"My brow shall be garnished with bays."
AMERICA
Editorial Rooms, Chicago.Aug. 16, 1889.
Dear Mr. Edwards:—
In regard to the enclosed verse, we would take pleasure in publishing it, but before doing so we beg to call your attention to the use of the word "garnish" in the last line of the first verse, and the second line of the second. The general idea of "garnish" is to decorate, or embellish. We say that a beefsteak is "garnished" with mushrooms, and so it would hardly be right to use the word in the sense of crowning a poet with a wreath of bays.
You will pardon us for calling attention to this, but you know that the most serious verse can be spoiled by just such a slip, which of course is made without its character occurring to the mind of the writer.
Yours respectfully,
Slason Thompson & Co.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Mr. Harriman is now with The Ladies' Home Journal.
[IV.]
GETTING "HOOKED UP"
WITH A BIG HOUSE.
It was during the winter of 1892-3 that Edwards happened to step into the editorial office of a Chicago story paper for which he had been writing. His lucky stars were most auspiciously grouped that morning.
We shall call the editor Amos Jones. That was not his name, but it will serve.
Edwards found Jones in a very exalted frame of mind. Before him, on his desk, lay an open letter and a bundle of newspaper clippings. After greeting Edwards, Jones turned and struck the letter triumphantly with the flat of his hand.