The daily Alaskan., 1908-10-19
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
 OF A MANUSCRIPT.


 literary way, and l was turned over to him by my mothers mother to be looked over, He took me to his study and sat down with mo, first sharpen Ing his pencil with which to cut me in pieces, for l heard him say that my mother knew nothing about writing and he supposed the thing was full of rhetorical bunders." When he be- gan to read me he wore a bored look, but he had read but one paragraph before his expression changed. As he read on he forgot who had written me. and when he had finished he eX- claimed:
 By thuuder."
 Then he called my mother and her mother Into his study and asked my IAOther:
 Where did you learn to write Eng fish correctly"
 At school"
 School be hanged. There's some. thing else here that you didn't learn at all. It was born In you Send your story out just as 1t is. If lt is appre- Ciated 1t will be accepted. but l don't believe 1t will bc. lt will come back 10 you and keep coming back"
 They took me away. and the mother said to the daughter: Your uncle is sore because all his own manuscripts come back to him. Don't you believe him. my dear. Your story will be aC- cepted. and you will get a good price for it."
 The next day was sent to the Globe Publishing company. l was turned over to a young fellow they called a weeder He looked over the manu- scripts which came In the mornings mall and out of the lot picked one. l heard him mention the authors name. 1 had heard It often before. The rest of us were put in envelopes with printed slips with the editors name to them, saying few very nice things and thanking our parents for sending us in. Then We were put away for awhile and when It was convenient were sent back to where we came from.
 When my poor little mother saw by the bulk of the package that had been returned to her the tears started In her eyes Her uncle said: T told you so. don't believe they read a line of it. However. know simpson X Co. They've turned down a lot of my work. but perhaps thcyN read this lC make personal request. let mo have It tomorrow"
 The next day he took me tO simpson x Co. and had a long talk about mc with the editor, who was very polite and promised to give me his especial attention. After my mothers uncle had gone away the editor tossed me to 8 weary looking man sitting at desk covered with manuscripts and said:
 Read that"
 It was two weeks before the tired looking man took me up in my turn, then ran over twenty pages of me in as many seconds and wrote on my wrapper Declined" And so ] was sent back again to my mother, who had hoped that her uncles personal ef- fort would insure success. She was nearly as much disappointed as at first.
 And so continued to go from one publishing house 10 another without acceptance Finally 1 attracted the at tentlon Of an intellectual looking edl- tor, who wrote this criticism:
 It we were looking for literature l would recommend the publication of this book But as wc are looking for best sellers" l would dcciiuc q,
 However, my mother got nothing but the printed slip when l was re- turned, though lt was couchcd in just AS polite terms as the first.
 Meanwhile a publisher told my moth CT that she would better write some thing startling" tride erotic, he said. So Innocent was she that she thought he said cratic. Sue went to work and turned out my brother. Poor boy He was derormed in frame and Intellect from birth. Mother was very much ashamed Of him and wouldn't acknowledge hlm by publish Ing hlm under her own name. But he was published under noun de plume and proved second best seller.
 My mother continued to give me all her affection notwithstanding the fact that my brother made so much money for her. She was now deluged with requests for something from her gift ed pen" She sent me ont once more, and l was accepted at once, but she refused to permit my publication un- der the name which had been append ed to my crazy l.u,her. The publish CTS would r0' '.ruc me unless she con- seuted D 'Iis. They offered her a large sum vi.h that name 10 me, but she was o',.urlte, and so | was obliged to remain In Obscurlty
 Mother would write nothing more, and al last, not making any money, which she needed she wrote the pub fisher who had wanted me that he