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month.

The Writer is published the first day of 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.

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THE WRITER PUBLISHING CO.,
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(P. O. Box 1905. VOL. VII.

MARCH, 1894.

No. 3. Short, practical articles on any topic connected with literary work are always wanted for THE WRITER. Literary people are invited especially to send in suggestions for the "Helpful Hints" department, and items of information about any literary work on which they may be engaged. The chief object of THE WRITER is to be a magazine of mutual help for authors, and its pages are always open for anything practical which may tend in this direction. Bits of personal experience, suggestions regarding methods, and ideas for making literary work easier or more profitable are especially desired. Articles must be short, because the magazine is small.

A sheet of paper seventy-two inches wide and nearly eight miles long was manufactured re

The immediate effect of the "hard times" on the business of authorship is seen in the unwillingness of editors to buy more manuscripts than are actually necessary, and, in many cases, in a tendency to reduce rates of payment for the manuscripts that are bought. Another effect, which is not so manifest to writers now, will be brought to their attention later on, and with much more pleasant results. The "hard times,” in a word, are compelling periodical publishersnow to economize in many cases by using the accumulation of manuscripts that they have on hand, and are driving some of the weaker publications to the wall. Although authors may suffer now, however, later on they will profit from the present stringency. The stock of accumulated manuscripts cannot last for any great length of time, and when it is gone editors will buy more liberally than before, both for immediate and for future needs. Moreover, the suspension of the weaker publications will strengthen those that are left, and will generallyclear the atmosphere. In the mean time authors are to be congratulated that their business is not more unpleasantly affected by dull times in business circles, and especially that, while the smaller periodicals are economizing, there are so many publications of the first class that are apparently buying as many manuscripts and paying as high prices for them as usual, to all appearances not being troubled. in any way by the general business depression that exists.

As for the book trade, it is practically useless just now to offer an ordinary book manuscript. to publishers. Hardly any new books are being issued at the present time, and those that are coming out are chiefly books that were con-tracted for before the hard times came on. The present state of affairs in the book trade can

[ In typewritten copy, and in manuscript legibly written with the pen, an indentation of a halfinch or an inch is all that is required at the beginning of each paragraph. If the copy is not legibly written, or if the indentation is not as deep as half an inch, the paragraph mark (T) is required in addition. Many writers use the paragraph mark in every case, and some go further still, and use both a ¶ at the end of one paragraph and another at the beginning of the paragraph that follows. In writing a series of

I observe that THE WRITER uses the abbreviation "Calif." for California. Is not the "Cal." used by the post-office department better? There is no danger of its being mistaken for the "Colo." of Colorado, or for the abbreviation of any of the other State names. R. J. B. ["Calif." is better than "Cal." as an abbreviation for California, because "Cal.," while it cannot ordinarily be mistaken for "Colo.," may

be mistaken for "Col.," which is a common abbreviation for Colorado. "Calif." and 66 Colo." are unmistakable abbreviations, and the postoffice department, as well as everybody else, will do well to use both of them.-W. H. H. ]

On page 59 of Luce's "Writing for the Press " I find this sentence, under the beading, “Errors of Arrangement": "Carrera died on the same day that President Lincoln was shot, and was buried with great pomp." The italicised words are said to be misplaced. Would the correct placing be: "On the same day that President Lincoln was shot, Carrera died, and was buried with great pomp"? Would it sound better to say Carrera was buried with great pomp the day he died, or to use a comma. after shot, in the first sentence, leaving the sense natural, i. e., that while Carrera died on that particular day, he was buried later? It certainly cannot be that Carrera died and was buried with great pomp on the same day that President Lincoln was shot. Every young writer should own a copy of "Writing for the Press."

G. W. S.

[The editor of THE WRITER and Mr. Fosdick are agreed that when a writer adopts a pseudonym he will generally do well to put his real name and address also upon his manuscript. He may stipulate that only the pseudonym shall appear in print, but for certain purposes of business correspondence, including the sending of the possibly non-essential, but still convenient, check, it is well that the editor should know the real name and address of his. contributor. Sometimes an author may desire to conceal his identity even from editors and publishers. In that case, he may accomplish his object most conveniently and effectively by

"An Author's Confession," in the January WRITER, amused me greatly, because, if I did not know better, I might take it for my own, so exactly does it correspond with an experience of mine little poem, dear little auntie, and all. Even that expression, "Now, I call that real pretty," is an exact duplicate of my aunt's comment. Can Persis Darrow have been under the piazza when I read it to her, some five or six years ago? And the "Why don't you get it printed?" and the reason why, too! Dear me! How many have heard that question asked!

AMSTERDAM, N. Y.

M. E. P.

PHOTOGRAPHY INDOORS AND OUT. A book for amateurs. By Alexander Black. 240 pp. Cloth, $1.25. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1894.

The opening chapters of Mr. Black's book, telling in popular style of the early history of photography, are as interesting as a novel. The author has the faculty of making pictures with the pen as well as with the camera, and his story of Porta's invention of the camera obscura, the first pictures of silver, the work of Schulze, Scheele, Wedgewood, Talbot, Niépce, Daguerre, and other pathfinders, down to the public announcement of the production of the daguerreotype in August, 1839, and of the wonderful improvements made in photography since that day, cannot fail to fascinate any reader, it is told in such an entertaining way. Beyond that, the book is a practical treatise on modern photography, full of useful hints and suggestions for making artistic pictures, explaining the chemistry of photography enough so that the amateur may know what he is doing with his pans and his solutions, and closing with tables of weights and measures and various formulas, together with an explanation of certain photographic terms. Mr. Black is an expert amateur

[Brief, pointed, practical paragraphs discussing the use and misuse of words and phrases will be printed in this department. All readers of THE WRITER are invited to contribute to it. Contributions are limited to 400 words; the briefer they are, the better.]

The Birthday Question. — If it is true ( and I think no one disputes it), as was lately said in THE WRITER, that "a person can have but one birthday," i. e., the day on which he enters this world, what is the propriety of saying that the day he is seventy is his seventy-first birthday? The day which is annually celebrated by loving friends, or solemnly remembered by the friendless solitary, is an anniversary, and if the day he is a year old is his first, so, counting on, the day he is seventy is his seventieth anniversary. The statement that Miss Yonge received an album from her admiring readers on her seven

of the department of photography in the Brooklyn institute, and his training as an art critic enables him to give many useful suggestions about making photographs that shall be artistic as well as permanent. A number of half-tone illustrations scattered through the book both teach and warn by conspicuous example.

W. H. H.

THE AMERICAN ANNUAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES ALMANAC FOR 1894. Edited by W. I. Lincoln Adams. 396 pp. Paper, 50 cents. New York: The Scovill & Adams Co. 1894.

Nobody who has been long interested in photography needs to be told what "The American Annual of Photography" is. It is one of the first books that every amateur is sure to get interested in, and the annual issue of which he is sure to await expectantly. It is a summary, in short, of the advance made in the art of photography during the year, being made up chiefly of short articles by many different contributors, telling what they have learned by experiment and by experience, and

66

" for

giving innumerable hints and " 'dodges effective photographic work. For instance, in the 1894 issue are articles on "Doubles How to Make Them," "Chalk-plate Engraving for Photographers," "Photographing Snow Scenes," "Vignetting for Landscapes," "On a Certain Dark-room,' "Electric Light for the Dark-room," "A Thorough Print-washer," "Picture Frames and Mats," Photographs of the Window Side of Rooms," "Amateur Home Portraiture," and scores of other contributions on topics equally interesting to all who use the camera. Following these are more than eighty-closely printed pages of standard. formulas and useful recipes. In addition, there are long lists of camera clubs, new books on photography published during the year, and other matters of record and reference, while the book is illustrated with from twenty-five to thirty pictures, all of the most artistic kind.

W. H. H.

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. A practical guide for the beginner.
By W. I. Lincoln Adams. Second edition. 90 pp. Paper,
50 cents.
New York. The Baker & Taylor Co. 1893.

Mr. Adams is the editor of the Photographic Times, "The American Annual of Photography," "The Photographic Instructor," etc., and he is wholly competent to write as an expert on photographic subjects. His "Amateur Photography "is a book for beginners in the science of picture-taking, and its special merit consists in the clearness with which his directions regarding the various processes are given.

W. H. H.

PHOTOGRAPHY AT NIGHT. By P. C. Duchochois. 108 pp. Paper, $1.00. New York: The Scovill & Adams Company. 1893.

Photography by artificial light has been made so easy and there is so much pleasure in it that a book devoted expressly to the subject will be generally welcomed. Mr. Duchochois thoroughly understands what he is talking about, and his book contains almost everything that is known about flashlight photography up to the present time, but study is required on the part of the non-expert reader in many cases to get at the full meaning of what he says. The author himself recognizes this fact, saying at the beginning of the final chapter: "This book has not been written for those who do not know the rudiments of the art." Those who are sufficiently well-informed to follow him intelligently, however, will find in the volume many useful hints.

W. H. H.

strongly in its favor. The author went to Japan to become a teacher in a Tokio school for girls of noble families, and during her stay there lived in a house half Japanese and half foreign, associating intimately with the most refined and cultivated of Japanese women, and having every opportunity to see and study Japanese home life. The letters from which she has made up the present book are a daily chronicle of events, sights, and impressions, and picture life among the Japanese from a point of view which the ordinary foreign visitor cannot reach. "A Japanese Interior" and "Japanese Girls and Women " together give the best idea that it is possible to obtain of modern home life in Japan.

W. H. H. THE LOVER'S LEXICON. By Frederick Greenwood. 333 PP. Cloth, $1.50. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894.

"The Lover's Lexicon" is described by its author as "a handbook for novelists, playwrights, philosophers, and minor poets; but especially for the enamoured." Its plan involves a series of essays on words connected with the affections, beginning with "abhorrence and ending with "wife." The essays are short, usually from one to three pages in length. "The enamoured," however, are much more likely to be interested in each other than in Mr. Greenwood's work.

W. H. H.

THE BOOK OF THE FAIR. An historical and descriptive presentation of the world's science, art, and industry, as viewed through the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Parts IV., V., VI., VII., and VIII. Each, 40 pages; paper, $1.00. Chicago and San Francisco: The Bancroft Company. 1894.

The high standard set by both author and publishers in the first parts of the sumptuous Bancroft "Book of the Fair" is fully maintained as the succeeding parts are issued. The glance to any one who glances through the unusual quality of the work is evident at a broad and handsome pages. The artistic excellence of the illustrations, the attractiveness of the heavy plate paper, the good taste shown in the printing of the work, and the literary skill with which it has been written combine to make the book in all respects worthy of its subject, the greatest exposition that the world has ever seen.

Part IV. continues the description and illustration of the government and administration departments, and begins the interesting chapter on the manufactures of the United States, as they were exemplified in the great manufactures' building. All the important exhibits are adequately described, and scores of the finest half-tone illustrations, equal in all respects to the photographs from which they were reproduced, show the contents of the building and the great structure itself, both inside and out.

In Part V. the chapter on American manufactures is concluded, and the chapter on for

eign manufactures is begun. The pictures of exhibits are exceptionally fine.

Part VI. concludes the description and illustration of the foreign manufactures exhibits, and begins Chapter X., devoted to the department of liberal arts. The liberality with which the work is illustrated is shown by the fact that there are three full-page pictures and 112 smaller pictures in the forty pages of this

number.

In Part VII. the chapter on liberal arts is finished, and the woman's department is taken up. The pictures of laces shown in this part are wonderfully clear and delicate, and the progress made by women in the arts and sciences is illustrated in detail.

Part VIII. opens with a further account of the wonders that were gathered together in the woman's building, and begins a lavishly illustrated account of the exhibits in machinery hall.

The "Book of the Fair" will be completed in twenty-five parts, and will comprise in all 1,000 imperial folio pages. It is a pleasure to learn that financially, as well as otherwise, the work is an assured success, more than 100,000 subscriptions having already been sent in to the publishers.

W. H. H.

stamps the superiority of the reporter of the genus male pockets. A man can carry his pencils in a vest pocket — yea, even a fountain pen will retain its uprightness, and, therefore, its ink, in his care. But we women who have tried it know to our cost, literally, the results of putting such a pen into our pockets, while cloaks render its position in a "holder " pinned to the dress waist an uncomfortable one. Then a man can have note-books

galore; for is he not furnished with indefinite opportunities for carrying them, in pockets in front and pockets behind, pockets to the right and the left, pockets below, and pockets above. If one fails him, there are others at his call. But a woman if she has a pocket, it is likely to be un-get-at-able; and if she is not dressed with a reasonable regard to the prevailing style, no paper will send her on its missions. What is she to do, unless she burdens her hands with said materials? and then, on a rainy day, for instance, how can she carry an umbrella? No, we need a note-book that can be hung on a chatelaine hook, that will carry note-papers for all our needs, and pencils or pens, as well, and, moreover, one that can be used as a tablet for writing, and, though laid aside when not in service, can be brought into instant and convenient use at need. I see it "in my mind's eye," this much-to-be-desired combination. If some one does not hurry to invent it for me, I hereby give notice that I shall do it for myself, for the present state of affairs is too inconvenient for women journalists.

OAK PARK, Ill.

A. M. G.

LITERARY ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS.

[The publisher of THE WRITER will send to any address a copy of any magazine mentioned in the following reference list on receipt of the amount given in parenthesis following the name the amount being in each case the price of the periodical, with postage added. Readers who send to the publishers of the periodicals indexed for copies containing the articles mentioned in the list will confer a favor if they will mention THE WRITER when they write.]

LITERARY MENDICANCY. Lippincott's Magazine (28 c. ) for March.

THE DUTY OF EDUCATED MEN IN A DEMOCRACY. E. L. Godkin. Forum (28 c. ) for March.