The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-07

corrected comma. semicolon and ex-
e,amation point seems to pronounce
my work almost done l sit back with
feeling of rest we'll earned and await
the arrival of the page proofing-that
is, long strips of paper like the hrst
galley proof but spaced to show the
| length of the books pages and num-
bered In spite of my experience with
six predecessors, don't feel very
much alarmed about this new task;
but we godsl the printer with his anX-
iety to be helpful and improve things
has repunctuated pages of my care
fully thought out and Ito mel perfect
sentencesi But that is not the worst
there not being the exact number
OF words necessary to fill out each
page down to the margin the dear
publisher himself has appended little
directions such as these: Please take
, out seven words OF two sy11ables eacn
| from page A. and kindly add Is words
| TO the last line of page Az etc. etc
Desperately l thi4k of the young
musical student who. Just before her
| first concert, asked what she must
I do il she forgot the words to her sons.
Add tum- tum- tee -tum- tum,' her teach
| err advised, and let it go at that When
/ this budding Galli-Curci got up to give
her first number sure enough she did
| forget her words. But with wonderful
po:se, dramatically throwing her head
hack, she carolled sweetly. And he
! wore wreath OF roses round his
| tum- tum!' Some day I'm going to use
that method in the filling out of book
| Eages and see what happens
| The correcting of the page PROBING
ends the agonies of physical publication
| for the author, and all she can now do
| is to get SO immersed in writing another
book that she won't mind what the crit
les says about her. Critics are like Old
maids who have infallble knowledge OF
how to bring UP children-they seldom
do creative writing themselves. but they
certainly can tell an author how she
ought not to have written
Mercy me. what long letter have
babbled off to you, And still / haven't
answered lot of your most important
questions-hrst questions, too, for, in
spite of being blond. / guess must have
Chinese blood in my veins. as I always
start backward Chat sounds Irish
though, doesn't IT'D so I'll answer your
letters last questions first. But my idea
in writing THE Imprisoned Freeman" is
merely trying to do in my small way
what Dickens and Reade did in their
mastery way. / was shown through 8
number of prisons-and what | hearC
and saw there made me more deter
mined than ever to enGeavor to write
| about present-day prison conditions, jus
as Reade wrote of former conditions il
his It's Never Too Late to Mend
only hope ! have succeeded OF course
as | said, my book is novel. but Their,
is underlying its exciting plot the seri
Gus thought of which / have told you
the desire to help better the condition.
for a class that needs to be educated
into honesty and right living. In orde
to do this, our corrective institution
must be run along educational lines.
} IAN adequate prison should have gen
erai receiving station in charge of al
efficient medical surgical and physio
logical specialists to examine and elias
. sify incoming men. After classification
t these men should be sent to brancl
l prisons where the maximum of efflcienc
8 at a minimum expenditure of time an
: Improbable labor shall be produced. 70
: | the physical sick one branch should b
a cooperative form. where, becomin
: physically built up, the good in then
, will become revived. For those VIII
e have a trade or profession, there Shout
e be places in which both could be prac
: tced For those who have no trade Their