(Continued from February WRITER.) Railroad Man's Magazine (M), The Frank A. Munsey Company, 8 West 40th st., New York. $1.00 10C. Robert H. Davis, editor.

Merged with the Argosy, beginning with the issue for January 25, 1919. Railway Age (W), Woolworth Building, New York. $5.00: 15c. S. O. Dunn, editor.

Not in the market for general contributions. Rainbow (W), 500 Fifth ave.. New York. $5.00; IOC. Boris de Tanko and Harold Brodsky, editors.

A magazine of the arts.

Rally Girl Scout Magazine) (M), 189 Lexington ave.. New York. $1.00; 12C. Edith Curtiss Hixon, acting editor.

Does not buy any material at present. Title changed to American Girl.

Rambler (M), Boston, . Bangs, editor.

Mass. John

Kendrick

Discontinued with the number for August, 1917. Liberty st.. New York. Raw Material (M), 114 $3.00; 35c. William Crawford Hirsch, editor.

A trade magazine, using descriptive articles on the production of raw material, such as iron, copper, zinc, aluminum. rubber, fiber, timbers, and such as screw maespecially of finished parts, chine products. stampings, spinnings, drop forgings, etc. Buys photographs, and must be illustrated. Sets length limit at 5,000 words, and pays on publication.

all articles

Recreation (M), 2-16 West 33d st., New York. $1.50 15C. Edward Cave, editor.

Merged with Outer's Book (Chicago), December, 1917.

Red Book Magazine (M). 36 South State st., Chicago. $3.00; 25c. Karl Edwin Harriman, editor.

A general fiction magazine, printing serial novels and short stories, chiefly by well-known writers, with an occasional poem.

Red Cross Magazine (M), 124 East 28th st., New York. $2.00 (including membership in the American Red Cross); 20c. John S. Phillips, editor. Suspended publication, October, 1920. Reedy's Mirror (W), 1409 Syndicate Trust Building, St. Louis, Mo. $2.00; 5c. William Marion Reedy, editor.

Publication discontinued at death of Mr. Reedy, July 28, 1920. Reformed Church Messenger (W), Room 201, Reformed Church Building, Philadelphia. $2.50; 5c. Rev. Paul S. Leinbach, D. D., editor.

Uses short stories, preferring them to treat of religious and patriotic themes, stories of adventure, and nature stories: juvenile matter; humorous verse; and jokes ; very occasionally buys photographs, and pays promptly. Not in the market at present.

Reliable Poultry Journal (M), Quincy, Illinois. 75c. Grant Curtis, editor.

Not in the market.

Religious Education (B-M), 1440 East 57th st., Chicago. $4.00; 75c. Henry F. Cope, editor.

Does not pay for manuscripts. Religious Telescope (W). Otterbein Press Build

ing. Dayton, Ohio. $2.00; 5c. J. M. Phillippi, editor.

Uses general articles; short stories; an OCcasional serial; a limited amount of juvenile matter very little poetry or humorous verse: and rarely buys jokes or photographs. Sets length limits at from 1,200 to 2.500 words. Fiction must

be altogether free from profanity, gambling. dancing, impurity, and tobacco. with general characters on a high moral plane. Pays on acceptance.

Retail Druggist (M), 250 West Lafavette st.. Detroit, Michigan. $1.00; 150. Herbert G. Stana land, editor.

Uses general articles, and serials based on business; and successful ideas and methods em ployed by druggists, giving the real facts and figures, setting length limit at 4,000 words, Buys photographs; but does not print poetry, humorous verse, or jokes.

Retail Public Ledger (S-M), Public Ledger Company, Room 218. Philadelphia. $1.00; IOC. William Nelson Taft, editor.

Uses short stories; articles on retail business; poetry; humorous verse; jokes; and departmental matter any thing dealing with retail business news, feature articles. fiction. or verse. Has only two requirements which are iron-clad Matter must be interesting and must be written from the retailer's point of view. Both fiction and verse should have a retail "slant." and fiction must be short, not more than 3.000 words; articles should be limited to 1,000 words. Photographs are particularly desired. Pays from $6 a column to a cent a word, and $3 for photographs.

Review (W), 140 Nassau st.. New York. $500; 15c. Fabian Franklin and Harold de Wolf Fuller, edi

tors.

Double Dealer (M), 204 Baronne st., New Orleans, La. $2.50; 25c. Julius Weis Friend and Basil Thompson, editors.

Vol. I., No. 1, January, 1921. The editors announce that their plan for the present "is to print one short story each month, essays, reviews, sketches, epigrams, and sundry observations on the human animal as celestial aspirant and strap-hanger. In verse our concern will not be with the skeleton, the form, but the marrow within. Consequently we shall tilt no crazy lance for free verse, or vers libre, as its excited champions prefer to term it. We shall print it, if it be well written, together with the rhymed sonnet, rondeau, ballade, and villanelle."

Personalist (Q) University of Southern California, 35th & University ave., Los Angeles, Calif. $2.00; 50c. Ralph Tyler Flewelling, editor.

Vol. I, No. 1. April, 1920. Devoted to philosophy, theology, and literature, its main purpose being to expound the principles and extend the influence of personalism.

PROMPT TRANSCRIPTION SERVICE Particularly convenient for authors of Middie West. cents per thousand words, with carbon copy. Cash with order. Esther Waite, 1841 Rock Road, Cleveland, O.

50

Mention THE WRITER.

A veteran in the business of writing told me once that my work needed color, that where a "live" adjective or a colorful adverb could be used it would help the reader to visualize the story. For instance, the word "wonderful" should be omitted from the writer's vocabulary, as it is overworked and hence without strength of value. The next time that word came to my mind when writing I dug into a dictionary and found that the thought I was trying to express was fitted much better by the word "vivid," which is defined as meaning life-like and realistic.

"In describing rooms, scenes, gowns, people," said this writer, "give the story the benefit of all the colors and movement the originals show to you but remember, colors reflect a psychological condition of temperament. A blonde who selects reds,

No. 3.

orange, and vivid browns is reflecting an inner fire, restlessness, and easily aroused irritation. Remember, too, that blondes are impulsive and given to snap judgments, and these colors fit the blonde temperament."

The conversation led me to make a study of colors and their meaning, and I found" such useful things that I should like to passon a hint of them. In " Interior Decorat-ing Its Principles and Practice," by Frank Alvah Parsons (an authority on this subject), I found color schemes explained so clearly and convincingly that I no longer dread the necessity of describing a room, or supplying the necessary background and atmosphere for a story.

The same color tendencies found in a character's home will hold good in his or her clothes, and this information, combined with an understanding of the temperamental differences of the blonde and brunette types will help a writer make his story true to life.

Some of the important facts about colors on a much-thumbed page in my notebook are these:

Yellow brings light into a dark room. The natural and artificial lights will be supplemented by it, and the qualities which light itself has will be forced into the room.

Never let a freckled girl wear yellow, except to accentuate the freckles. Dress in yellow the girl with vivid red hair, blue eyes, and the very white skin which belongs to this type. It will make her coloring even more startling. A brunette of the Irish type, with blue-black hair and blue eyes, may wear yellow. Any other type looks sallow in it. The complement of yellow is purple.

Red creates ideas of warmth and irritation. It makes one think and act more quickly..

Never dress a stout character in red. It would make her seem stouter, but contrariwise, red makes a room seem smaller. Green is its complement.

Blue is known as a cold or non-aggressive element. It gives sensations of coolness, repose, restraint, and formality. Its illusion of size is opposite to red. Blue-green is at its best when combined with red-orange, and blue with a violet tinge, with gold.

Green is said to be beneficial to the eyes, and soothing to nerves and injured dispositions. Remember the green walls of hospital rooms? Green would be a good color for a library where one sent a character in a story to cool off his wrath. The illusion of coolness which green calls forth suggests it for use in hot climates and country houses.

Purple, Mr. Parsons says, is shadow, and shadows in nature are always in some purple

tone. This color denotes shade, sorrow, mysticism, and dignity as its fundamental quality characteristics. Different shades of emotion may be translated by different shades of this color - violet, lilac, lavender, London smoke, and mauve.

When one has begun a study of color, there is new meaning in the purple which upholds the dignity and mystery of kings, the red flag which angers the bull, and the restful green of the countryside.

Strongly contrasting color words should be used judiciously and only in the climax of a story. Let the vital spots of the story be brilliantly colored- and this only in small areas, or the story may take on a rainbow effect in which the plot is lost in a blaze of sunset glory. And much as most of us love color, we love plot more. PHILADELPHIA, Penn.

Jane Littell.

It pays to listen when you can make literary use of what you hear.

On a long railway journey recently I got into conversation with a fellow traveler. We talked of this and that until we got intimate, and my acquaintance fell to discussing his work as a commercial traveler and his success in it. One thing he said was that one of his main methods of approach was by way of flattery, and he added: "You bet, flattery pays in business." I led him on, and he gave his views very fully and effectively, but, to my mind, unconvincingly.

That railway conversation set me thinking and gave me an idea for a business article. Some other business men worth while were interviewed, and ultimately Personal Efficiency of Chicago paid me $7.80 for a short article on "Is. Flattery a Business Asset?" and variations of that conversation will find their way into other business articles.

I write quite a little for Sunday school

publications and find that chance remarks picked from people's conversation are among the best sources of suggestion for short articles on conduct. A little fellow stamps his foot and says to his parent: "I'll do as I like!" and there you have the germ for a `short article on the present-day need for discipline. A lady in a general conversation says: “If I don't like anybody I can't get over it. Some people are so disagreeable." That remark leads to an essay article on "Disagreeable People," with an exposition of the way to treat them.

One day I heard a lady say very indignantly "I wish they would burn that old book. They will never do any good until they do." She was a member of a woman's organization in a Western town. This society had been running - or walking! - for years and had got into a rut. One evidence of this was that every time any decision had to be made it was the custom to turn to the

secretary's book to see what had been done in previous years and usually they followed the precedent. You can see how "Burn That Book!" made the basis for a live article on precedent, its use and abuse.

All these incidents are actual cases showing where I got the germ of ideas that led to articles which were published and paid for. They are only samples of many others. These are cases where conversation was directly responsible for the germ idea, where the actual words formed the text- I am a preacher, too, so please forgive that word of the article. But on other occasions a conversation has led to more ambitious efforts than these, though in a less direct fashion. I remember vividly a long conversation with a farmer's leader and lover of country life in

which we pretty well boxed the compass in talk of country conditions. We mentioned books, and both agreed that books were deplorably lacking on the farms. That conversation started a train of thought which led to a series of book articles in the foremost Canadian farm paper. This series did help in promoting a love for reading, as I had reason to know. Incidentally, it brought me five dollars an article for articles of five hundred words each, sixty dollars for the series.

Another such conversation led to a series of articles on community conditions, which attracted some attention.

Altogether, I have found the conversation of people about me one of the most prolific sources of article material. It pays to listen. CARIEVALE, Canada. H. D. Ranns.

The difference in the meaning of the terms "interstate" and "intrastate" should be clearly understood. The term "interstate commerce," means, specifically, in the United States, commercial transactions and intercourse between persons resident in different States of the Union, or carried on by lines of transport extending into more than one State. The Constitution grants to Congress the general power of regulating such commerce. The term "intrastate commerce" is applied to commercial transactions and intercourse between persons within the limits of a single State of the Union.

Any one who will look in the dictionary will find that "hectic" means constitutional, habitual, referring especially to slow waste of animal tissue, as in consumption. From its use in the phrase "hectic fever" it has come to be wrongly used to express the meaning "feverish."

The difference in meaning between "famous" and "notorious" is illustrated by the editorial paragraph in the Boston Globe which says that the fact that the first woman to go

over Niagara Falls alive, now old and helpless, is in the poor house, does not prove that fortune does not always follow fame, but it does show that fortune is not always bought by notoriety. Strictly speaking, "notorious" is properly used only in a bad sense, but in common usage it has come to be applied to one who is publicly known without having become so through the merit that "famous implies.

The phrase, "the true facts" is in the same class with the phrase, "an actual photograph." All photographs are actual and all facts are

true.

Percentage bothers many persons, who do not stop to think that "one hundred per cent." means one. For instance, a Southern senator says that the price of cotton "has dropped two hundred per cent.," which means that the reduction was twice what the price of the cotton was, and an advertiser in New York calls on the public to "buy direct from the manufacturer and save 50 to 100 per cent."in other words, to get the goods for half price, or for nothing. Edward B. Hughes.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

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 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.

cover

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

THE WRITER PUBLISHING CO.,
P. O. Box, 1905, Boston, 6, Mass.

I believe that a publishing house of this character could be carried on in such a way as to make it a financial success. There should be one, at least, in every big city in the United States. Later on, if necessary, publishing houses of this kind could be started in the smaller cities and towns throughout the country.

The capital required to run a publishing house of this sort could be obtained by voluntary subscriptions among the writers and their friends. I believe, too, that a certain number of wealthy men could be induced to donate liberal sums of money for it, until it could be established on a paying basis.

Every manuscript sent to The Authors' Publishing House would be examined and passed upon by competent and impartial critics, and if a manuscript were found to possess sufficient merit to warrant publication it would be pub lished and the writer would receive a fair compensation for it.

For my own part I am confident that an Authors' Publishing House can be made a success, and I hope the unknown writers will establish one as soon as possible!

The trouble with this suggestion, which is one that in different forms has been made by many writers who complain that their merit is not recognized by editors and publishers, is that it assumes that an Authors' Publishing House like that proposed would eventually be a paying enterprise. It may be true that many of the thousands of unknown writers in the United States whose writings are being constantly rejected by editors and publishers are talented, but it is probably not true to any great extent that if the rejected manuscripts were published they would be financially successful. Editors and publishers make occasional mistakes in judging manuscripts, and when they do blunder and the fact becomes known, the instances are referred to in print over and over again until some may get the idea that such mistakes are common, but as a rule publishers' Readers have good judgment, and if they agree that publication of a given manuscript will not pay a profit, the chances are that it will not. This may not mean that the manuscript is bad. A book may be excellent from a moral and literary point of view and still be of a nature to appeal to so few people that a publisher would lose money if he printed it. The. pro