The San Francisco call., 1910-10-30


usually evidence she is unmarried. a
love story is a live bait cast into the
shallow waters of susceptibility sure to
catch from one to half a dozen notes
of varying import. Furthermore, If
the signature has a tang of youth and
style. Gwendolen Armstrong or Dorothy
Pembroke. a subconscious conviction
created in the readers mind is that the
writer is not only single. but young.
And we assume that in this day and
generation no one whose work has been
recognized uses pen name.
Given these conditions, if the mas
culine reader IS impressed with the
story he is pretty sure to read the
writer's personality into it. If the
story vivisects the soul OF some bright
eyed young thing with curly hair who
dares and suffers for the man she loves,
the nature Of the notes that drift in
TO the writer sent through the pub
fisher, viii be intensely personal One
note written in q fine. free hand on
Waldorf Astoria paper apropos of Just
this sort Of story runs with the most
charming frankness:
Dear Miss : I have just put
down your story TIL Death Shall Us
Part 1t Is simply great. Do you
draw your characters from real life.
and did you ever know q girl who
would do as much for a fellow this
girl did? If so. would cross the con-
tinent at a moments notice to meet
her I am so sick of all this d=n
sham OF knowing people only on the
surface"
Another note inspired by the same
story is from a more exacting soul:
Dear Miss Did you write
&c ao-r re
Excuse me for seeming to be personal,
but I would like 70 know If you were
ever placed IN that same predicament
yourself. II the man had not come
TO his senses when he did, DO you
suppose that girl would have gone on
waiting without losing her cheerful
ness? Would you have done the same
for a fellow? VIII you let me cor
respond with you? incIose stamped
envelope, and hope to hear from you
soon"
The fiction writer is regarded. while
the spell OF the story is on the reader,
as the real creator OF these story peo-
pie, holding their destiny in the hollow
Of his hand and dealing out mercy or
vengeance as the case requires.
Another missive. a ring OF sincerity
in every word runs:
Dear Miss -: I have read your
story. Marianne twice without stop
ping. Now. that's the girl have been
looking for all my life. But you can't
get to know a girl well enough, some
how, to tell whether she would make
p good wife or not Now. what would
you have done IN that same case? I
don't see how you could know so much
about the matter IL you were not the
same kind OF a girl Are you married
or single? Do you believe in the i'm
mortality OF the soul7 I hope you will
answer this letter in as good faith as
] have written st." adding as an after
thought the postscript, II own a farm
in South Dakota"
II know. this is the story of your
own life from the way you write IT."
argues sympathetic soul on a plumb
ing and gas fitting letterhead IT had
something like the same experience
when I was little more than a kid
working as apprentice IN Cheyenne. It
Is a pretty tough pull I know, but I
Just want to tell you that you will get
over IL in time. ] am over It now en-
tirely and never think Of that freckle
faced girl without am reminded of 1t
by something like this That's why I
say to you you will get over this. too"
But before signing his name he sug-
gests the possibility Of following up
this acQuatntance on the ground that
he enjoys the society of literary
ladies'"
The recipient Of a note of this sort
must always keep in mind, however,
that before IT has reached her desk the
ardor OF the sender has probably cooled
and he is cursing his pigheadedness for
having written it. Consequently IL she
answered such notes in the vein in
which they are written her reply would
fall upon stony ground. The safest