Evening star., 1939-01-22
Rv NC. X.

IcdlllcS now. TOT, OH IcLuIHlIlR W
her desk, all fresh and renewed
again, with the depressing memory
of years best sellers wiped quite
away, she found, to her surprise, a
gratifying number of letters ex-
pressing regret that she was ar
ranging to leave The Star. 1t seems
that her statement about the vaca-
ton had been read to mean resig-.
nation.
Well, the reviewer can only say,
perish the thought! II she took her
departure from The Star she could,
no doubt, get a place on the Federal
Writer'S Project, and there is. Of
course, something maliciously salts
flying about the idea of being sup
ported from the taxes Of working
newspaper men and women, former
colleagues, instead of paying those
taxes in the simple, unromantic
fashion to which one has become &C
customed. But they do say that
the new Congress is going to be a
bit tough about remembering the
dear old Forgotten, and. too. the re-
viewer has a long-standing habit of
working pretty hard when she works
at all, so that she might not fit we'll
into the gentle, dreamy scheme of
the Projectors, welcome her tenderly
! though they certainly would. So she
reiterates, perish the thought! AS
long as The Star allows her, she will
remain, a very Barkis for being
willing.
Just the same, she is not sorry that
the misunderstanding arose, for the
glow she got from those above-men-
toned letters was something to re-
member a long time. One of them
came all the way from st. Augustine,
Fla. 1t was from Mrs. Katherine S.
Lawson, who describes herself as
1.-The senior neWsWoman I reckon in
the country. as my first job was the
Sheridan death watch and the New
York Tribune didn't know that I
was female in competition with the
| biggest men in the game, much less
did they even suspect that I was a
scarcely through rolling up my high
school diploma" Mrs. Lawson adds
that she was assigned to Washing
ton during the Cleveland and Har-
rison administrations when I'VE were
but three neWsWomen besides few
society reporters" At present Mrs.
Lawson is acting secretary and
librarian of the st. Augustine His
'torical Society and Institute of
Science.
OF the reviewers supposed resig-
nation she has these kind words to
say:
rs it really true-that final para
graph Of your January l page? I
do hope I haven't caught its real
meaning. After reading it three
times l am compelled to write you
that letter I have promised myself
to write after reading each Of your
pages for over a year.
Il shall miss that page more than
I can express. 1t has been both a
relief and a stimulus. Long
ago I quit most reading. The
Star has been my one best bet.
am too busy day and
night to do much reading except
on st. Augustine research, and it
has been one safe landing when I
get your page. 1 do thank
you for saying things just as you
have"
The thanks are mutual. The re-
viewer has already mentioned the
feeling which sometimes overtakes
her. as if she were working in a
vacuum and as if the words which.
in bright conviction. she directs at
her public ended right there. af-
fecting nothing more than little
absorption of ink into paper. When
this happens, letter such as Mrs.
LaWson's is great revivifier. To
get such a note is, for the reviewer,
always to be amazed-amazed at the
goodness of the writer in taking so
much trouble for a stranger who,
after all, is doing nothing more than
her paid job. The thanks are
mutual indeed.
From somewhat closer home comes
another letter, from DR.. John B.
Nichols of 1907 Sixteenth street
NV, who writes as follows:
II am sorry, if I understand it
correctly, that your weekly contri-
button to The Sunday Star is to be
discontinued. I hope it is only a
temporary suspension. 1t is the
! first thing I always looked for and
read in the Sunday edition. Your
comments were always entertaining
ly shrewd and pungent: and would
like to see you get into field of
rivalry with Dorothy Thompson as
a commentator"
| Now that is very nice, indeed 1t
is not only kind and generous of
DR.. Nichols to bother to write. It is
perfectly delightful to the reviewer
to imagine herself rivaling the great
Dorothy-without. mark you, ever
having been chased out of any
fascistic or communistic country, or
having married a Nobel Prize win
ner. And then, of course, there is,
too, Miss Thompson's reputed $780,
600 the year. Imagine yourself
rivaling somebody who is accsunted
worth so much, and just see what
happens to the size of your head.
To every one who wrot.. the re-
viewer extends her thanks She
would like to publish all the letters,
but considers that perhaps two bou-
quets are enough to throw at her
self on one occasion.
| i X X 4
There is one very pleasant thing
about The Star readers, however
When they write they almost always
sign their names. Sometimes-not
often, to be sure. not more than half
a dozen times in the past four years
an anonymous letter has come
creeping horribly onto the reviewers
desk, giving her that peculiarly livid
shock which only the nameless sneer
can give. And these letters haye all
been unpleasant. But the great VOL
une Of the mail has been kind