The citizen., 1914-03-27
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HINTS TO WRITER'S.

l
Be brief. This is the age of tele-
graphs and stenography
Be pointed. Don't write all around
subject without hitting it.
State facts, but don't stop to moralize.
| It's drowsy business. Let the reader,
do his own dreaming.
Avoid all high-flown language The
I plainest Anglo Saxon words are the best
Never use stills if legs will do as well.
Make your sentences short. Every
| period is milestone at which the reader
| may halt and rest himself.
Eschew prefaces. Plunge at once into
the subject like a swimmer into cold
water. If you have written sentence
which you think particularly fine, draw
you pen across it.
Condense. Make sure that you really
have an idea, and then record it in the
shortest possible terms. We waut
thoughts in squintessence.
When the article is complete, strike out
nine tenths of the adjectives. The Eng
lsh language is strong language, but
it won't stand too much reducing"
And last, but not least, write legibly.
Don't let your manuscript look like the
track Of spider half drowned in the ink.
4 K
Right here is the great secret of awk-
wardness. 1t is self-consciousness. A
girl who thinks about how she is going
to look when she extends her hand will
hold it out as stiff as a pump handle.
If she is worried about the appearance
of her walk she will stalk over the land
scape like wooden dummy. What
person does gracefully is done uncon-
sciously. So if person would learn
grace she must first learn how to do
things unconsciously and she can only
learn to do things unconsciously by do
ing them often.
HOW TO SPOIL.
To spoil steak-fry 1t.
To spoil farm-rent it.
To spoil your temper-fret.
To spoil tea or coffee-boil it.
To spoil custard-bake it too long.
To spoil your friends-hatter them.
To spoil an appetite-eat every halt an
hour
To spoil an opportunity-let it pass.
To spoil a home-hll it with family
jars"
To spoil inAuence-do one thing and
say another.
To spoil business-let others attend to
it.
To spoil good intentions never carry
them out.
To spoil an office-get above your bus
mess.
To spoil eggs-convert them into
'egg-nog."
To spoil time-retire late and sleep in
the morning.
To spoil house plants-water them too
much.
To spoil butter-do not work out all
OF the milk.
To spoil pancakes-bake them on
luke-warm griddle.
To spoil breakfast-grumble all of
the time that you are eating.
What is the good of spying holes in
peoples coats when we can't mend
them? Talk Of my debts if you mean
to pay them; if you do not keep your
red rag behind your ivory riGge. A
friends faults should not be advertised
and even strangers should not be
published. He who makes fool OF an
other is fool himself. Don't get into
the habit of laughing at other people,
for the old saying is: Hanging is
Stretching, and Mocking's Catching" "
testing is tooHapt to turn into jeering,
and what is meant to tickle makes
wound 1t is a pity when my mirth is
another mans misery. Before man
cracks joke he should consider how he
would like it himself; for many who give
rough blows have very thin skins. Give
only what you would be willing to take;
some men throw salt on others, but they
smart if pinch of it falls on their own
raw places. When they get Roland
for their Oliver, or tit for tat, they do
not like it, yet nothing is more just.
Biters deserve to be bitten.
If there is man who thinks that a
woman has an easy time OF it, why just
let him pin on pound of false hair and
get inside of a pair Of corsets and put
on a pull-back over skirt and be a
woman himself, and see how he likes it.
Oh, it is nice to look around you, and
to feel that you are king. that your COM
ing home at evening makes your joyous
subjects sing! So you read some twenty
chapters of old Gibbons dope on Rome,
and YOU know what human bliss is in
vour humble little home. There is