quick!" To dilly-dally over an article is pretty sure to invest it with a bunglesome, jerky style, that "makes hard reading."

Lord Macaulay's three questions are worth keeping in mind, when we decide to treat a subject: "What do people want to know about it? What do I know about it? What shall I have to learn?"

Don't forget that the reading public is intelligent and demands clear, helpful information, be it in story, essay, or editorial. Dig deep for bright thoughts and fresh ideas. Then, as Louisa M. Alcott wrote me, shortly before her death: "Hope and keep busy." STAR VALLEY, Kan.

Ad. H. Gibson.

There seem to be two rules regarding the use of the comma between three or more adjectives in procession, when the last two are connected by a conjunction. For instance, take the following sentence, punctuated in two different ways: "The charge was wild, fierce, headlong and irresistible"; "The charge was wild, fierce, headlong, and irresistible"; some grammars give the first example as the correct punctuation; others give the last. I will here observe that the first style of punctuation is the one generally used in newspaper offices; the second will be found the most frequently in the works of those who are regarded as good authorities on the use of the English language.

Those grammars which omit one of the commas give as a rule, that a comma is to be inserted only where the conjunction has been omitted. This seems to me to be a lame rule. The function of the comma as a punctuation mark is not so much to show us where a conjunction has been omitted, as to aid us in grasping the sense of a passage, and to show the grammatical relation of words and phrases to each other. But leaving out of consideration any function which may be performed by the comma in pointing out an omission, it seems to me that the sense of expressions such as I have given is materially affected by the style of punctuation adopted.

If we read: "The charge was wild, fierce, headlong and irresistible," in our comprehen

sion of the sentence we naturally connect the two words joined by the conjunction more closely than we do the two which are set off by commas. The impression given is erroneous; for, in reality, each adjective is equal in value with its fellows, and each has the same force, and is no more closely connected with one of the series than with another. It requires an effort of the mind to separate the words properly and give to each its true individual force.

If we write the sentence: "The charge was wild, fierce, headlong, and irresistible," the uniformity of punctuation corresponds to the equal prominence which should be given to the words in our minds, and no effort is required and no rule need be remembered to give to each word its proper degree of distinctness.

The office of the conjunction is to connect; of the comma, to divide. If we do not separate by the comma the two words between which the conjunction is placed, we are liable, as we glance along the line, to give to the last two combined no more force than we do each one of the first two, and thus lose just one-fourth of the strength of the expression.

This is a case where authorities disagree. However, the second style of punctuation has the weight of best usage in its favor, as well as a logical reason for its adoption. The first style has nothing to recommend it but an arbitrary rule of two or three grammarians.

THE WRITER is published the first day of every month. It will be sent, post-paid, ONE YEAR for ONE Dollar.

***All drafts and money orders should be made payable to The Writer Publishing Co. Stamps, or local checks, should not be sent in payment for subscriptions.

**THE WRITER will be sent only to those who have paid for it in advance. Accounts cannot be opened for subscriptions, and names will not be entered on the list unless the subscription order is accompanied by a remittance. When subscriptions expire the names of subscribers will be taken off the list unless an order for renewal, accompanied by remittance, is received. Due notice will be given to every subscriber of the expiration of his subscription.

No sample copies of THE WRITER will be sent free.

The American News Company, of New York, and the New England News Company, of Boston, and their branches, are wholesale agents for THE WRITER. It may be ordered from any newsdealer, or direct, by mail, from the publisher.

Everything that may be printed in the magazine will be written expressly for it.

Not one line of paid advertisement will be printed in THE WRITER outside of the advertising pages.

Advertising rates will be sent on request.

Contributions not used will be returned, if a stamped and addressed envelope is enclosed.

THE WRITER PUBLISHING CO.,

Short, practical articles on topics connected with literary work are always wanted for THE WRITER. Readers of the magazine are invited to join in making it a medium of mutual help, and to contribute to it any ideas that may occur to them. The pages of THE WRITER are always open for any one who has anything helpful and practical to say. Articles should be closely condensed; the ideal length is about 1,000 words.

When all writers realize that book publishing is a business, and not a sentimental occupation, it will be easier for some of them to understand why even a well-written manuscript often seeks a publisher in vain. Ordinary merit is not what a publisher desires. Something unusual is what he is after; for the reading public likes

novelties, and it pays to publish what the reading public likes. As a contributor to THE WRITER well says: "A merely well-written story, with a nice little plot and a happy ending, is not marketable. Thousands of such stories are returned to their authors, not because they are lacking in a literary way, but because they are not up to the standard from a commercial point of view." It costs a pub

lisher three or four hundred dollars at least to bring out an ordinary book, including the cost of professional reading, typesetting, plates, paper, presswork, binding, advertising, and postage, and if the book falls flat, while the author suffers only his disappointment, the publisher suffers pecuniary loss. Publishers are naturally slow to take such risks. Every manuscript that they reject is a source of actual expense to them. The reading of a book manuscript is no trifling task. Few expert profes

sional Readers would like to undertake to read through more than one such manuscript a day, and the time of professional Readers cannot be cheaply bought. Publishers are compelled to employ Readers as one of the first necessities of their business, and the Readers have to be paid for reading the manuscripts which they reject, as well as for reading those which they decide are good. Instead of complaining, then, because his rejected manuscript has not been read all through, the author should remember that the publisher to whom he sent it has not been paid for the time which he and his Reader have devoted to it excepting in so far as the profits from the books of successful authors pay the losses on the manuscripts of the unsuccessful ones.

Literary history records the example of the man who always kept paper, and pencil, and matches, and a candle by his bedside, so that he might be able to record any bright idea that should come to him in the still watches of the night. The only danger in his case was that while he was fumbling around in the dark for matches to light the candle with, his bright idea might evaporate, so that when the candle flared, he might have nothing to record. Modern science has made an improvement possible, in some cases, by the use of the electric light, which

can be made to flash by pressing or twisting a button, giving the bright idea no time to disappear. Even a more convenient means of accomplishing the desired object is available, however, in the shape of the phonograph. One busy writer says that he often puts into his phonograph cylinders in an evening 4,000 or 5,000 words to be transcribed by his typewriter next day. He keeps a phonograph at his home, and the little case which he brings in town in the morning is sure to contain a large quantity of matter ready to be copied and turned over to the printer. The phonograph works as well in the dark as in the light, so that the author who wants to "book" his casual midnight thoughts needs only to keep one by his bedside and talk into it as into the ear of a long-suffering confidential friend. It beats the match and candle and paper and pencil scheme clear out of sight.

One of the best examples of good newspaper copy-editing which ever came to the attention of the editor of THE WRITER lies on his desk

as he writes this paragraph. It is in the form of two sheets of postal telegraph copy, a despatch from Brockton, Mass., to the Boston Globe, skilfully blue-pencilled by the Globe's night editor. The original despatch and the remnant of it that was printed in the Globe are worth quoting in full, to show what happens to a newspaper correspondent's copy received by telegraph at 12.45 in the morning, when the paper is crowded, and everything has to be cut to the bones and the bones scraped after ward," as the newspaper night editor's saying is. At first sight the two sheets of copy seem to contain nothing but barred-gates of dark blue-pencil lines. Underneath them and between them can be read the typewritten despatch as the Globe's telegraph operator took it from his clicking instrument. It ran as follows:

66

BROCKTON, June 1 - Both branches of the city council held meetings to-night, and then they came together in a committee of conference to discuss street lights and schoolhouses.

The aldermen passed an order requiring the street railway company to replace the rails taken up in Main and Montello streets for the purpose of laying the sewers with girder rails. A request that Saulsbury Lake be kept full this summer was referred to the committee on sewerage, with power to act. In the conference committee the committee on street lights presented two propositions to be made to the Edison company for

It was

lighting contracts. It was unanimously voted that it was the opinion of those present that an offer be made to the company of not exceeding ninety dollars a year for a twelve-hundredcandle-power arc light, and fourteen dollars for a sixteen-candlepower incandescent light on a five-year contract. stated that the cost to the company for changes required by introducing twelve-hundred-candle-power lights would not exceed seven thousand five hundred dollars. Then followed a long talk about schoolhouses, and plans were shown, after which the committee adjourned, without taking any action whatever. In the meeting of the committee of the whole on city hall which followed, the sub-committee reported that it would cost the city $7,574-34 per year to accept the offer of the Edison company for heating and lighting the city hall, while by putting in an independent plant at a cost of about nine thousand dollars, the cost of heating and lighting would be reduced $3,323.34

per year.

The committee recommended that the city put in two engines, two dynamos, and a pump. The report was accepted and the recommendation was adopted. The committee recommended the purchase of ideal engine and general electric dynamos for $6,811. An attempt to table failed, and by a vote of 32 to 3 the contract was voted.

The sub-committee was instructed to secure bids for pumping machinery for the elevator water.

Here is the same "special" as it was printed in the Globe, June 2:

Dynamos for Brockton City Hall. BROCKTON, June 1- Both branches of the city council met to-night. In the conference committee it was unanimously voted to offer the Edison company a sum not exceeding $90 a year for a 1,200-candle-power arc light, and $14 for a sixteen-candle-power incandescent light on a five-year contract. In the meeting of the committee of the whole on city hall it was voted to accept the sub-committee report, that the city purchase an engine and electric dynamos for a plant to light city hall. The night editor who made the change did it by writing in blue pencil a headline, marked with the composing-room number of the type in which it must be set; writing a line underneath giving the name of the correspondent and the hour at which his despatch was received; marking out the words and sentences to be omitted, and writing in just twenty-three words to connect the remaining parts and make the sense complete. As the reader will see, every important fact in the original despatch is included in the printed "special," only details and notes of unimportant business, for which a crowded metropolitan daily has no room, having been cut out by the editor. Perfect justice was done to the correspondent, and in view of the fact that this piece of editing was done without special care, in the ordinary course of a busy night's work, the editor who did it — and who will be surprised when he sees this in THE WRITER has good reason to feel satisfied

with his accomplishment. The original despatch and the printed "special" together give a useful practical lesson in the art of skilful condensation.

Somebody has been counting the number of characters introduced in several novels, more or less well-known, with rather interesting results. In making up the lists only those characters have been included who join in the action, no record having been made of characters who are merely mentioned in conversation, and who take no part in helping on the story. Of characters thus defined, Besant's "All Sorts and Conditions of Men" has 23; Trollope's "Barchester Towers" has 33; Lytton's "Night and Morning," 42; Scott's "Heart of Midlothian, 49; George Eliot's" Middlemarch," 59; Disraeli's "Tancred," 59; Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," 66; and Dickens' "David Copperfield,” IOI. Think of imagining and describing 101 characters in a single novel, making most of them as distinct and clear as any living personage known to the reader, as Dickens did! Before the young author undertakes to write out his first long novel he would find it good practice to try independent character sketching for a while, experimenting to see how many distinct characters he can picture to himself, and how varied he can make his descriptions of them.

W. H. H.

Some young writers - and some old ones. too, for that matter- may get a useful hint about the use of metaphor by reading an editorial note, recently published in the Interior, of Chicago. The Interior says: "We wish the Signal would not employ martial rhetoric, like this: Mrs. Dunham, the state president, has organized her loyal lieutenants and faithful following into a brave brigade, which is charging the legislative heights with the home protection guns.' People do not charge with guns, which in military parlance means cannon; but with bayonets and cavalry sabres. Women cannot charge anyway. They are not built for the double-quick rush; and as for cavalry, having only a stirrup on one side, they are at a disadvantage. They cannot yell, which is always necessary in a bayonet or cavalry charge. If they were to try to yell, they would only scream. Here is the correct way to write it: Mrs. Dunham has organized her gentle and lovely torch-bearers in a white-robed procession, to carry the light of the home into the gloomy caverns of legislative ignorance and political darkness.'” Such misuse of meta-phor reminds one of the historic eloquent sen tence from the sermon of a young and zealous minister: "Here stands Mother Church one foot firmly planted on the earth, the other pointed toward Heaven!" CHICAGO, Ill.

A. B.

THE USE AND MISUSE OF WORDS.

Some writers say that "I feel bad," and not "I feel badly," is the proper phrase.. Adams Sherman Hill in his "Foundations of Rhetoric" gives the preference to "I feel badly," his reason being that "bad" is ambiguous, "bad" being in use in two senses. (As a matter of fact "feel" is ambiguous, too, "feel" being in use in two senses also.) › Professor Hill says: As a rule, it is proper to use an adjective whenever some form of to be' or 'to seem' may be substituted for the

เ

cusses

"The Writer's Handbook" is really made up of three books, separately paged: Part I. dis"Composition and Style," and after an introduction on authorship, speaks of purity of style, with illustrative examples; propriety of style; precision of style; synonymous words; the structure of sentences; figurative language; personification; apostrophe; hyperbole; comparison; metaphor; allegory; concise and diffuse style; nervous and feeble style; vehement style; plain style; neat style; graceful style; florid style; the simple and the affected style; the attainment of a good style, etc. Appended to this division is a section relating to printing and publishing; manuscripts and their preparation; the relations of author and publisher; proof correcting; the size of paper; the size of type; stereotyping; binding, etc. Part II. discusses "English Composition," with remarks on the laws of writing; the writer's vocabulary; taking pains in writing; the formation of style; the study of models; English or Latin; simplicity in style; brevity in style; purity in style; energy in style; parts of speech; punctuation; paraphrase; hints for essayists; controversy, etc. Part III. discusses "Letter-writing," with an introductory essay on letters and letter-writers; hints on letter-writing; composition and the structure of sentences: punctuation; a dictionary of blunders and blemishes; rules for dividing words into sylla

THE VICTORIAN AGE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By Mrs. Oliphant. 647 pp. Cloth, $2.00. New York: Lovell, Coryell, & Co. 1892.

Beginning with a chapter on the state of literature in England at the time of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne, Mrs. Oliphant's book reviews the literary history of the last sixty years, bringing her work down so near to the present time as to include mention of J. M. Barrie and Rudyard Kipling. While the work is subject to all the limitations by which an author writing of contemporary writers necessarily is hampered, it is yet, on the whole, a useful and interesting one, and gives a reasonably fair account of modern English writers.. Mrs. Oliphant's mention of her own name is worth quoting. 66 We can do no more than mention here the name of Mrs. Oliphant," she says in the proper place, "for reasons which the reader will easily understand. It would be false modesty to leave it out of a record of the novelists of the Victorian age." William Black gets only a dozen lines of mention; in fact, the description of the writers of the present day is hardly more than a catalogue of names, and, altogether, Mrs. Oliphant's work, though useful, is suggestive rather than satisfying. It points out what some one else might do. This edition of the work is a popular one, issued at a lower price than that of the previous edition.

W. H. H.

AMERICAN NEWSPAPER DIRECTORY. Containing a description of all the newspapers and periodicals published in the United States, Canada, and Newfoundland, and of the towns and cities in which they are published. Twenty-sixth year. 1,123 pp. Cloth, $5.00. New York: Geo. P. Rowell & Co. 1894.

Rowell's "American Newspaper Directory," published annually in May, is the standard work of its kind. The plan of collecting the material for it is elaborate and systematic, and the publishers certainly do not spare pains or expense to make the work accurate and complete. So far as possible, the " directory" for 1894, just issued, is a complete list of American periodicals now published, arranged alphabetically by states, and under states by cities and towns, and giving, besides the name of each periodical, its office address, its day of publication, its size, its specialty, its subscription price, its date of establishment, the names of its editor and its publisher, and some statistics of the place in which it is published, and an estimate of the size of its circulation. Following the detailed descriptions of the 20,169 publications included in the directory comes a condensed alphabetical list covering the same ground, and showing at a glance the names of