Five pages about Eugene Field's ancestors. All dead.

17 + 4 + 5 = 26.

36 - 26 = 10.

Two pages about Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Three-fourths page about a bad poet and his indifference to—German.

Two pages of his poetry.

2 + ¾ + 2 = 4¾.

10 - 4¾ = 5¼. Not enough to criticise.

What your magazine needs is an editor—presumably older, preferably American, and indubitably alive. At least awake. It is your inning.

Sincerely yours, Ambrose Bierce.