The Washington herald., 1915-09-10
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A PREMIUM ON BREVITY.
BY ORIsON SWEET MARDEN

A well-known New York publication
has opened it's pages to a prize short
story contest which prescribes some
unique conditions. One of these is
that authors shall be paid for the
number of words they do not write
This is. any story found acceptab BILE
regardless of whether it wins a prize
or not. will be used in the magazine
and paid for at the rate of 10 cents
a word for every word less than tire
limited number-fifteen hundred-into
which the writer has managed to con-
dense his story.
This is the day of condensation, of
essences. when everything must be
reduced to its lowest terms.
The slogan in all our great news
paper offices is Boil it down" An edi-
tors most difficult problem is to get
writers to boil down. to concentrate
their ideas into the fewest possible
words consistent with clearness.
lucidity. Space is SO valuable that
some of our great dailies edit fifty to
seventy-five per cent out of their tele-
grams and cablegrams Not only space,
but also the readers time is valuable.
People in this rushing age do not want
to wade through mass of superfluiry.
no matter how fine the style. They
haven't the time.
introductions to the books of some or
our best authors used to contain fifty
or more pages. in addition to a long
drawn-out preface. Today some of our
greatest books have a one-page pref
ace and no introduction. Short cuts.
brevity. is in demand everywhere.
When I was a boy a great many
people made it a rule to read the
Bible through about once a year. Then
they would crowd churches and sit
hours through dry. tedious sermons.
Many a time in my boyhood I listen
ed to sermons an hour and a half and
sometimes two hours and half long.
Today people get restless under twen-
ty or twenty-five minutes sermons,
They want even their religion in tab
loid form. predigested.
The motto of the hour is Cut 1t
short" BE brief ITO the point"
Some of our large business houses
keep professional condensers. special
lists in cutting out superfiuous matter.
in concentrating thought, in reducing
advertisements. circulars, details of
transactions to the briefest possible
form. Mr.. Patterson. president of the
National Cash Register Company en-
ploys quite a number of experts who
will take. for example. a book whicn
contains some valuab BILE lessons for
his employees, and condense its three
hundred pages to half a dozen or so.
l have known him to ask condenser
to reset all the principal thoughts in
a three hundred page book in single
page.
An excess of any virtue may trans
form II into a vice. We all know that
this condensing line can be carried
too far. to such a ridiculous extent
that its very purpose is defeated. We
can condense our schooling. our prep
aration for life and spoil our careers:
We can skimp on our work. hurry up
on a task that requires the utmost
care and precision. and ruin II; we
can injure our health by bolting our
food, by not exercising properly. by
not taking a vacation. because we
must save time. In a thousand and
one ways we can condense and hurry
to our great injury, as we Americans
in too many instances do, but the ex-
amples of condensation and brevity
in business cited illustrate the ten
dency of this efficiency age.
1t is an age of brevity. directness-
Except in European diplomacy people
go directly to the point. without cir
or ambiguity. All round
aboutness. all indirection, all redun-
dancy. all unnecessary verbiage -
being cut out of our literature, just as
all unnecessary motions. all unneces-
sary processes are being cut out OF
business. Efficiency at the smallest
outlay of time and energy is the gen.
cral aim.
People will no longer tolerate the
old time methods Of travelling or doing
business. Brevity is the word every
where.
Copyright. 1875,