large number of sonnet writers that the state afforded, the competition having been limited to Michigan authors. The winning manuscripts are being published in the Detroit Sunday News-Tribune. E. Cora DePuy. DETROIT, Mich. THE SCRAP BASKET. Mrs. A few words about the "Scribblers" of Selma, Ala., may interest WRITER readers. The club is composed of women who are seriously playing "the writing game," trying for dear life to win the prize, success. There are some who write short stories, some who are press correspondents, and some who are “just writing." There is a small admission fec paid at the beginning of each fall, making a fund with which we buy a few of the valuable new books helpful to writers. These books are kept at a certain place and circulated as the members wish them. Some of our members have been quite successful and have disposed of their manuscripts to advantage. Katherine Hopkins Chapman is the beloved president of the club, and with her splendid leadership for inspiration we all expect to "arrive" some sweet day. We never carry our feelings to the club, but our articles and stories are read and our little methods are discussed. The club is truly no mutual admiration society, but one formed for mutual improvement. We can even note our own progress. There are many Southern writers who are going to the reading world some day, and we are hoping all the " Scribblers" will be among the number who win laurel wreaths of Myrtiline Hall Kirkpatrick. success. SELMA, Ala. when fortunately a copy of THE WRITER fell into my hands. The article by Arthur Fosdick in the May number impressed me so that I revised a series of children's stories that I had never tried to sell. My success was immediate. The material had fallen into the right hands, and today I received check and notification that "The Adventures of Piang, the Jungle Boy," was accepted. I have lived in Borneo, where the scene of these stories is laid, and felt sure of their value if I could find the market, and through THE WRITER I was successful, and I wish to thank you for the help. CONCORD, N. H. F. P. S. Answering Mr. Neal's critical remarks in the June WRITER about proofreaders, I should like to say as regards the alterations in Lowell's poem, "The Snowfall," to which Mr. Neal takes exception, that no proofreader ever directly or remotely suggested the change, which was made by the poet himself after due consideration. It would have been an unheard-of thing for a proofreader to make such a change, especially as Mr. Lowell was furnished with sheets of all his verse and prose (the publishers having arranged with him for a definitive edition) upon which he, with the counsel of his friend Charles Eliot Norton, placed what he desired to stand as his mature judgment, correcting a surprising number of errors, inaccuracies, faults of metre, etc. It is impossible to say now whether the revised reading was Lowell's or Professor Norton's, but the change was made by, or with the approval of, the poet. Arthur Pemberton. NEWARK, N. J. I note that in a recent issue of THE WRITER, your correspondent, Mr. Neal, takes issue with a supposed proofreader's change in one of James Russell Lowell's poems. These afterthoughts of great poets are not infrequent. Longfellow is said to have de "Now low on the sand, now loud on the ledge, Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides,". because Tennyson, whose "Maud" bore almost the same date of publication (one in Boston, the other in London ), had written in that famous poem "Now low on the sand, now loud on the stone, The hoof-beats died away." An actual editorial change was urged upon the poet Whittier, who wrote for Our Young Folks some verses beginning "Still sits the schoolhouse by the road, And blackberry vines are running." Hundreds of school-children "spoke this piece"; it was misdelivered (and often misprinted) Still sits by the schoolhouse on the road, Teachers called attention to its crudeness of form, and many people wrote to Whittier at Amesbury, asking for an explanation of the first stanza. At last he took up the verses for a volume to be published, and Lucy Larcom, or J. T. Trowbridge, suggested as a better rendering "Still sits the schoolhouse by the road, trate poems, nature, marine, and childhood studies. The Woodward & Tiernan Printing Company (Calendar Dept.) St. Louis, wants pictures of home scenes, animal, juveniles, and pets. John Martin's Book (Garden City, N. Y.) at present needs good, zippy constructive stuff for boys stories about engines, aeroplanes, or anything of a mechanical nature, simply and interestingly told, without being too technical for little boys to grasp. The magazine is surfeited with dream stories and fairy stories, but would like some good myths and historical stories. Holland's Magazine (Dallas, Texas > wants a good, live serial of from 40,000 to 75,000 words. Judge (New York) especially wants some good short humorous stories and sketches. The Ladies' World (New York) is looking for some good clean fiction that will in terest women. Leslie's Weekly (New York) is always in the market for good news photographs. Letters addressed to the Literary Magazine, National Publishing Company, Buffalo, N. Y., are returned by the post office. The Lyceum World (Indianapolis) is looking for something new and out of the ordinary that will interest people who attend lyceum and Chautauqua courses. McClure's Magazine (New York) especially needs some good short fiction. The Miscellany (Cleveland), the official organ of the American Bookplate Society, would like some interesting articles in re "Ex Libris." The Famous Players Film Company, 124 West Fifty-sixth street, New York, offers to pay $1,000 for each thousand-word synopsis containing a strong, clean, original idea upon which a five-reel photo play can be based. It says: "We do not desire the complete scenario merely submit the idea in a detailed synopsis. We do not want stories of crime, war, woman suffrage, capital and labor, politics, local subjects, costume periods, or foreign settings." W. A. Brady, director-general of the World Film Corporation, New York, is offering prizes aggregating $5,000 for the nineteen best subjects for film plays submitted between now and September 1. "Newspaper men," says Mr. Brady, "have, perhaps, the greatest faculty for getting out of a situation pathos, human interest, and romance, and I know that with their universal knowledge, their constant contact with life, their peculiar faculty for getting to the meat of a story, if they would devote a few of their many spare hours to concocting plots and stories, we could depend on them for at least fifty per cent. of the material required for moving picture making." The prize contest is open to amateur or professional alike and Mr. Brady will read and judge every manuscript received. The Sinai Social Centre, 4622 Grand Boulevard, Chicago, offers prizes of $250 and $150 for the best one-act plays on Jewish life submitted before October 16, 1916. Plays must be in one act, not playing less than one half hour or more than one hour. After the first production at Sinai Social Centre the plays will become the property of the authors. An author may send in as many manuscripts as he desires in separate packages. To stimulate the composition of music for the piano, the Musician (Boston) offers prizes of $100, $75, two of $50, and four of $35 each, for piano music. All manuscripts must be received by October 2. The St. Louis Art League, to encourage the production and appreciation of poetry in America, has offered a prize of $100 for the best lyric poem to be sent to the league before December 1. The competition is not William Grant Barney, who wrote the story, "Skis and a Cougar," which was printed in the Youth's Companion for May 25, is a mining engineer rather than a writer, although in college times he was an editor of the Cornell Sun, and, later, of Cornell's When he literary monthly, the Review. graduated from college, the way seemed to open more easily along newspaper lines than in engineering, and he became a special writer and then city editor on the Buffalo Courier, and afterward editorial writer and assistant managing editor on the Buffalo News. Then the chance came to him to get into his real profession, engineering, at a much better remuneration than he could hope for as a newspaper man, and he took it, and has been an engineer, largely in mining work, ever since. Such work has taken him into the West, Mexico, and Canada, and naturally in the course of it he has run across a good deal of material fitted to be the basis of stories some of them more than a little out of the ordinary. "Skis and a Cougar" is one of three or four short fact-narratives that Mr. Barney has written for the Youth's Companion in the last year or so, and he has put some longer and more elaborate tales into fiction for the monthly magazines, several of them, "The Crisis at Hidden Treasure," "The Silver Lining," "An Underground Flashlight," among others, having appeared in the People's Magazine. Gerald Chittenden, whose story, "A Business Proposition," appeared in Scribner's Still sits the schoolhouse by the road, A ragged beggar sunning; And blackberry vines are running." Hundreds of school-children "spoke this piece"; it was misdelivered (and often misprinted) "Still sits by the schoolhouse on the road, Teachers called attention to its crudeness of form, and many people wrote to Whittier at Amesbury, asking for an explanation of the first stanza. At last he took up the verses for a volume to be published, and Lucy Larcom, or J. T. Trowbridge, suggested as a better rendering "Still sits the schoolhouse by the road, And blackberry vines are creeping." According to Mr. Neal's theory, this must have robbed the stanza at once of all its poetry yet this form has steadily appeared in the Whittier editions; while the old magazine files, and some old letters, testify to the earlier reading. Must poets be infallible? Look at "Queen Mab," even the earlier Browning verse, and we surely do not revere the quaint old misprinted Vinegar and Breeches Bibles. OLD CAMBRIdge. THE MANUSCRIPT MARKET. [This information as to the present special needs of various periodicals comes directly from the editors. Particulars as to conditions of prize offers should be sought from those offering the prizes. ] The Southern Architectural and Business News (Atlanta) wants photographs to illus trate poems, nature, marine, and childhood studies. The Woodward & Tiernan Printing Company (Calendar Dept.) St. Louis, wants pictures of home scenes, animal, juveniles, and pets. John Martin's Book (Garden City, N. Y.) at present needs good, zippy constructive stuff for boys stories about engines, aeroplanes, or anything of a mechanical nature, simply and interestingly told, without being too technical for little boys to grasp. The magazine is surfeited with dream stories and fairy stories, but would like some good myths and historical stories. Holland's Magazine (Dallas, Texas > wants a good, live serial of from 40,000 to 75,000 words. Judge (New York) especially wants some good short humorous stories and sketches. The Ladies' World (New York) is looking for some good clean fiction that will in terest women. Leslie's Weekly (New York) is always in the market for good news photographs. Letters addressed to the Literary Magazine, National Publishing Company, Buffalo, N. Y., are returned by the post office. The Lyceum World (Indianapolis) is looking for something new and out of the ordinary that will interest people who attend lyceum and Chautauqua courses. McClure's Magazine (New York) especially needs some good short fiction. The Miscellany (Cleveland), the official organ of the American Bookplate Society, would like some interesting articles in re Ex Libris." " The Famous Players Film Company, 124 West Fifty-sixth street, New York, offers to pay $1,000 for each thousand-word synopsis containing a strong, clean, original idea upon which a five-reel photo play can be based. It W. A. Brady, director-general of the World Film Corporation, New York, is offering prizes aggregating $5,000 for the nineteen best subjects for film plays submitted between now and September 1. Newspaper men," says Mr. Brady, "have, perhaps, the greatest faculty for getting out of a situation pathos, human interest, and romance, and I know that with their universal knowledge, their constant contact with life, their peculiar faculty for getting to the meat of a story, if they would devote a few of their many spare hours to concocting plots and stories, we could depend on them for at least fifty per cent. of the material required for moving picture making." The prize contest is open to amateur or professional alike and Mr. Brady will read and judge every manuscript received. The Sinai Social Centre, 4622 Grand Boulevard, Chicago, offers prizes of $250 and $150 for the best one-act plays on Jewish life submitted before October 16, 1916. Plays must be in one act, not playing less than one half hour or more than one hour. After the first production at Sinai Social Centre the plays will become the property of the authors. An author may send in as many manuscripts as he desires - in separate packages. To stimulate the composition of music for the piano, the Musician (Boston) offers prizes of $100, $75, two of $50, and four of $35 each, for piano music. All manuscripts must be received by October 2. The St. Louis Art League, to encourage the production and appreciation of poetry in America, has offered a prize of $100 for the best lyric poem to be sent to the league before December 1. The competition is not confined to St. Louis, but is open to any American. The Twentieth Century Club of Detroit offers prizes of $20, $10, and $5 for the three best stories, containing between 2,000 and 5,000 words, illustrating the effects of cigarette smoking. The design is to gather high-grade material for a volume of anticigarette stories to place in school libraries. Mrs. O. A. Angstman, 277 Putnam avenue, Detroit, Michigan, is chairman of the committee. WRITERS OF THE DAY. William Grant Barney, who wrote the story, "Skis and a Cougar," which was printed in the Youth's Companion for May 25, is a mining engineer rather than a writer, although in college times he was an editor of the Cornell Sun, and, later, of Cornell's literary monthly, the Review. When he graduated from college, the way seemed to open more easily along newspaper lines than in engineering, and he became a special writer and then city editor on the Buffalo Courier, and afterward editorial writer and assistant managing editor on the Buffalo News. Then the chance came to him to get into his real profession, engineering, at a much better remuneration than he could hope for as a newspaper man, and he took it, and has been an engineer, largely in mining work, ever since. Such work has taken him into the West, Mexico, and Canada, and naturally in the course of it he has run across a good deal of material fitted to be the basis of stories some of them more than a little out of the ordinary. "Skis and a Cougar" is one of three or four short fact-narratives that Mr. Barney has written for the Youth's Companion in the last year or so, and he has put some longer and more elaborate tales into fiction for the monthly magazines, several of them, "The Crisis at Hidden Treasure," "The Silver Lining," "An Underground Flashlight," among others, having appeared in the People's Magazine. Gerald Chittenden, whose story, "A Business Proposition," appeared in Scribner's |