The Detroit times., 1916-10-09
ny on. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1915. BY Frank Cenne)
Who reads continucd stories? ?


they printed? But have lived for
hundred years more or tess, and gone TO
and fro in my peregrinauons among all
sorts and conditions of men not 20 men
nun women and children. and up till this
present point of time in the year Of our
Lord have never chunced to meet with
"a human being, married or single. white
or black, In or out of the asylum who
reads the doggoue things and likes them.
or course ] read them, sometimes, and
speaking i'm an accommodated sense Of
the word That Is, / have upon occasions
begun yarn and pursued il up and down
the back pages of the magazine where it
meaudered through The advertising mat
ter, bat | did So under the impression
that | WAS going % ~ee how 1t all came
out and when I ran up against "To be
continued ! felt as if some one had in
g.tai nae into the house and then slam
med the door in my face
! don't want To accuse editors Of viii
tally svindhng bat one vi them who will
print continued story is not above sus-
n.c.un Why do they hare us ON and on.
and got us all worked up over the plots
af the refarious Lord Edward. and just
as the hero Is about 10 pot MIN with a
aum-6um -"To tccoutuued," II is vile.
The magazine man who viii do that
.U.y laos like man, and out~ardIy may
ae fair seeming and church going, but
within his heart be is-but let US not
%. harsh. Suffice It 20 say IL is open 20
question whether he has real bowels,
where mercy is supposed TO dwell
The continued story is presumably pub
U'nrd in order 20 ge' people interested
81. that they will BUY the next issue. But
. / venture 10 say that il, is only the de-
rrye3 mind that viii allow itself TO be
fooled By such leading
The only way 10 manage when You see
p Story that you just have 20 read, a new
-r--r trs.- t.ttaH Doyle. for instance is to
awe up all the successive copies until the
|fa.a is finished then YOU can go through
3, all without a break.
F,r. i'm the language Of the noted
. w -.tLtr 4F|NtI d..t''' it't.t|t' ~ NHNH
|raaa.r that can't be read plum through
II. one l,tin''
And !. was the Same W Jones who re-
marked. and I ann with aim. chat by
lasca, any feicr I'd print one % them TO
be continued stories had 0rt 10 Uu Jerked
|gp and fined
VIVA, kind Of q mind is il, anyway,
that can enjoy just "a ittle dab ot q
tory, and then in month another dab,
and $50 on. uaucsty.i don't believe there
Iare any such I believe that its simply
/ q superstition Of the editors Office
There are such superstitons Some
body once said perhaps that if you would
jritbIe the yarn along piece by piece YOU
would get the public excited over how it
,I. was coming out So some editor tried
Ijt. Others foIIowed-thcn the whole
Ihcrd, like sheep after the bel-wethen
Nobody likes continued stories. Every
body thinks everybody else likes them.
/ So there you are Behold the thin basis
/ of nothing upon which this nefarious Gus
/ tom restsl
It's bad enough these days, 70 start
story on the front page, and 1T .he bot
tom Of the page, just as the duchess is
about TO plunge a dagger in Sir Vivian,
4 10 be told Continued on page IT; then
to dig around among advertisements Of
tooth paste, suspenders, axle grease and
nerve tonic until you find the lost thread;
/ then TO continue one column more. and
at the critical moment when Bertha tho
Sewing Machine Girl is about to yield to
! the glitter and the glare Of Raymond
/ VandergiIt, with his crool smile and his
twin six automobile, TO be further told
"Continued on third page following;"
then to 20 on again just northeast of the
toilet powder display, and so on and so
ion, but at last, when you have pursued
Ithe galvanting dramatis personae up and
down the alleys Of advertising till you've
got compound strabismus Of the optics,
20 run slap up against the sign sold
again! To be continued in our next
that, O Catiline. is the limit. "Quousque
tandem abutere patjcntia nostra?" or