Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1917-07-24
T h e u ailv
Short Story
THE RESULTS OF 4 BLUNDER.
BY Edward Stewart.

As tn LtAtA
II am dreadfully sorry. my dear
young lady. It could not be helped"
II have been counting on this story
/ TO give me a literary reputation You
! have ruined all those hopes
This was ridiculous. The story vas
below the average
The truth is that Howkins the sdi-
/ tor and proprietor Of the magazine had
no business to go away and leave me.
/ scatter Drained youngster iu full
( control I had hosts Of friends and
my mind was absorbed with youthful
pleasures. AS to my work al the edi-
toriaI rooms, HOwkins had arranged
everything before his departure so
+ that there was nothing 70 do hu- fake
/ the copy for the next Issue ont O. his
/ desk and send it to the composing
room Among other copy I sent Up a.
story called What's It All About by
/ Miss Mildred Eaton. ] was locking
Imy desk one Friday afternoon prepar-
atOry TO going into the country till che
/ following Tuesday when a messaEe
came down from the composing room
THAT the story What's Tt All About
was incomplete. I called for the copy
and found the last two chapters miss
+ ing
Here was pretty kettle Of isa.
+ ransacked the Office without success
sent for the author and was informed
that she had gone on trip. mo one
knew where. What was I 10 do? Give
Eup nav outing to search for q needle
+ in havstack? Not I. My resolution
was taken It was then 2 o'clock BY
I 4 Z could skim the manuscript hE I
cegld write the last chapters and be
fready for the O'Clock train instead
Of the o'clock. as Z had intended
Had I taken more time and put my
mind on my work instead OF dwelling
on the outing ] was to have. afraid all
the WAiIe that I would miss the train
the last till the next morning might
have done fairly we'll AS ii was !
made a frightful mess of the Job
mistoOk the hero for the villain and
brought the story TO close by putt
ting in his mouth a high flown. Virtu-
Gus eDunciatiOn. The heroine I made
to take a back seat, but fortunately on
the same bench with the hero. ] fin
fshed the work at half past s. gave 1t
To a composing room messenger who
was waiting for it, and made a dash
for the train
Well, 1he story came out, and with
ii came the author. pretty girl of 90.
+ who sought nee in my Office with tears
in her eyes. Had she stoFmed ( could
have stood up against her manfullv.
AS it was, I could only pretend 10
weep, not ait the position my blunder
had placed me, but that I should have
ruined her hopes of literary fame
told her that I seriously medit8ted
drowning myself Since 7 made the
threat with my head buried In my
arms. both head and arms resting 0n
/ my desk my whole body shaking COM
/ vulsively, she feared I would carry it
out When she raised my face with
her own soft hands and I looked into
her tear-dimmed but f0rgiving eyes
I was filed with shame.
"Afv dear Miss Eaton" I sobhed,
"Iet ms hope that ont Of this misfor-
tune may come some reparatiou for
you, which, taken at the food viii lead
to fortune I am one of those fellows
whose lives are a chain of lucky and
unluckv incidents I am constantly
meeting with misfortune own
fault. I dare say-but I always come
out ahead iu the game Write new
story and I will use all my influence
with Mr.. Howki0s to have it published
as special feature Now tell me
that YOU forgive me
She pat out her hand, smiling Trough
her tears. and went away
When the first batch Of criticisms for
the number Of the magazine came tn 7
braced myself 10 bear the references to
the story I had ruined as one about 70
be executed nerves himself for the orr
deaf With the first I caught saint
CLEAN Of hope Here it is.
The story by Miss Eaton Whats +
All About, is judging from its name,
what it is doubtless intended to 5e-a
puzzle What principles are covered
under the strange ending probably
only students of the iutrospectiye
school vii be able 10 explain saH5fa0-
toTily. I'm this respect the story VIII
excite great interest
The next was evidently a criticism
by some critic who was possibly hurry
ing. as had done, 10 the country and
had only skinned the early part ot
the story, for he pronounced the end
ing just as might have been expected
in this inferior class of work. The
third spoke of the pleasant style lh
which What's 1t All About was
wrirteu-an easy way OF criti-lssug
story the critic is too BUSY to read
Seven critics gave Hypothetical aE-
plantations Of the mystery attending
the closing chapters In fGe whole
batch of criticisms there was not one
which indicated that the story had
/ been slaughtered hy q gracele5s scamp
in q hurry TO get away on pleasure
trip.
Ia view Of the attention these crit
icIsms called 70 the story tha author
found no difficulty la securing q pub
Usher for if i'm book form IL was corr
sidered too deep to have large sale
except among critical analytical phil
osophicaI and skepticaf people. but t.
made a name for the author. and she
has made q fortune
suppose I should have had me
: modesty to consider myself well out
of a bad scrape and acknow edge nay
fault. To HOwkius I did 80 Miss "a
ton ] did not / threw out hint t1at
seeing the story as she had written II
was doomed 10 failure I had cOucoctea
a scheme 10 make fl q success ana
make her famous Her gratitude gave
me not only her for q wife, bat tHe
management Of her fortune
III D1f1-, H3ef~,4~1, Clrae /