(Continued from July WRITER.) Interstate Index, 320 Prudential Building, San Antonio, Texas. James Bennett Wooding, editor. Now the Pioneer, the Magazine of Texas. Iowa Farmer (M), Box 815, Des Moines, Iowa. 35c; 5c. Paul R. Talbot, editor.

Uses short stories, preferring inspirational fiction, with a human interest, jokes, and juvenile matter. Sets length limit at from 800 to 1,500 words, and buys photographs.

Iowa Homestead (W), 1912 West Grand ave., Des Moines, Iowa. $1.00; 5c. Frank G. Moorhead, editor.

Buys agricultural matter, but does not fiction or verse.

use

Jack o' Lantern (M), P. O. Box 668, New Haven, Conn. Harry F. Preller, editor.

Name changed to the Cauldron, and publication discontinued November, 1923. Jersey Bulletin & Dairy World (W), 225 North New Jersey st.. Indianapolis, Ind. $2.00; 5c. Royer H. Brown, editor.

Prints articles and photographs of interest only to dairymen. Does not use fiction nor verse. Sets length limit at 2,500 words, and pays upon acceptance.

Jewish Forum (M), 2000 Broadway, New York. $4.00; 35C. Isaac Rosengarten, editor.

Uses short stories, novelettes, serials, general articles, poetry, humorous verse, and plays, setting length limit at from 2,000 to 3,000 words. Desires articles of literary character, popularly scientific, or humorous, bearing on some current Jewish problem, or giving reliable information as to the Jewish past, and fiction that treats of Jewish life constructively, but no intermarriage stories. Pays upon publication. John Martin's Book (a magazine for little children) (M), 33 West 49th st., New York. $4.00; 40c. John Martin, editor.

Uses verse, stories, and plays for children from three to ten years of age. Sets length limit at from 800 to 2,000 words, and prefers tales of ordinary incident, told in a straightforward way, possibly humorous and certainly interesting stories about engines, airplanes, or anything of mechanical nature, simply and interestingly told, without being too technical for little boys to grasp; good myths; historical tales; but no dream stories or fairy stories. Pays on accep

a

tance.

Journeys Beautiful (M), Nomad Publishing Company, 150 Lafayette st., New York, $6. Wirt W. Barnitz, editor.

Uses general articles on travel, written in narrative form in the first person, with personal experiences and adventure woven into them. Description is wanted, but should not be overdone. Manuscripts should be written in rather a light vein, and good humor is very desirable. No fiction is used, and little verse. Sets length limit at from 1,500 to 2,000 words. Pays for material according to its worth.

Joy of Living (M), 16 Hudson st., New York. Jay Ranz, editor.

Mail returned by the postoffice.

The third printing of this Back numbers can be supplied. the Directory complete, with

Judge (W), Leslie-Judge Company, 627 West 43d st., New York. $5.00; 15c. Norman Anthony, editor.

Uses short, satirical, and humorous verse and jests, short humorous articles, short satires, and humorous poetry. Sets length limit at 350 words. Does not buy photographs. Pays on publication.

Judy's Magazine (M), 1922 Lake st., Chicago, Ill. $1.00; 10c. William Lewis Judy, editor.

Uses short stories, general articles, poetry, humorous verse, and jokes, but no serials, novelettes, plays, or juvenile matter. Prefers fiction of the O. Henry style, with surprise, action, and life in it, showing the twists in human nature. Buys photographs, and pays on acceptance. A complimentary copy will be sent on request to any reader of THE WRITER.

ADDITIONS AND CHANGES. Beautiful America ( M ), 220 West 42d st., New York. $4.00; 35C. Clifford A. Tinker, editor; H. A. Hallenbeck, managing editor.

Uses historical, biographical, travel, and scientific articles and serials, and some poetry, but no fiction, humorous verse, jokes, plays, or juvenile matter. Sets length limit at 4,000 words, buys photographs, and pays on publication. Boys' Gazette (M), Judy Publishing Company, 1922 Lake st., Chicago, Ill. $1.00; 10c.

Vol. I., No. 1, to be published January, 1926. Will print short stories, general articles, and jokes, all of a juvenile nature; no serials, poetry, or humorous verse. Sets length limit at 1,000 words; buys photographs; prefers stories of adventure and out-of-doors; pays two cents a word. Will not be in the market until late in 1926. Flappers' Experience (M). 443 S. Dearborn st., Chicago, Ill. $2.50; 25c. Thomas Levish, editor.

Uses short stories, novelettes, serials, general articles, poetry, humorous verse, jokes, plays, and juvenile matter, setting length limit at 3,000 words. Prefers ghost stories, mystery stories, or humorous stories. Does not buy photographs. Pays on publication.

Laughter (M), Guild Publishing Company, 584 Drexel Building, Philadelphia, Penn. $2.50; 25c. William H. Kofoed, editor.

Vol. I., No. I September, 1925. Uses humorous short stories, not exceeding 4,000 words, and humorous or satirical poetry, jokes, and paragraphs. Occasionally buys photographs, also line and wash drawings and caricatures of up-tothe-minute happenings or foibles in the public eye. Desires no serious matter. Pays on accep

tance.

Nation's Garden (M), Box 907, Wilmington, N. C. 50c.; 5C. Binn H. Butler, editor.

A magazine for the truck, fruit, poultry, and livestock industries of the Southern states. Uses short stories, novelettes, and jokes, but serials, general articles, poetry, or humorous verse. Has departments devoted to agriculture and farm marketing. Sets length limit at 3,000 words, does not buy photographs, and pays after publication.

True Western Stories (M), Street & Smith Corporation, 79 Seventh ave., New York. $2.50; 25c. F. E. Blackwell, editor.

A new monthly magazine, using short stories and novelettes, all told in the first person; general articles; poetry; and humorous verse, but no serials, jokes, plays, or juvenile matter. Sets length limit at from 2,500 to 25,000 words; buys photographs; and pays on acceptance.

1917.

VOL. XXXVII.

The fear that one will some day run dry of Ideas is a ghost that sooner or later presents itself to every professional writer, regardles; of his particular field of activity. When the ghost of Hamlet's father appeared to the soldiers on the castle ramparts they were naturally afraid, but one of the soldiers, Marcellus by name, said to Horatio, Hamlet's particular friend, who happened to be with the soldiers: "Thou art a scholar, speak to it!" There is a worth-while thought here ; the man who is competent to "lay the ghost," as our forefathers would have said, is the man who knows something, and if he knows more than the ghost, it will cease to be. How may we apply this thought to the problem of the writer? The constant effort to think up new ideas, original methods of presentation, and applications that are out of beaten tracks, is admittedly a task that keeps one on the jump

No. 8.

all the time, and it is hardly to be wondered at that to the man or the woman whose livelihood is dependent on writing, there comes this phantom- the fear of sterility of thought. Such a thought should not, however, be entertained, for the simple reason that it is destructive, and as such it has no place in the mind of the creative writer. Versatility is a qualification that may be acquired by any writer, and there is such a constant flood of new light on every possible subject that we have only to keep our thoughts open to impressions in order to get new slants and original ideas. Staleness is more often due to looking at one thing from the same angle all the time than to lack of ideas. We are all grateful, however, to anybody who will show us in a practical manner how to use to the best advantage every constructive thought that comes to us. I have sometimes met a fellow scribe who was afraid to use a new idea more than once; sometimes this was due to an honest fear that using an idea a second time would not be playing the game with the editor who might buy the story or the article in which the idea was played up. I can quite sympathize with this thought, because for a long time I was very diffident about using a good idea in a second article after having sold it once. I soon discovered, however, that this was false reasoning, and that one idea may legitimately be used over and over again without in any way playing false with editors who buy our stuff. Let me give a concrete illustration. In 1920 and 1921, the use of the radio for advertising purposes was hardly thought of, but this possibility appealed quite strongly to me after traveling through the country and noticing how in

small market towns the farmers would congregate after market at the corner drug store for a pow-wow. I noticed also that in the afternoon the local banks were filled with farmers and others, as the farmer would have to bank his money before going home at night. The keen competition between banks, especially in the smaller centres, gave me an idea. Why not have something that will prove a tremendous attraction to the farming coinmunity, in the local bank? Radio! So I wrote an article in which I pictured a small country-town bank in which a radio receiver was installed. Between two and four-thirty, market reports, weather reports, baseball scores, and anything else of interest, would be pulled out of the air and shouted through a loud-speaker to a group of interested farmers gathered in the bank. Well, the article soid on its first trip; Mr. Schryer, the genial and helpful editor of the Burroughs Clearing House, bought it and paid a high price for it. But here was a limited field. I could n't sell another story like this to another banking magazine; but why not apply the idea to other industries and business? This seemed a good suggestion and consequently I wrote an article applying to the corner drug store, and told John how to win popularity and make his place a recognized rendezvous for the farmers on market day. This sold on a second trip to a soda fountain trade paper. Then I started off into new territory. In six months I had sold articles to restaurant and tea-room magazines, using the same idea - the radio as a business getter. I sold articles to religious periodicals and magazines, showing how the radio might solve the problem of the rural church and poor preachers. I sold articles to farm journals and retail-store organs and papers, and all these articles dealt with one idea only, using the radio as an advertising medium.

Of course, the development of radio and the wonderful achievements of the past four years have made all this ancient history; all that I wrote of as future development has been realized, and in some instances surpassed. This is one illustration of how one idea may be worked until it is dry. After the first two or three articles it was easy money, because the articles were written quickly, due to an

increasing knowledge of the subject and the practice already obtained in methods of presentation.

A college student years ago wrote a theme, for which he gathered many facts about an interesting subject. He got a good mark for the theme. The next year he entered a college contest, and expanded his theme into a prize oration, with, which he won a prize of $150. Then he took the same facts, adding others to them by reading and interviewing men well informed on the subject he was treating, and sold a series of articles to newspapers, in which he printed a great deal of new material which he had obtained from the experts. Finally, he expanded this series of articles into a book, which at that time was the latest authority on the subject and so was a great success. The prize oration, the newspaper articles, and the book were all developments of the theme, no one conflicting with the other - the writer simply made the most of his idea. Of course in this case the mass of material grew enormously from the theme to the prize oration, to the newspaper articles, and the book, but the idea was the same in all. Even the same material without addition can be used more than once by varying the point of view and changing the method of treatment. The writer must consider the possibilities of his subject, and in writing a new article must take care that it does not infringe on the rights of the purchasers of what he has written before. If he is contributing to different periodicals, there must be no competition whatever between the periodicals for which he writes.

Three years ago I sold a series of articles on cost-accounting simplified to a leading trade journal. This proved successful to the extent that I was asked to continue as a regular contributor. I then began to look around for more fields to conquer, and very soon had three separate series running on simplified cost accounting, and each one was exclusive - one idea, but presented from different points of view, so different that no one could accuse me of handing out the same material to two or three editors and claiming that each was getting exclusive rights. This work is still going on, and so far I see no end to it. When thinking of a new angle on which to write on this subject I thought of professional jour

nals, and as a result I sold several articles to professional business journals showing why I was writing such a series for a trade journal, and pointing out the need for simplified systems of accounting.

Recently I began to write on printing and advertising subjects. To write on the subject of direct-by-mail advertising, for example, for five printing magazines without repeating oneself may seem like an achievement, but it presented no particular problem after I had studied the subject from different angles and written with different classes of people in mind. It is surprising how opportunities open up before the writer who starts out with the idea of working an idea to the limit. For example, I have found what I fondly believe to be a particular slant on advertising - I may find that it's as old as the hills some day- but to date I have written it up for the printer of advertising matter, and for the buyer of advertising. I have only the one idea, but already it has been sold six times.

While writing some articles for a school board magazine appealing especially to public school officers and committees, I tackled the subject from an entirely different angle and sold articles to municipal journals. When doing this assignment, I became interested in the subject of what is being taught in rural schools. After making some investigations I found that there was a woeful lack of appreciation of the bookkeeping needs of the farming communities. This led me to write articles for farm periodicals on the subject of simple cost methods for farmers, showing

operating cost and profits made on various classes of crops. Using my principle of working an idea to death, I then wrote an article for an educational publication, pointing out that the bookkeeping problems used in rural high schools were all right for brokers' offices, banks, or commercial houses, but that the farmer's financial and accounting problems were not touched. So in this way the idea rolled along, accumulating to itself more opportunities for expression; and it is still active.

Have you ever noticed berry-pickers? They all do one of two things: they either passfrom bush to bush picking off the big fellows or those that fall in their line of vision; or they stick by one bush until it is cleared. In the game of creative writing we are dependent. on Ideas to sell our stuff, and the wise man or woman is the one who stays by one bush until there isn't a berry left. One has to guard. against following a rut, of course, to change the simile, and limiting one's vision to only one aspect of the subject on which he is writing, but this is no more difficult than moving around the bush to get the berries on the other side; on each side we get a different point of view, though we are picking from the same bush all the time.

simply that the audience may learn about it. This accounts for the stereotyped openings in plays in which the French maid tells the butler the intimate relationships of the family life of which both are already perfectly cognizant.

Similarly, things that happen between the acts have to be told by the characters, so that the audience may know of them. If the heroine gets married at the end of the first act and six years elapse between the first and second acts, some character must say at the beginning of the second act: "Well, Margery is n't the same since her marriage," and another character must say: "I did think she would be happy when her child came," and so on, so that the audience will understand the situation when Margery appears on the stage.

These limitations in the play form are largely mechanical and need bother no one. for, after all, the limitations of any art constitute one of its sources of power. We may object because gravity makes us heavy, but if there were no such thing as gravity we should fly off into space. The limitation of gravity is one of the conditions which enable us to move around at all, and the limitations of any art are what enable it to achieve a characteristic expression.

In the play, as in the short story, there must be great economy of means to end. Barrie has said that if your heroine in a play takes off her gloves and puts them on the table, those gloves must be used later in the play. Otherwise, let her keep her gloves on. We have seen that in the short story and the novel we must have an obstacle before we can become interested, but we have also seen that the obstacle can often be disguised, and that there are little breathing spaces, sometimes in the novel long breathing spaces, where the obstacle or struggle or knot is forgotten. We must always in a novel or a short story have a sense of flow or direction, but there are little quiet pools in which we can linger for refreshment and relief.

Not so in the play. It marches from obstacle to obstacle to the final climax and dénouement. The obstacle in the typical play takes the form of active, antagonistic struggle

between persons, forces. In "Macbeth" the real play starts when Macbeth exposes his ambition to be king. Notice how the struggle mounts in it, first his desire to be king and his only way of gratifying it the murder of Duncan. There is a struggle inside himself. The struggle is heightened by the encouragement given him by the witches. There is a struggle between himself and Lady Macbeth in which she bolsters up his courage, and after the murder there is the struggle to escape the consequences. As an example of dramatic climax note the knocking on the gate after Duncan has been murdered. This knocking is probably as productive of terror as anything in literature.

or between persons and

I have mentioned that the obstacles in a story can be reduced to a sense of flow or direction. We could compare the growth of a story-interest to the unfolding of a flower, but a typical play-interest could not be so gentle as that. Also, generally speaking, a story unfolds in one dimension that is, one thing follows another, but a play more nearly approaches two dimensions. We can see several things happening at the same time. Several characters can speak at the same time. A mob scene on the stage would be very easy to render technically. A mob scene in a novel would be more difficult, because we could tell only one thing at a time -a cry from one member of the mob, an answering cry from the victim of it, description of the mob surging, and so on. Such a scene could be beautifully depicted in a novel, but what I am trying to make clear is that it would be a different kind of presentation from what it would be in a play.

The struggle in a play is active, forthright, spectacular, or poignant. Take the first act of O'Neill's "Beyond the Horizon." How strong is the struggle in the hero between his desire to go to sea - here a personification of an inanimate object - and his love desire, which wins at the close of the act, and what a sinking of the heart we have when he succumbs to it-this because O'Neill has skilfully suggested that his hero's choice is an unfortunate one and will have unhappy conse