The Detroit times., 1916-05-24

Some time ago there was published y
article Of mine entitled 'The Age q Y
Brass" A young friend, who writes to
. living, has just sent me the following
letter. There are thousands Of youn1
writer's who are toilins in Greater Cruz
street who may perhaps profit by read \
ing It:
It'd like to answer that Age Of Brass
thing you wrote. For the past thrsa
months I have been working on the priulr
ciple that the Age of Brass is bunk no.
ton. made up my mind to cut out thf
hack work 80 far as possible, put the doll
lars just as far out of mind as COULD
and write my best. gave up my bi(]
room and moved my worldly goods int
New York hall bedroom, which fomeySel
ly had no distinction above being mI1
Office. Thus / saved myself about do4a|
lar day in rent. ! bought no new
clothes and kept patching the seats Of
my old ones. cut off all expenses thalsl
weren't absolutely necessary, seekinfJ
first the kingdom-and don't say THU
in jest, but in deadly earnest. had nt
audience now; my mother, you know
was the audience in the old days, and i
pleased her didn't care what the othl1
ers thought. The result was surprising
I've sold nearly thirty manuscripts, neari1
ly all of them written with entire disreI
gard for whether or not they were bread
winner bets; and as a writer ! nevef1
have been half so happy in all my hf4
1t seemed all matter of swallowing my
pride and taking the desperate plunge
! was losing interest in writing. but nov
I've got it back. Best of all, have alI
least one token that the quality is com
ing up-the other day landed one OF my
little essay paragraphs in no less mar
ket than Century!
II didn't pity myself on my hall bed
room discomforts for more than wee
or so. Pretty soon I got a sort Of sptl
itual exaltation out of the idea, and couI
tell every one what was doing and no
feel the least humiliation in it. You re
member Tom, the southern kid liked q
well. Toms been making lots of none
doing hack commercial art. When toll
him what was doing, the good side I
him Just naturally brimmed over. III
rot up and paced around the room, a.
wanted to know more and more. toll
Jim. and Jim began to spend little NOR
time on all his work and hire models OFT
erer instead of taking. Tom went to q
art exhibit on Fifth avenue YESTERDAY
and saw some work that one Of the for
lmer boobs of the class was producing
The boob had stuck to his guns an
worked on the things he loved to do, ~
stead of on the things that make an eas\
living, and the boob was doing thing
that made Tom restless as the dew
Before the years out you'll see Tom NOV
ing out of the Royal and taking littl
skylight studio in Brooklyn or farm
house in Woodstock. There's lot
your Age of Brass idea, but whos
lot more in the Age of Gold. Stevenson
said something when he observed:
1--WE are not cotton spinners all, On
at least, not all through. There is som
life in humanity yet, and youth will nov
II and again find brave word TO say IN dia
praise of riches, and throw up situation
to 20 strolling with knapsack. Aye,
even to go seeking the Age OF Gold
this the Age of Brass.
This is what you get for preaching
you nave 10 StanO Dy OnCe LII Willie otl1
hear upstairs preach back at you, eveI
from four-dollar-a-week hall bedroomd
Youths with patches in the seats Of thei
trousers, by heck! Youths who didn't q
to the Authors League dinner last nigh
because they figured that five dollar
means day and half's expenses dad
and half that can be spent in doing a
essay that may never sell to anybody, bu
will be as well knit as if it were some
thing ordered by the Atlantic Monthly.
Behold me, former acting managing
editor of Blanks Magazine with hi
name in Who's Who and paying an in
come taxi reduced now to hall bedroom
and rejoicing in It'll / used to run race
with my expenses and my pride. Now
make little, and spend little less; and
if met my pride on the street could
laugh at his embarrassment The mor(
study the problem the more convinced
am that all the folks who get along th(
easy way get nothing out of life but fat
ter pay checks. Whenever my income
threatens to run over $50 a month, !
finish that month by writing something
4 ,,caJ IN MT off hacauaa