"We have heard nothing from you since receipt of your telegram to take all work out of your hands. This, of course, we attended to at once, but on your account, as well as our own, we were very sorry to learn that you found it necessary to give up the work, and trust that the illness from which you are suffering will not be lasting.... If, in future, you should be able to write again, we shall try to find a place for your work."
So the old firm and Edwards parted for a time. A few weeks proved the mining venture a failure, and $10,000 which Edwards had put away out of the profits of his writing had vanished—gone to make the failure memorable. Nor had his health returned.
In some desperation, just before New Year's of '97, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards entrained for New York, Edwards pinning his hopes to Harte & Perkins. He had less than $100 to his name when he and his wife reached the metropolis.
One hundred dollars will not carry a man and his wife very far in New York, even when both are in good health and the man can work. Ambition alone kept Edwards alive and gave him hope for the future.
The Factory out-put for 1895:
| 3 | Five-Cent Libraries at $50 each | $ 150. |
| 29 | Five-Cent Libraries at $40 each | 1160. |
| 2 | Detective stories at $40 each | 80. |
| 2 | Ten-Cent Library stories at $50 each | 100. |
| "Little Bluebell," serial | 200. | |
| "A Weird Marriage," | 300. | |
| ———— | ||
| $ 1990. | ||
| Detroit Free Press, Contributions | 22. | |
| ———— | ||
| Total | $ 2012. | |
For 1896:
| 24 | Five-Cent Libraries at $40 each | $ 960. | |
| Short fiction | 71. | 50 | |
| ———— | |||
| Total | $ 1031. | 50 | |
For cold brutality perhaps the rejection slip worded as below is unequalled:
We are sorry to return your paper, but you have written on it.
Respectfully yours,
The Editor.
Before Mr. Karl Edwin Harriman, of The Red Book, had ventured into the editorial end of the writing trade, he wrote an article on an order from a certain Eastern magazine. Later, that magazine decided that it could not use the article, although it had been paid for, and, with Mr. Harriman's permission, turned it over to an agent to market elsewhere.
The agent, not knowing Mr. Harriman had associated himself with a certain magazine, sent the manuscript to that publication, in the ordinary way.
It was up to Mr. Harriman, then, to consider it in an editorial capacity. He was unable to purchase the manuscript, and returned it to the agent with a reproof for having submitted such an article, and indicating that the author had a great deal to learn before he could feel justified in seeking a market among the best known magazines.