of language is necessary to the writer. Imagination is shown in well-looped upper and lower letters, such as h, 1, f, g, y. Where one upper stroke of y is higher than the other, wit is present.

Character diagnosis is essential to the budding literary genius. The intuitive man is naturally a student of character, though he does jump at his conclusions. Intuition is shown in disconnected letters within words. Argumentativeness causes connected letters in words as well as connected words. Occasionally, the intuitive individual is also argumentative, a combination which gives him superior advantages and excellent balance. However, character dissection requires another trait, namely keen powers of observation. The graphological sign for this will be found in small letters such as u, n, m, etc., sharply pointed at the top. The easy-going rounded hand is too lazy to criticise, usually. Angular writing shows energy and critical deductions.

Trained reasoners begin words without upstrokes. They start at the main issue and do not reach UP or argue up to a conclusion, hence they omit up-strokes. The less intelligent a thinker, the longer his up-strokes, often beginning below the writing line.

But above all, there must be creativeness. The trait is easily discovered. Any unusual letter formations, peculiarities in capital letters being especially noticeable, prove inventiveness. Often a writer will use the crossbar of t to begin another word, a sure sign of labor-saving principles and of creative genius.

A beautiful floating t-bar, high above the letter, is significant of imagination and idealism. The high i-dot corroborates these traits. The up-curling terminal strokes on words betray ardor, enthusiasm, and a desire to reach out and reform. When combined with tall-stroke d and t, sharply pointed at top, one will deduce conscientiousness, superearthly aspirations, and religious leanings.

Perhaps to offset these traits, however, the writer shows practicality, a good trait to hold him in check and enable him to market the wares which his imaginative genius has created. Practicality manifests itself in a blunt lower stroke on g, y, f, etc., which are

supposed to be looped. Imaginativeness may show itself in upper-stroke letters and practicality in the lower stroke, hence good balance is maintained.

Another important d-stroke guides the graphologist. The upright stroke of d frequently turns back to the left, instead of returning to the writing base. This is a proof of introspection and retrospection, even as the d-stroke looks backward. While it is well to burn one's bridges behind one, the wise man looks back on his experiences in retrospective fashion and so avoids repetition of his mistakes. These traits are very valuable to litterateurs.

Constructivity is a composite trait whose absence alone would proclaim the impossibility of becoming a successful writer. Given critical analysis, argumentativeness, imagination, creativeness, trained thinking, practicality, and flow of language, one has the constructiveness which is the foundation for successful composition, whether artistic, literary, or musical.

The graphologist is not guided by context in making his deductions, so that an inquirer may write of things and turnips in haphazard fashion, and yet not puzzle the analyst. The unmistakable signs of literary talent will appear in specimens written in foreign languages, since graphology depends only upon individual pen-strokes as an aid to character diagnosis. No one truly reads character from handwriting who pays attention to context. The analyst should not have the faintest idea of context after he has given a character reading.

In making deductions it is well to note the slope of the handwriting, for backhand writers are usually undemonstrative and reticent. often cold and self-protective. Such individuals have had little sympathy for the sufferings of humanity. and without this understanding of life it is impossible to write successful red-blooded stories. Therefore, writers would save time and energy if they knew their proper writing-scope. Handwriting reveals this clearly. The backhand writer is argumentative and a splendid reasoner, is scientifically deductive, introspective, concentrative, a born executive. Let him write scientific articles, criticisms, essays, and text

books. Compilations are in his line, also.

The forward-slope writer is very demonstrative, affectionate, sympathetic, and sociable, especially when he forms long terminal strokes on words, showing that he "reaches out" toward humanity, understands its loves and losses, its desires and longing for companionship. When such writers form huge loops on upper and lower letters, betraying flamboyant imagination, t-bars floating off at right of letter denoting impatience and ability to jump at conclusions, and the high i-dots of the idealist, they are fitted to write romance, poetry, and virile fiction.

Concentration is perhaps the most valuable asset in the writing game. The genius often starves to death because of his slipshod methods. Successful men like Jack London concentrated and spent hours at the machine pounding out an allotted number of words daily. Concentration causes small writing. Large writing indicates impulse. Small writing is also indicative of originality. This trait is further manifested in peculiar letter formations, eccentric spacing, the word "of " written like an f with initial hook instead of an o, and in letters of varying sizes. Small writing, when found in combination with different heights of letters, sharply pointed and irregular in formation, is indicative of the brilliant mentality. Just as large writing is scattered over the paper in wasteful confusion, and small writing covers much ground with minimum of pen-motion and lack of waste, so does the writer spend his working hours. Most successful literary men have written a very small hand. The poet often writes infinitesimal loops on g and y, hardly forming the letter below the line. This is not lack of imagination, for he probably makes up for this lack in letters above the line. In this connection one might mention the handwriting of Mark Twain, de Maupassant, Kipling, Byron, Poe, and Dickens. Longfellow wrote an almost childishly rounded hand, simple and unaffected, and his poetry shows candor, an unruffled mentality, and faith in God. He never could have written with the virile eccentricity of a Poe. Zangwill writes the detached letters of the truly intuitive man. His g is unlooped,

showing practicality. The Z is a model of creative formation. The less writing conforms to copy-book rules, the more creative it becomes.

Wit necessarily depends on condensation for its strength, hence many humorous writers have formed the short-stroked letters with perhaps one stroke higher than the other, this being noticeable even in the open a of Thackeray. His y corroborates the presence of wit. Dickens wrote an open o formed of two strokes in varying height.

At the very least, to sum up the prerequisites for a literary success, a writer must possess flow of language, intelligence (shown in a consistent writing slope, either convex or concave, but not shifting from back to forward-hand and vice-versa) creativeness, originality, imagination, observation, criticism, and ability to read character.

If in addition to these traits he is possessed of concentration, perseverance (betrayed in connected letters, hook on end of t-bar at right, the down-sloping t-bar of stubbornness, etc.), neatness, and system, he will surely find a good market for his output. Straight lines, well-kept spaces, carefully crossed t's and dotted i's are some of the marks of order and system.

The writer needs optimism and hope more than most business men. The presence of such characteristics is noticed in up-sloping lines, t-bars which ascend at right, the well-rounded lower part of u, showing cheerfulness, and in the high i-dot of aspiration. Enthusiasm and ardor will keep the writer buoyant and one may well be considered fortunate who has these traits in the handwriting.

THE WRITER is published the first of every month. It will be sent, postpaid, for $1.50 a year. The price of Canadian and foreign subscriptions is $1.62, including postage.

All drafts and money orders should be made payable to the Writer Publishing Co. If local checks are sent, ten cents should be added for collection charges.

** 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.

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 from the publishers.

The rate for advertising in THE WRITER is two dollars an inch for each insertion, with no discount for either time or space; remittance required with the order. Advertising is accepted only for two cover pages. For special position, if available, twenty per cent. advance is charged. No advertisement of less than one-half inch will be accepted. *** Contributions not used will be returned, if a stamped and addressed envelope is enclosed.

The publication office of THE WRITER is Room 52-A, 244 Washington street, but all munications should be addressed:

com

adequately described.

With every disposition to be helpful, she is compelled to reply that it is impossible to make a useful list of markets for any manuscript without having first critically read the manuscript. The requirements of periodicals that buy short stories vary so widely that a list of markets suited for one manuscript would very likely be wholly unsuited for another. So it is with other manuscripts. A poem, for instance, that would be welcomed by the Tatler would not be considered for an instant by Harper's Magazine, and a story suited for the Atlantic Monthly very likely would not seem at all attractive to the editor of Telling Tales and yet Telling Tales and the Atlantic Monthly would both be included in a general list of publications that buy short stories. Sometimes the editor of THE WRITER receives a letter describing a manuscript sufficiently so that it seems likely to her that a certain magazine or a certain publisher might consider it, but even so she cannot prudently say so to the author. Why? Because the author in submitting the manuscript very naturally might say: "The editor of THE WRITER advises me to send this to you," and the editor or publisher, finding the manuscript not at all what he desires, credits the editor of THE WRITER with ignorance or bad judgment in having the manuscript sent to him, whereas the editor of THE WRITER in her desire to be obliging has been misled by the author's description of a manuscript that she has never seen. For these and other reasons she cannot undertake to give advice about placing manuscripts and is compelled to refer correspondents to "The Writer's Directory of Periodicals" and the 'Manuscript Market" department of THE WRITER, where authentic information is given about the needs of editors, so far as possible, and to the literary agents. THE WRITER does not accept the advertisements of literary agents without satisfactory references, and those whose advertisements appear in the magazine, the publisher believes, are both competent and trustworthy.

Encouragement for writers who have difficulty in finding a publisher is given by the

would rather accept a manuscript than reject one. To please an editor and make him happy, a writer has only to send him something that he wants to use.

COMMON WEAKNESSES IN MANUSCRIPTS.

By a Publisher's Reader.

Publishers' Readers usually write out opinions of a story in detail, much as a lawyer would write a brief. I have habitually done this as a Reader, and I have seen the written opinions of many, many other Readers. The recurring criticisms are so much the same, pointing out the same faults and really so simple, that it would seem writers could detect the faults for themselves. Here are two criticisms, and they are good things to remember :

Thinness. By this is meant lack of substance, i. e. the main idea of the story has little foundation, or the author tries to go swimming in the sea of literature with a bubble instead of a bladder, like Shakspere's "wanton boys." "Slender" is often the comment on the same thing.

Point. It must be hard for an author to realize that a pointless story falls as flat as a pointless joke, if it does not fall a little flatter by reason of more words. All that is needed in hundreds of narrative sketches is some special feature to enlist a stronger interest, something human and touching, or something that contains a real touch of character. It is interesting to you that your motor-boat engine should break down and you drift out to sea on a bitter winter's day, but that is n't a story unless you are fighting time against some important crisis, or something else happens besides your merely being saved.

You remember in "Dombey and Son" the Blimber School always wrote out a "character analysis" of its young students, and an author must remember that his story goes under the same process. As a Publisher's Reader I have tried to keep fresh by reading a story in a different magazine every week — first as any one else would do it, then I let it rest for a day or so, and then plunge into it

it had not been for the reference in the opening paragraph to "MSS which cannot be placed after careful consideration by editors."

From a leaflet of the Publishers' Service Bureau I learned that “Our Manuscript Department is under the direct charge of Genevieve Farnell Bond, a well-known newspaper and magazine writer, and author of 'The Faun and Other Poems,' etc. . . . Mrs. Bond was for three years literary editor of the Los Angeles Times, and has a wide acquaintance among literary people."

According to the memorandum of the Solicitor of the Postoffice Department published in the July number of THE WRITER Mrs. Bond was the highest paid employee of the Hitchcocks outside of the members of the Hitchcock family, her name being on the payroll as receiving thirty dollars a week for her services.

Now I am in receipt from Washington of a circular of the Capitol Literary Press, conducted by G. Farnell Bond, assisted by a corps of competent critics." The Bureau offers to give professional criticism of manuscripts, to do typewriting and revision, to place manuscripts, or to write public addresses; calls for photoplays; and says: "We are in touch with composers who will provide music for your words and lyric writers who will provide words for your music."

With the leaflet came a printed letter which says:—

THE CAPITOL LITERARY PRESS 304 Kresge Building, 11th & G sts., N. W. Washington, D. C.

"An Honest Association for the Help of

Authors."

October 11, 1920. DEAR AUTHOR Having been, through personal association, privileged to examine a manuscript from your pen, and having been favorably impressed, I take the liberty of writing to you personally, and making you a special offer in the services of our bureau. For a period of six months we offer an expert criticism on a manuscript of any length for $2. This will include even book manuscripts.

You will see by our circular that this is considerably below Our regular rates, when the manuscript runs over a limited number of words. Send at your earliest opportunity, as we are already becoming crowded with work, and we