Omaha daily bee., 1909-06-21
SHORT WORD WORTH A PILE
Fortune and Honors Won by the AZ
hrmative yes"
COMMON WORDS RATED OVER
Hunting and Literary stars Command
Top Prices, but Brides and
PuEiIists Get the
stun.

~
word be "yes7'
Ex-President Roosevelt, It has been gen
orally reported, is to get 81 a word for his
articles describing his hunting adventures
In Africa.
James J. Jeffries, the rugilist. Is to get
$4,000 for saying simply Yes" in answer
to the proposal that he fight the colored
champion. Johnson.
Those prices represent extremes In the
value OF a word, spoken or written, in
these days Of piping peace, when adventure
and strife seems to have gained newly ro-
mantle charms.
But even the dazzling reward held out to
Boxer Jeffries becomes trivial when it is
compared with the riches that
have been earned by fair women who have
consented to utter the same word that was
required of him.
Alluring as the prices are, how many
others are there who would want to earn
as much in the same manner; and how
many are there who, IL they were willing,
could do IT?
1t may be we'll to remember, in the first
place, that Colonel Roosevelt is far from
being the only and original winner of the
literary prize OF u q Word.
Editor Calls a Blum.
AS magazine articles go, the pioneer in
that golden pathway was the late Richard
Mansfield, who got It because he didn't
want II. An editor. who was conducting a
magazine tina had already earned mill
lions, conceived the idea that Mr.. Mans
fields dictum on the chances and mis-
chances Of the stage as a vocation would
help the circulation a lot; so he wrote,
asking the actor for an article.
My price is 81 a word" CURLY replied
Mr.. Mansfield, deeply affronted at the
impertinence Of vulgar trade.
please rush 1000 words" retorted the
editor, willing TO pay $1,000 to take pride
down a peg or two.
Some few years later, for the "subse-
quent" adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle was declared to have
been paid 81 a word; and there the market
stayed, with 81 as the top notch to which
every subsequent aspirant must climb, il
he hopes to become really distinguished.
From the Mansfield incident-and from
the Sherlock Holmes price, many a literary
critic will add-it)is apparent that the gen
tie art of composition is far from being
the actual basis Of value.
Words, not deeds, would be the test APP
piled by any critic in assaying the cash
merits Of manuscripts submitted to him
but deeds, not words, constitute the in
trlnsic worth Of these modern Midases OF
the pen and tongue.
II is precisely because Of the two main
facts-that Colonel Roosevelt is the best
known American and that he is constantly
piaLfn1 q t,,out tarrthIa ath.-fhnt the
words with which he will clothe his deeds
value of 81 each.
Dangerous as so ambitious an expedition
undoubtedly h, and few have been the
hunters who have undertaken one, the
chances are that a thousand adventurers
would cheerfully volunteer for It against
one who would engage to dispute the two
fists and the single word of James ]. JEFF
fries in the prize ring. That is the one
main reason why Mr.. Jeffries can earn
$500 for the word.
PuRiIism as n Money Maker
For all the e~ndowments OF nature, the
$50, 900 appointed to be earned by Mr.. JEFF
fries must be labored for in a fashion
which few OF his ~compatriots are willing
TO comply with to save their lives. Physi-
CAnllo lhlOuBhOul NlS III III 10
port thousands Of patients lost because of
their reluctance to take the vigorous exer-
else which alone can suffice to reduce the
former champion to his normal fighting
weight.
1t is true that there are hundreds of
prize fighters who, for less than a bare
living, have done what is required OF
Jeffries IN the way of arduous training;
but it's fully as true that uncounted men
have gone straight to their graves because
they would do nothing of the kind.
As for the contest itself, once trained
down to his old, hard condition, the
chances are that a born boxer of the
Jeffries type will earn his great remune-
ration with all the Joy that inspires the
poet to sing with no more promising
guarantee than the reasonable certainty
that he will continue to starve in his attic.
Dukes Bridal Prize.
II was stated, when ]. B Duke, the
powerful magnate OF the tobacco trust, was
married to Mrs. Naraline Holt Inman, in
1907. that he settled on her. in her own
right, the round sum of 1900. 600. her safe
and sure reward apart from the enjoyment
Of the $50, 900, 900 which she shares with him,
lOE NOuClsdllhB ~ ms SoSVA inns
the same word for which Jeffries gets but
$50, 000-"Yes."
Whatever the prizes that fall to enter
prise, daring and strength, the history of
that little consenting word would seem to
emphasize the constant repetition OF the
triumphs OF Hercules all flung, for the
sake Of her gracious nod, at the feet OF
Omphale.
The price OF n million dollars a word,
paid by Magnate Duke for his second
wife's consent to their marriage, repre-
scented perfectly the enormous valuation
whic has often been put upon the word of
a beautiful woman, for beautiful Mrs, In
man was a belle of Georgia, and famed
throughout the south; and it represented,
TOO, the lavishness with which the modern
Hercules OF enterprise is ready to pay the
price for whatever his heart desires.
The Duke fortune. which began when
the civil war ended, with 800 poverty
stricken acres in North Carolina, 80 cents
in Yankee money and a pair Of blind mules
was the outcome of the same strength. the
same daring, the same shrewdness and the
same energy which have scored correspond.
ling triumphs in other fields. The million
that was paid Mrs. Inman was dearly