Connecticut western news., 1909-06-03
THE REJECTED STORY
By MAUD MACMILLAN.
1909, by Associated Literary
 Press I

<AHSSSAehNSN Press.l
 l Some young ladies decide to become literary only after having given the matter as much as half a days serious thought, but Miss Nina Harper saved eleven and a half hours by deciding within thirty minutes after reading a certain sketch of Ouida's. | As soon as pen and ink and paper could be procured she began work on a story, and before sunset on the same day it was finished and sent off to the waiting editor of q magazine. Like Ouida, Miss Nina didn't start out to write for money. Her widowed mother had been left a fair comrc- tence. Like Ouida, she had a sudden desire to uplift sentiment and improve the social status of the world arou~G her. Like Ouida again, she had thoughts and she wanted the millions to share those thoughts with her and profit by them.
 This. in q way. was praiseworthy in a girl of twenty who had half dozen admirers and nothing to do but to a entertaining and handsome and wait | for the right man to touch her heart. Unfortunately for her. the various pub fishers didn't share in her object or enthusiasm. They were out for the dollar instead of sentiment. or for the sentiment that brought in the dollars. TI,~ thanks
 If that greedy publisher chuckled over the idea that he had nipped a literary career in the bud by sending back that manuscript he was very much mistaken. Some young ladies would have stopped right there and turned to crochet work, but Miss Nina didn't belong to that bunch. She shut her lips tightly and determined not to be killed off. At the same time she determined to kill that editor if ever opportunity offered.
 In this determination she was backed and encouraged by Fred Waterman, one of her admirers, to whom she showed the manuscript and related how 1t had been chucked back at her as if it had been copy for a family almanac. Fred was a lisper in his speech, but that only made his voice more tender as he said:
 Miss Harper, take my word for. 1t that you have gone beyond Ouida even in your first attempt! It is glorious! It Is grand! It Is ennobling! I feel the better man for having heard 1t read"
 But they didn't publish itg' pro- tested the girl.
 "I see, but 1t was too high class, don't you know. It's beyond the edi- tor. He isn't up to the sentiment of it."
 This declaration modified Miss Nina, and she selected another publication and another editor MT. Waterman's generous offer to call on and punch the head of the first editor was de- clined on the ground that the said edi- tor might already have regretted his haste in returning the manuscript
 The story came back from the sec ond publication just as a request for charity would have been returned mot just what we are looking for" It hurt and humiliated, but it did not quench. Ouida's first delicious little sketches went begging. Miss Nina shed one tear, doubled up her fists and consulted MT. Horace Elkins. MT. Elkins was another admirer, though he didn't lisp. He had on many occasions written the menu cards for entertainments and there fore was admired as a literary man. He read the manuscript with the ut most care, looked at the back of each page as he laid it down and then an nounced his solemn verdict:
 "My dear Miss Harper, it Is grand! It is q gem! Indeed, the only fault possible to be found is that it is too gemmy. The modern magazine editor is not up to 1t. It is as far beyond | him as Shakespeare Is beyond the av- craze farmers hired man. For no other reason was 1t returned to you. What! A gem like this crowded among the mawkish love stories in which the heroines cannot talk ten words without making a grammatical blunder! Heaven forbidr'
 But if they won't publish it how can I get it before the people?" asked the author, with anxiety in her tones
 "I could call on those editors and call them ignoramuses and scoundrels. I could prove to them that they were suppressing the brightest and most charming thoughts of the century"
 But that would anger them"
 MT. Elkins picked up the manuscript and carefully studied the backs of the pages again and then sighed and raised his eyes to heaven. He didn't say so in so many words, but his at titude plainly betokened that he was | out of 1t.
 Two days elapsed and then the story was sent away again. There surely must be one editor in the country who l could rise to the sentiment of it. Tn due time which was about a week, it came back for the third time. There