Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1926-05-22
He Was a Budding
Genius
(Copyright.)
By JANE OSBORN

|
or no job, she could no longer endure
/ working side by side with Mr.. Jeffery
SnOdgrass.
1T seems, to me-" said Mr.. Snod-
grass. idling with his flexible gold
watch chain, that in the mass Of
manuscript you look over every week,
there must be somewhere the seeds of
a budding genius"
but do find something every once
in WHILE" protested Maude. She
would much rather have stood up and
told Mr.. Snodgrass that he could take
her job and give it to some one who
had better fiction sense than she had.
That afternoon when he went to the
suburbs to play golf. instead of trying
to work through the endless manu-
scripts that were brought to her from
the mail room, she began to look
through her desk.
| There was a manuscript, written on
cheap manila paper, with one of those
old-time typewriters that hid the
words you wrote. 1t was obviously
written by beginner. Maude recalled
The tall, very lean, almost ferocious
young man who had come into her
roomA pushed back the boy in the
outer Nffice, had insisted that he must
see the fellow that selected the
stories" He had been surprised when
he saw that "the fellow" was slip
of girl, then not more than twenty
two. That was three years ago. when
she had not been working with Snod-
grass very long. Actually he had
looked hungry as he tossed his manu-
script down on her desk and had told
her that he was so sure he could
write that he felt he would be in the
right to force an editor to buy. It
wasn't his cocksureness that had made
fact that she really thought he looked
hungry.
OF course she knew the manuscript
was worthless, but she bought it
made out fake pay slip for it, walked
down the hall, where she took thirty
dollars from her own freshly paid pay
envelOpe-about all there was in it
had been to the cashiers.
Well, here was the manuscript. 1t
was signed John Davis. It had cost
her thirty dollars. She had read 1t
before; and finding it, as she thought,
unutterably foolish, had passed it on
to Mr.. Snodgrass, hoping somehow
that he would find something worth
while in it and would decide to buy
1t. OF course she did not tell him
that she had bought it already. But
Mr.. Snodgrass did not decide to buy
it in fact. he told his assistant that
If she wasted his time again recon-
mending for his perusal such bit Of
utter twaddle as that he would have
to get another assistant.
Still, since she was determined to
leave, she decided to try her luck
with the story again. She read it
and concluded that, though it was a
wild and foolish story, it was written
in style distinctly original, and
showed an amazing nOnconformity to
the rules of most story writer's. It
might therefore appeal to Mr.. Snod-
grass as distinctly modern" She
typed 1t on expensive paper without
changing single word or punctua-
ton mark. The next morning, before
saying anything about leaving, she
showed the manuscript to him, init
mating that it had just been received.
Evidently he had forgotten the manu-
script entirely, for early that after
noon he told Maude that the story
was amazing" and showed earmarks
of genius. Its the sort of thing
that Chester Bawdish is writing" he
said. "Just put a voucher through
to the cashier. Wen pay five hun
dred for that"
But Maude had not the slightest
way of finding the whereabouts of the
author, and knew only that his name,
or assumed name, was John Davis.
She simply told Mr.. Snodgrass that
the manuscript had come with no ad-
dress, and awaited developments, say
ing nothing for the time being con-
corning her own intention of quitting
her job. So it was decided to publish
this amazing story with a great splash
as the manuscript of an unknown
genius, unpaid for because said
genius had failed to leave his ad-
dress. For days after the issue of
Turner's Magazine this story was the
talk of reviewers.
Then one day the illustrious Ches-
ter Bawdish blew into the editorial
Offices, rushing by the reception clerk
in the outer office. Mr.. Snodgrass
was overcome with this honor, and
then sat in mute amazement as Mr..
Bawdish stood excitedly before Maude
Dale's desk.
'"That's my story" he said eagerly,
''and you are the girl I've been look
ing for all these years.
There were explanations, and the
successful writer explained more
leisurely that at the time Of his first
visit he had actually been starving.
He'd tried to sell the story in every
magazine office in town, but the edi-
tors wouldn't even see him. Later,
when he found success in Such gem