Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1884 — “Available” Manuscripts. [ARTICLE]

“Available” Manuscripts.

Some months since the “Easy Chair” endeavored to soothe the minds of authors who are naturally disappointed by the return of their manuscripts by a plain narration of the facts in a recent case, where the writer was sure that the editor had been caught tripping, and had even returned a paper without reading it. Indeed, there seems to be a widespread suspicion that this particular wrong to the author is vary common, and manuscripts are often received for examination with dexterous little devices to test the actuality of the examination. This fact enables the “Easy Chair” to remind poets and other kind contributors that they have not probably found it necessary to read Pollok’s “Course of Time” from the first word to the last to determine whether it was a poem to their taste, and to suggest that a few pages of Tupper undoubtedly authorized them to pronounce upon his comparative merit with Milton and Shakspeare. Is it really necessary to read every page in a book to discover that it is not worth reading ? If a manuscript of 500 pages or less, therefore, be intrusted to the editor for examination, it is not necessary for him to ponder every page in order to reach a satisfactory opinion of its suitability. So if the stitch ingeniously inserted from pages 40 to 50 be intact when the manuscript returns, it does not demonstrate that the editor betrayed his trust. In the instance to which the “Easy Chair” has alluded the author cited dates and postmarks to prove that the paper had been returned without examination. The author was undoubtedly of that opinion, but a few plain words from the editor were conelusive upon the point that it had been carefully considered, and had been declined for reasons perfectly satisfactory to the editor. To complain that they are satisfactory to h m is to complain that he is himself ml not another. Jb'or it will perhaps occur to every writer who sends a paper for consideration that he sends it because he thinks it to lie ireculiarly suitable for publication in tae Magazine, and, consequently, if the judgment of the author should" decide. it might be properly assumed that Everything which is submitted would be accepted. In that event the world would not contain the volumes of magazines that must be printed. But the “Easy Chair” has never alleged that articles are accepted or declined solely upon their abstract merits. On the contrary, any such judgment is carefully disclaimed, and it is announced plainly that the verdict is rendered solely upon the ground of availibility. The “Easy Chair” is of opinion

that the editor would have returned Jonathan Edwards’ treatise upon the will had it been offered for serial publication in the Magazine, but solely for the reason that he did not think it to suitable for the Miaydsine. So if the correspondent’s epic, or lyric, or es§ay, or sketch, or tale, or whatever his offering may have been, was returned, it was ndt because it was thought not to be meritorious, but because it was not available.—George William Curtis, in Harper’s Matatine.