Editor of THE WRITER:

If you can discover a successful way of conducting a manuscript club, THE WRITER'S fame is made for aye. We have tried it here about five times, but it won't work. Our town is just on the verge of becoming a city you know the kind - and we have about a dozen people who have real ability to write. Two of us brew fiction for the million, three concoct feature articles for the hundreds of thousands, and several distil poetic liqueur for the thousands. Thus, our interests are diverse and when we get bottled up in a room to hear a member read a short story or a poem for criticism-Lordy! We concentrate on technique about as well as a class of high school boys and girls at the giggly age on Geography - with a fire across the street.

Our first club, we called The Authors' Society. When it burned out, after two meetings, we raised the Phoenix number one from its ashes. Then it became apparent that we must get rid of two members one was a nut on advertising and the other had the Browning complex. We lost them by dissolving the club and founding Pheonix number two, sans advertiser and sans the Browning

cheering section. There followed Phoenix number three and number four. The last has just died. When your March number came out, we began to sit up and take notice; partly because of the improvement in the magazine itself, partly because of our particular interest in the club idea. I am going to give you a transcript of an average meeting, not strictly accurate, but quite in keeping with the spirit of the discussion.

The reader braces himself for helpful criticism with a manuscript held tightly in his lap. He begins to read:

"Hell,' said the Duchess, speaking for the first time."

Then they're off. "You can't sell that," opines Mr. Smith. "Too profane. Sweet, simple, and girlish is the only stuff that goes these days."

"Bunk," retorts Mr. Brown. "All the firstraters are doing it. You have got to invoke the Holy Trinity occasionally to put force and color into your stuff. Imagine writing a western story without letting the cowboys cut loose! And how about the crook in the detective story, or the soldier in the war tale? If you try to get breadth of scope in the novel,

you have got to include one good expert in profanity to get a cross-section of the great American peepul."

"Under those circumstances, I think it is justified," pipes up Mrs. Hammerschlagel, poet of sorts, "But I writhe when I read profanity put in the mouths of children. I never can forgive Miss White for making a little girl say 'My mummy and me live in a canal boat. Once she was just called Mary. But she's so damned nasty that Ede calls her Dirty Mary.''

"Of course, I don't like that either," states Miss Jessup, another poet, "but sometimes profanity is very funny in poetry. Do you remember Gamaliel Bradford's verse:

'He asked her if she ever could love him,
She answered him, no, on the spot,
He asked her if she ever could love him,
She assured him again she could not.

He asked if she ever could love him, She laughed till his blushes he hid, He asked if she ever could love him, By God, she admitted she did.'"

Everyone titters and Miss Jessup smiles proudly.

"That reminds me," exclaims Mrs. Hammerschlagel, coming up for her bit of publicity, "of an excruciatingly funny verse that was quoted from the Saturday Review from some Chicago paper I have forgotten which one. It went:

'Amongst all literary scenes,

Saddest are these to me, The graves of little magazines

That died to make verse free.'"

She gets a good round of titters out of that and grins happily. The reader is coughing and sputtering and fuming, trying to get going on the second sentence of his story.

"Do you know," drawls out our advertising friend sententiously, "that Charles Dickens once wrote advertisements for a shoe blacking concern. One of his verses was darned good copy if I do say it myself. It went:

'I pitied the dove for my bosom was tender, I pitied the sigh she gave to the wind, But I ne'er shall forget the superlative splendor

Of Warren's Jet Blacking, the boon of mankind.'"

More titters. The reader is getting purple around the gills. The Browning enthusiast has n't cracked a smile. Now she opens up with grand passion, "How can we ever hope to have true poetry in this country if our verse forms are made ridiculous by this socalled humor? Poetry should never be anything but inspirational. It should always appeal to the higher reaches of the intellect. Now Browning-."

The hostess is watching the reader, wondering just when he is going to explode. She does n't dare wait any longer — smoke is beginning to come out of his ears so she interrupts in desperation, "Don't you really thing we better eat now? I have n't anything very much just coffee and sandwiches. The grocer did n't understand my order. After we have eaten perhaps we can really settle down and listen to Mr. Duckbill read." So it goes. And yet there have been certain times when we really hit our stride that seemed to make the whole thing worth while. Even we old dogs have learned some new tricks and we have put at least one youngster on the map. Whether the time is as well spent as in reading THE WRITER since you have started it spinning so nicely is a question, but the idea of a manuscript club is basically sound and we are all with you in your survey. Best of luck,

J. L.

AMERICA'S HUMOR- Fifth avenue and St. Charles road, Maywood, Illinois, is the new name of the enlarged Ziff's. The magazine is now printing fiction and is in the market for genuinely humorous stories, preferably, as the editor says, "with a sex angle that does n't offend decency nor the mailing laws," containing from 1,200 to 5,000 words. The editor is also very anxious to obtain short verse that is really funny, satirical, or droll, as well as epigrams. In short, the magazine offers a ready market for real humor of any length. VANITY FAIR-19 West Forty-fourth street, New York, is concerned very deeply with the theatre, art, literature, and the other pleasant features of existence in a civilized community; trying to deal with the theatre in an appreciative and yet critical way; trying to be humorous without descending to slap-stick methods; and trying to interest, above all, those people who want to give some time to the pleasures of the intellect in a word, to culture. The magazine does not use short stories, but it does want humorous essays, wittily critical articles, short sketches, and light poems. Manuscripts should contain about 2,000 words.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON, INC. PRESS SERVICE -542 Fifth avenue, New York, is in the market for tabloid short stories, not exceeding 1,200 words, of love, mystery, and adventure. DREYFUSS ART COMPANY, INC. - 514 Broadway, New York, will pay one dollar a line for good Valentine verses for mother, sweetheart, intimate friend, wife, sister, "my other mother," and acquaintances.

THE MYSTERY MAGAZINE is again being published by Louis F. Wilzin-1133 Broadway, New York, as a semi-monthly, beginning with the January first issue. Robert Simpson, the editor, says his announcement in the January number fairly covers his manuscript wants. He wants mystery stories of all kinds, not necessarily having to do with detectives, or crime, or jewels that have gone astray through no fault of their own. He does not want the Mystery Magazine to read as if it were an extract from the annals of the Tombs or of Scotland Yard; he does want a fair proportion of detective or crime stories that have a generous element of mystery in their make-up, but he wants the other kind, too all kinds of the other kind. There are mystery stories without an ounce of adven

ture or criminal action in them; humorous stories of the occult, of Far East mysticism, quests and adventures which legimately come under the head of mystery. Short stories should contain from 3,000 to 6,000 words; novelettes, from 12,000 to 20,000 words; and serials, from 40,000 to 80,000 words. Mr. Simpson buys poetry that is suitable for the magazine, and half-page fillers having to do with mystery, such as superstitions, haunted houses, occultism, and fantasies of the unusual type. In short, Mystery Magazine hopes to establish itself as a medium for thoroughly well-written, well-built stories that depend in great part upon mystery for their major appeal.

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC OFFICIAL MAGAZINE -Terre Haute, Indiana, the first issue of which will be the April number, is a magazine of public administration, to be circulated among public officials of State, County, and City buildings through the country. C. E. Pendergast, the editor, wants stories of success, especially of men in public life, or of public officials; stories relating to political subjects; and some historical items.

TRAVEL-7 West Sixteenth street, New York, needs short material, of from 1,000 to 2,000 words, on travel features, preferring the article that combines factual material with human interest, and that focuses directly on some particular phase of life in foreign countries. The magazine does not want the generally descriptive type of article, and at present is somewhat overstocked with Asiatic material, and could use some stories on Europe to advantage.

THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY-Ford, Ontario, Canada, announce the publication of two house organs the Ford News, a purely institutional magazine in which stories, articles, and photographs of Ford products in the British Empire will appear. Contributions should have a literary flavor rather than that of aggressive sales material; and the Ford Salesman, designed entirely for the selling organization of the Ford Motor Company of

Canada. Contributions should be written with the primary object of stimulating sales among dealers and salesmen. Payment for manuscripts and photographs will be made upon acceptance.

AMAZING STORIES - Experimenter Publishing Company, 53 Park place, New York, the first issue of which is that for April, will print nothing but the Jules Verne and H. G. Wells type of pseudo-scientific stories. The magazine wishes short stories and novels of "scientifiction" type, and will pay for them at regular space rates.

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THE NATIONAL AD-ART SYNDICATE Pratt street, Hartford, Conn., is in the market for good art ideas that can be syndicated to newspaper and national advertisers.

FAWCETT'S MAGAZINE TRUE CONFESSIONS Robbinsdale, Minn., is combining both titles to avoid confusion among its readers. True stories of colorful romance are wanted, but confessions which rely on sub rosa affairs of the heart are absolutely barred, and writers. will save time by being their own censors and remembering that a good story plot, with dramatic and emotional treatment, is what is wanted. Stories should not exceed 6,000 words, and at present the magazine offers a good market for serials of about 30,000 words, in five instalments.

for boys of late high school or early college age.

SUCCESS MAGAZINE-251 Fourth avenue, New York, is in the market at the present time only for manuscripts of a striking character, suitable for feature purposes. ONWARD Box 1176, Richmond, Virginia, offers a market for good stories for boys of from sixteen to twenty. Stories may be of college type or show how character is developed by difficulty of one sort or another, but they must have an uplifting tendency. THE SMART SET 119 West Fortieth street, New York, wants more smart stories. Mr. Tremaine says he has been getting plenty of the "cut-to-pattern" variety, and he is looking for the sort that will keep editors awake reading them. He adds that first-person style is not synonymous with a cramped style, and cites Poe's "Murders of the Rue Morgue" as an example.

BOYS' LIFE 200 Fifth avenue, New York, is not in need of any specific kind of manuscripts, but it is always in the market for exceptionally good stories, of from 2,500 words to 4,000 words.

HOW TO SELL- Mount Morris, Illinois, wants articles, not exceeding 2,500 words, in the form of interviews with unusually successful salesmen or saleswomen who sell something direct to the user or consumer at retail; accounts of actual selling experiences, written in the first person, and giving practical information as to how successful sales of one sort or another have been made, and showing why selling efforts in specific cases were unsuccessful; and brief humorous anecdotes with a sales flavor, or put into the mouths of salesmen. Photographs should accompany articles when possible. The magazine uses inspirational poetry, securing it for the most part from syndicates. One dollar each is paid for the first three jokes published in the "Side Line of Selling Laughs" department, and fifty cents for each other used. Three-quarters of a cent a word on acceptance is usually paid, or about one cent a word on publication.

THE CALGARY EYE-OPENER Box 218, Minneapolis, Minn., announces that it is fairly well supplied with epigrams, verse, and short gags, and that it now wants funny stories, or jokes, of from two to four inches in length, standard column width. A minimum of five dollars is paid for all acceptable stories. CAPTAIN'S BILLY'S WHIZ BANG- Robbinsdale, Minn., offers each month a ten-dollar prize for the best "crazy" poem, similar to the oft-quoted

""Twas midnight on the ocean,

Not a street car was in sight."

Good, lively jokes are also wanted for its "Colored Wit" contest, and five dollars is offered each month for the best negro story. Smokehouse poetry, original epigrams, and bright, breezy bits of humor with a rural slant are always wanted.

WALLACE'S FARMER Des Moines, Iowa, is well stocked on material, and is not likely to be in the market for anything for at least a couple of months.

THE POSTER 307 South Green street, Chicago, is the official publication of the Outdoor Advertising Association, circulating among advertising managers, art directors and artists, educational institutions, and business executives. It is devoted exclusively to poster designing and painted outdoor bulletins, and wants articles dealing with specific advertising campaigns by reputable companies where the outdoor medium has been used, either alone or in conjunction with newspapers, magazines, or other recognized mediums. It is also interested in well-done business articles of interest to executives, especially those having intelligent analyses of marketing conditions. Manuscripts should not exceed 2,000 words, and good photographs are a requisite. The Poster is particularly anxious to obtain writers who have, or are able to acquire, the poster viewpoint. It follows that these writers must of necessity have considerable background; in other words, there is not much chance of acceptance of articles from writers