The Topeka state journal., 1916-04-15

Il
Piano Students of Topeka.
and she is able to create variety in
her work. She has latent power as a
performer, which, when it is further
developed, will place her in line with
the creditable number of good pianists
of Topeka
The Kansas Authors club had its
twelfth annual banquet Friday night
at the Y. w. c. A. The club contin-
ues to grow, and has an increased
number at its parties from year to
year. Officers for the new year were
elected as follows: Mr.. w. Y. Nor
gan of Hutchinson, lieutenant-govern-
or of Kansas, and editor of the Hutch
inson News, is president for next
year; Mr.. George Morehouse, secCe-
taryi Mrs. B. B. Smyth, treasurer;
Mr.. w. E. Connelley, critic. The dis
trict vice presidents are: Justice John
Dawson, First district; Mr.. Willard
Wattles of Lawrence, Second district;
Mrs. Jennie C. Graves of Pittsburg,
Third district; Miss Anna E. Arnold,
Prof. ]. w. Searsop of Manhattan,
Sixth; Mrs. Eva Morley Murphy of
Goodland, Seventh; Mr.. c. NJ. Ware
of Wellington, Eighth. Department
leaders will be appointed by the ex-
ecutive board.
III the absence OF InS president, MT.
F. S. Woolard of Wichita Mrs. May
Belleville Brown of Salina presided
Mrs. Brown made a brief address, ex-
planning the necessity of adapting one
self to the changing styles in litera-
ture. The passing of the historical
romance found Mrs. Brown with doz-
ems of stories unmarketable; the style
that did away with cowboy stories left
her again in the same plight. There
are a good many six dollar a week
story readers in the publishing housNs,
and few stories actually reach the edi-
tor. l have sent a story as many as
four times TO a magazine before it got
to the editor, whom 1 knew would ac-
cept it, because it was the thing his
paper needed, and 1 knew it. The GER
tain test of the value of what you have
written is that it is printed and paid
for"
Mrs. Emma Upton Vaughn of Kan
sas City, who has written a good many
successful short stories and some nov-
els, the latest of which is THE Cresep
Pension" gave a reading of one of her
poems. Where Shall Be Next Christ
mas?" and also one of her short
stories.
Miss Margaret Perkins of Hutchin-
son, whose best known work is a vol
ume entitled The Love Letters of a
Norman Princess" was one of the
speakers. She has written a masque,
"A Shakesperian Fantasy" which is
to be staged by Gilmore Brown in
Shakespeare centenary Miss Perkins
read the playlet at the banquet. 1t is
written in archaic style, and possesses
a great deal of poetic charm.
Prof. C. L. Williams of Hoxie re-
sponded to a toast, Something Poeti-
cal From the Northwest and Mr.. J.
E. Hilkey of Lyndon, a young Kansas
verse writer, gave two of his poems.
1.-The Watermelon Patch and "The
Heart That's Never Old"
Mr.. Charles Harger of Abilene, a
prominent newspaper man of Kansas,
That Counts" Ee gave a word of en-
couragement to the small writer-the
one whose lines sometimes reach no
further than the boundary of his owr
county, such as the writer's for the
small newspapers. Others" he said
and still another class write for a ma
tional audience. In that class we
place some Kansas people, William AL
len White, Ed Howe, Mrs. Margaret
Hill McCarter. Mrs. MAJ Belleville
Brown. Walt Mason. Among the few
Rudyard Kipling, Mrs. Humphrey
Ward, Mark Twain. The work that
counts is the work that is done well
for the group of people it reaches.
The undertaking days are past. and
the writers of today are doing con-
structive work Criticism must be
helpful to be useful. The magazines
are the literature of the masses. and
such is the taste of a large. share of
the ma gazine reading public that 1t is
not always a sure sign of merit to have
found market with some of our most
widely read journals"
Mrs. Margaret Hill M.Carter was
called upon for a short address She
emphasized the necessity of industry
and perseverance for those who would
write The typical American litera-
ture of the future she said. will
have TO come from the middle west
The Atlantic seatoard is imbued with
European ideals: the western coast is
deeply tinged with Orientalism, but
the middle states are most truly Amer
iCan- Great men in every line come