The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1904-09-02
OLD STORIES TOLD FOR new
Singular CoineidentaI Narration Of
Humorous Yarns at Widely
Distant Points.

Are you sure this horse is safer
asked the amateur driver. Perfectly"
answered the IFerymans $50 long you
don't allow his tail to get mixed up with
the reins. Keep the reins away from
his tail, and he'll be gentle as q lamb
The amateur accepted the assurance
and drove away, returning some hours
later IN good condition, relates the BOs-
ton Transcript. We'll, % you had 10
trouble with the horse?" the liTeryman
suggested. Not a BIT" was the reply;
there was only one little shower, and
my wife held the umbrella over his tail
while that lasted
Does the reader recognize this anec-
dOte? Two months ago it was told as
new story, a personal experience to
Bostonian who gains mis- bread by story
writing. Il was new to him, and, see
ing possibilities in it, he dressed it in
two shapes and sent one to New York
and one to London. His New York ed
itor returned the manuscript, with the
footnote: "Old-had it" His London
editor, q friend in the house Of Harms
worth wrote: "Quite sure I've seen the
horse-reins-umbrella story" But mark
the sequel:
In the same week when, If it had had
good luck, the Boston version would
have appeared in a London publication,
q different version was printed as orig
insl in the Peoples Friend Of Dundee,
Scotland, and a fourth version, patched
with purple fragments Of fine writing,
appeared in the Times Of Cardiff, Wales.
Before either Of these periodicals could
have reached this country, two other
versions, presented as original, illum-
ined the pages Of a Boston and St Louis
daily. The story had been Gin the air, %
as It were, over 5000 miles Of land and
sea, and i've different writer's perceived
It at substantially the same moment,
brought It to earth, told it in as many
different ways, and seveTally eOngTat-
ulated themselves on a clever and orig
inal performance.
Writers have been doing This sort Of
thing, in all good faith, ever since the
world began Only a year OF two ago a
story Of a faithful dog that ran after a
stick Of dynamite and jealousy fetched
it to his master was told, almost stimuli
taneoUsIy, by four men in as many mag
azines. The tragic-cOmie conception is
simple enough; very likely in essentials
the tale dates back to AristOphanes; but
how did it happen to occur" at the
same time to the four! May there not be
something in the whimsical theory an
other literary man propoundsi-that
the intensity with which an author
dweHs upon his idea, before and during
the period Of exploitation, 'impresses If
on the spiritual atmosphere, /" so that the
wonder would be If sensitive, seeking
minds" did not seize upon It Horrid
possibilities are latent in telepathy
The day may dawn when a man who
cherishes an ingenious plot viii have
to surround himself with nOncoRductOrs
cigarette fends, perhaps, and girls
who chew gum.
Meantime, Of course, there will be
conscious and unconscious plagiarists
fewer Of the former than of the latter
But the man who unwittingiy revives al
ancient Jest does not deserve that name
nor need he fear it. The public has q
short memory. In the narrow and tech
meal sense a writer is safe. Seldom viii
his patrons detect, much less resent, {
reversiOn to antiquity; remember
that, Of the six editors who passed upon
the horse and umbrella incident -four
welcomed it as fresh and delightsome Of
fering