Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-05-09
FIVE

Last week I promised a list of the
Five-Fifteen girls, so I did get out
my pencil and write it out. Perhaps
you will all be as surprised as 1 was
Ito e how many there are of us. 1
have made the list in the order of
the girls appearance in the column
Ruth
Peg
Betty Ono. IL
Martha S. (Mabel)
B. X. w.
Ted
NJ. L. G.
Betty Matawan
Betty b.
Gladys
Molly-o
Muriel NJ.
Marion c.
Billy
Margie
Henriette
Gretchen of Metuchen
Muriel Ms big sister
(Helen M
Melody
Annielove
Patricia
Shorty
Slim
Aileen
Gussie
JeritZa
That's a real circle, girls, and we
don't want to lose a single one, be-
cause the loss of any girl from our
Five-Fifteen breaks the circle. Each
girl, with her w little individual
peculiarities, adds something to the
circle that no one else ear substi-
tute.
But I don't want any of you to be
too busy" to meet with us. You
who have been neglecting the col
umn lately must come back again,
You may always be sure of a well
come.
Dear Mary G.
/ would like to be a member OF
your teaparty. l sent you a letter
last week that I had a story 1 wish.
ed to be published under the name
of Gussie. Goodbye. Hoping yor
will find my story satisfactory.
GUSSIE.
Here is her story:
The Man That Deserted His FamiI,
One afternoon as 1 was taking &
walk a little ragged dressed boy
came over to me and asked if J
wanted to buy a paper from him.
asked him why he was selling paper;
when he should have been in school
He answered my mother is sick anC
my little brother is dying of stArva'
ton. I asked him where his father
was he said my father deserted us s
years 6 and since then we ar,
hardly making a living. Then 1 saic
boy, will you take me to your home
The boy answered of course I will
as soon as | sell my 5 papers. How
much would you get for those five
papers | asked. He said Is cents
l instantly gave him the Is cents
and we were walking and walking
till finally he stopped before an old
tenement house. He said sir. this is
my home. Then we walked up the
stairs. I looked about me and
saw the woodwork was all marked
up and worn out. Then we reached
the apartment where he lived. He
knocked OF the door and a low
feeble voice answered Come in
The voice was a familiar one. JUS
then a thought slipped into my mind
My wife, my children, oh. God how
could l have deserted them. Wher
we stepped into the house my wifi
looked up at me and screamed out
John my husband John. Where have
you been all these dark 8 years.
Forgive me my wife 1 did not
know you weren't provided for. And
| since then o can be sure my boy
wasn't selling papers or starving
either. For We all were happy to-
gether.
Gussle, I want to scold you a little
bit. Evidently you want to write,
That's a good desire. The most i'm
portant requirement for writing is to
HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. II
you haven't anything that is of real
human interest, don't take an old
WORKOUT idea that was never any
thing but sentimental slush anyway
and send it in to any publisher. Use
| only fresh material,-if it has hap
pened to you it is fresh, because you
can make real to another what is
real to you.
1 believe. Gussie, that you wrote
your story very carelessly. Do you
know why I think so? Because you
did use quotations marks once, and
used them correctly. That shows
you know how to use them, and
that you were careless when you
left them out.
You know too that a change OF
thought and the conversation of each
new person demands a new para
graph. But you didn't paragraph.
Your story was lazily planned and
lazily written. The unfortunate
part of it is that you could have
written a good story if you had real
ly worked on 1t.
Now. I want you to think aboutsn't
this, and see if there isn't something
interesting right out of your window
that you could write about so truth
fully that you can make all of our
Five-Fifteen circle see It and be Cd
that you told us about it. Don't
strange looking people sometimes
pass? I don't mean that you are to
get up some fanciful combination of