New-York tribune., 1919-06-15
= AN short story reading be re-
duced to formula? Many ex-
- perts are willing to tell us

fut HeVci has any OHS COlu llOW all
average citizen may keep abreast of
the veritable machine gun fire of
vest pocket classics. Thomas l..
Mason, perceiving the breach, has
galloped to fill it, with what results
the reader may judge.
In "Reedy.s Mirror" he declares
that short story reading may be re-
duced to an art, and since it is neces-
sary that people read short stories,
"else the magazines might perish
and the struggling families of ris-
ing authors incontinently starve," he
projects his own system:
Il once employed lady to read all
the short stories in the magazines and
let me know the best ones. At the
funeral l was deeply moved by her
courage and tenacity to the bitter end.
She had been she'll shocked by The
Saturday Evening Post domesticated
by The Womans Home Companion,
eficiencized by The American, gassed
by The Red Book shrapnelled by
The Smart Set devitalized by Vanity
Fair denuded by 'Snappy Stories,'
culturized by 'Harper's' and 'Scribner's'
and highbrowed by The Atlantic
Yet she kept on unwaveringly, making
the supreme sacrifice without literary
culver Her mind was gone, but her
spirit lived.
"Determned that no more lives
should be lost if l could help it, l
took the burden upon myself, but ap-
preached the field of battle warily,
making up my mind that l would sell
myself as dearly as possible.
81 first essayed to read the begin
ming and the end Of each s.ory. There
appeared to be an Advantage to this
method, until discovered that I could
save time by reading the beginning
only, as from this could usually
gather what the end would be.
found, however. that I was missing
something. because most of the stories
are so cleverly written nowadays that
the plot is submerged in the style and
it makes small difference what the
story is about so long as one gets the
atmosphere. SO l struggled to get the
atmosphere and carry it away with me.
The question then became one of Sc
lecting the best section of the story in
order to get the most atmosphere to
the square inch. This requires some
practice, because some writer's put all
their atmosphere in the beginning, and
if you take running start and jump
over that, you are lost in the plot. The
names also bothered me. In the course
OF one months issues there we're hun
dreds of them. I am informed that
this is the greatest strain on the au-
thors-to secure names. Whole city
directories and telephone books are
used for the purpose, and short story
writer without one of these dog's-eared
first aids around the house is like an
advertising poet without rhyming die
tionary.
ut is obvious that something must
be done about this. Why not take an
idea from the navy and dub the char
ecters as they do submarines? Thus:
LBS raised ner face to B-44 in an agony
of indecision. "Q17," she moaned,
has killed my pollyairna for you."'
This would release a lot Of energy and
enable about one-half as many more
stories to be typed.
"In striving for atmosphere in this
h!dnher, however, | found that | was
getting the sections mixed up, so that
II any one asked me if | had read a
certain story in The Saturday Even
ing Post | would refer to something
mat had read in 'Harper's' or The
Pictorial Review | therefore suggest
In the interest of economy for the
reader, as we'll as sclf-respect, that
each magazine make speciality Of one
atmosphere. meeting Of magazine
editors could be held for this purnosc
and gensser,-n's agreement reached
IN TINS important matter"
Even tl'-s formula was defective
for Mr.. Ma-son found that he was
running behind. II got so far he.
hind that was reading the short
stories in magazines in the same
month they We're dated" Then he
almost decided to give up the no.
ton Of keeping upon the heels of
the short fiction market, but
AT this despairing moment was met
ny gentleman named O'Brien. who
reads all the short stories published