began to write novels.
His latest piece of work, a long story
of Donegal, his won country, will be
published in this country and in Eng
land some time this spring.
A few days ago a Western man hap
pened into the Office of one of the lead
ing publishing houses in New York
and the publisher began to. ask the
representative of the mountains and
the plains beyond the Mississippi what
he thought of some of the Western
novels published during the past year
or two.
What do you think is the best
Western fiction you have read?" asked
the publisher. The Westerner had read
widely.
Well" he drawled in reply, there
was book brought out several months
ago called The End of the Trail by
fellow named Mason. He knew what
he was a talking about. That's the
best Western novel I've seen"
They fell to talking of Western types
and the former cowboy and miner ex-
claimed:
There is one Red Saunders floating
around in book who is all right He's
true. That man Phillips who wrote the
book must have lived out there for a
long time and known Red Saunders
I'd be willing to bet that both Mason
and Phillips lived out West for a num-
Der of years If they are not Western
men. don't happen to know either one
of them"
THE trouble with most Western f1c-
hn ss1 hot e,
ten by Eastern men who go out West
for few weeks to get a lot of i'm
pressions. They go to ranch and the
owner is, naturally, very glad to turn
his COW punchers loose for the benefit
of the writer's, but they don't get the
real COW puncher that way. You've
got to live with him and be one of his
kind. Same with the miner or any other
kind of Western men"
The publishers of a life of Andrew
Carnegie, recently published, made a
curious lot of errors in connection with
the indeXing of the book which many
of the books readers would like to
have explained. Most of the subjects
consulted in the index cannot be found
on the pages given for the references.
One can scarcely understand how such
condition of affairs got beyond the
plOOlledQSIS. One reader mas IrleQ TO
figure out that the paging in the in
dex must refer to the pages in the au-
thor's manuscript which contained the
references. but why the index should
have been made up in this form is
another puzzle Perhaps the publish
ers will shortly make clear the mys-
terry of these blind references in the
Carnegie life and stop the wear and
tear of mental machinery which is now
going on among the baffied readers Of
the book.
The Bookman, in it's current issue,
takes up the question of the personal
pull as an authors asset and very
satisfactorily proves the belief in
personal pull a wrong point of view
for the author to take. In spite of all
that has been said on the subject, there
seems to be a large number of ambi-
tious writer's who firmly believe that
as outsiders they do not stand any
show" of getting their products ac-
cepted. They believe that anything
from an unknown writer is thrown
aside and returned without a reading.
AS matter of fact the publishers
make the most careful search for good
things among their contributions. Ev-
cry house employs at least one reader.
and manuscript clerk and maintains
some sort of a system for the proper
care of every manuscript which is sent
In to them. One house gets in more
than $4,000 manuscripts In a years
time. Several get in between 5000 and
10000 contributions during the same
period. il is the establishment OF a
system for giving all manuscripts
proper care and the necessity for main
tanning IL which makes a personal pull
impossible. A manuscript sent 10 an
editor and marked Personal on the
envelope naturally goes IN with the
EDITORS mail. As a result II is not
In the record Of manuscripts received.
or r. likely not 10 be, and. II the edi-
tor happens 10 be out OF town or busy.
a. he generally Is. the manuscript is
not read for several days. The dan
\ taken llD for consideration. ia ninety