The Washington herald., 1922-09-20
The Beautiful
And Damned
Continued from Yesterday.
BY F. Scott Fitzgerald.


library and for a week Investigated
the hles of a popular magazine.
Then. better equipped. he accom-
plished his first story, The Dicta-
phone of Fate" II was founded
upon one of his few remaining i'm
pressions of the six weeks in Wall
street the year before 1t purported
TO be the sunny side OF an office boy
who. quite by accident. hummed a
wonderful melody into the dicta-
phone The cylinder was discovered.
by the bOss's brother. a weIl-known
producer OF musical comedy. and
then Immediately lost. The body OF
the story was concerned with the
pursuit of the missing cylinder laI
the eventual marriage of the noble
Office hoy tnow a successful COM
pOser) to Miss Rooney. the virtuous
stenoSTapher. who was half Joan cf
Arc and half Florence Nightingale.
He had gathered that this was
what the magazines wanted. lie Of
Tered. in his protagonistS, the .us-
tCmary deuizenS Of the pink-and-
blue literary world. immerSinE
them in sacChsrine plot that would
offend not single stomach in Mari.
Clta. He had il typed in double
space-this last as advised by a
booklet, Success as Writer Male
Edsy." by Il. Me=Es widdlcsteia,
which assured the ambitious
plumber Of the futiIity Of pcrspira-
ton. since. after a siN-Ic>son course
he could make at least a thousand
dollars month.
After reading IL to a bored Gloria
and roaNinE from her the immemn-
rial remark that il was better than
a lot Of stuff that gets published"
he satiriCally affixed the nom dc
plume 'G;iIlCs dc Sadc." enclosed the
proper return envelope and sent it
of.
Following tho gigantic labor OF
conception. he decided to wait until
he heard from the first story befG..e
beginning another Dick had told
him that he might get as much as
$500. If by amy chance il did happen
to he unSuitcd the editors letter
would no doubt give him an idea OF
hat changes should he made.
1T is. without question. the mos;
s"ominabIc piece Of writing in cN-
'St'nce,' said Anthony.
The editor quite cuuceivably agreed
with him. lie returned the manu-
-s"ript with a rejection slip. ,n-
trUuy sent Il off elsewhere and LC-
ELn another story. The second was
Vas called The Little Opcu Doors:
II Wa written in three days IL con
''Tuvd IN" occult: an CStranEed
"-'rrr'ls were E~"u=Et together by d
medium i'm q vdud-riIl' show.
Their we're S.N altogether. IN
Nrri, he'd ard riiiabIs ,f'orts To-
IL. E., r...
r"Nsr-h hcf"I- mIu.. % Cuusi tent e.
Tort To Wit" At ali Me- one "r
fa'ur contained 4 shark cf vitality.
I'D their total yi.'d 81 grace md
i.Ii,.t. vas i~.. than that Of an
,.- rr2' rnv ~U..rrr e." uirr. bur
I.- fH'rr 'rr-uIa i'm ;hr. ""IIe,J, ;.
:-' t"l.i. tririy-"rls. rCic"jiun sIlrs
D.. a'.st"ucs for tine parks-cs that h.,
i@ rad Iy lu= Iikc dead bodies sI
o.. ""rr.
'- u'+-Jaurary Gr"rfs.s father
d .nI tH.. went dSs.n Il"
..r..-.e ''ir,--E ,ris cr:.hl, triP. for
'.'"r-. hru'osd irtcrmugLI,. not
.'''r Be- .th--s d,JtI. hrt On her
'".fI,r=- i.u>-cI GilTcrt.S affairs
iu- been .I,sr,d mp they came
sjr pcs .-- i.'u o. about three thou
.."d H''.Irs. and a great amount
O.. iJruijrTc. Th'- wd~ i'm stura-c.
FER %, hsG .Pruj hi ias, days in
" .surl i.j,i % Va dgc to hi.
',sth that Nu'h"uy mad" - new
'.I.'"E'-y rs-.r,rufu- Gloria. on
the journey F..i~t she disclosed her
.-.'. aston ~h.u-iy. a- q EiIphist.
Win GI",ia.' Gc cried. YOU
don't fa""u tr tell ~. y"U believe
tIat stunt"
-u'H." SO. aid d~nanriy. why
n.r'"'
~':.,a".~ y IL fantastic. Yov
la~.. that 30 every ~,..~- uC the
Md l"U.r. all a="a>tir. T"u'd
laugh 80 Iry uriE"tu. Torm of
'hrj-'rarHr. md then ."u come
out with tH' statement that You
i''.'.' Dog some silly rule Of rem
raruari"u."
What II do. w. heard y"u
"rd M.Url. and .,,~y one else for
Sc I'.-' intellect ns,. the slightest
~'.sD"r'. dGrc" tuSt life a> it dp-
.'"tr- IS utterly U,auiHEi. -. i.ut
..r always ~'CWcd G" m- that .
were unroUs,iuusIy icaruiu-
>"IUcrliuC here u mi-ht not he So
ur. ,uiuSIcss"
Your" not learning ANYTHING
."r.rc just =c'tiuG tired. Nud II
E"" must have q IA tH L" softc1
things. take mp ono that appca :
o." the reason Of som" one beside 4
lot uf hystcricaI women \ person
isc you ou~htu't :" accep: auv-
thuG unless its dcccntlv demon
strahIc."
"I don't care about truth ! want
s-ue happiness"
We'll II you've got decent
miro the second has got to be quail
i.t,d by the first. Any simple soul
can d"lude himself with mental
garbage"
don't care" she held out stout
w. and. whats more. I'm not pro-
pounding any doctrine"
The argument faded off. but re-
occurred to Anthony several times
thereafter. II was disturbing to
find this old belief. evidently as
simulated from her mother. insert
irS itself again under its immemO-
nal disguise as an innate idea
They reached New York in March
after an expensive and iII-advised
week spent in Hot Springs. and
Nuthcny resumed his abOrtive at
t"mpts at fiction. As it became
palmer to both Of them that escape
did not lie in the way of popular
literature. there was a further slip
ping OF their mutual confidence and
courage. \ complicated struggle
went on necessarily between them.
MI efforts to keep down expenses
died away from sheer inertia. and