ther like
myself.' Finally, the creature's reproaches grew intolerable; so I threw
the bundle of papers behind the fire, and he vanished. One had
discovered by this time that for the making even of a tolerable novel it
is necessary to leave off copying other people, to observe on your own
account, to study realities, to get out of the conventional groove, to
rely upon one or other of the great emotions of human nature, and to try
to hold the reader by dramatic presentation rather than by talk. I do
not say that this discovery came all at once, but it came gradually, and
it proved valuable.

[Illustration: drawing signed: Yours faithfully James Rice]

One more point. A second assertion is continually being heard concerning
editors. It is said that they do not read contributions offered to them.
When editors publicly advertise that they do not invite contributions,
or that they will not return contributions, it is reasonable to suppose
that they do not read them. Well, you have heard my first experience
with a publisher. Hear next an experience with editors. It is, first, to
the fact that contributions _are_ read by editors that I owe my
introduction to James Rice and my subsequent collaboration with him. It
was, next, to an unsolicited contribution that I owed a connection of
many years with a certain monthly magazine. It was, lastly, through an
unsolicited contribution that I became and continued for some time a
writer of leading articles for a great London daily. Therefore, when I
hear that editors will not read contributions, I ask if things have
changed in twenty years--and why?

I sent a paper, then, unasked, and without introduction, to the editor
of _Once a Week_. The editor read it, accepted it, and sent it to the
press. Immediately afterwards he left the journal because it was sold to
Rice, then a young man, not long from Cambridge, and just called to the
Bar. He became editor as well as proprietor. The former editor forgot to
tell his successor anything about my article. Rice, finding it in type,
and not knowing who had written it, inserted it shortly after he took
over the journal, so that the first notice that I received that the
paper was accepted was when I saw it in the magazine, bristling with
printer's errors. Of course I wrote indignantly to the editor. I
received a courteous reply begging me to call. I did so, and the matter
was explained. Then for a year or two I continued to send things to
_Once a