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(Copyright. 1920. by W.’ D. Boyce
VOL Xl.Vlli. MAY 15. 1520.
Entered u second-class matter June 24.
1885. It the pustoiilce at Chicago, iliinoin.
under‘ KL‘! 06 March 1. 1573.
Published Every Saturday g
W.‘ D. BOYCE CO., CHICAGO, ILL
soo-an x..rtn.iu.-.ri...m Street.
suzscmrriox r..i'n;>.
Single subscription! to the Chicago Ledger
mail ear issues). 51.00 ror
Co.)
N0. 20.
u
so
:-
Chicago
our paper shows the date
to which your subscription is paid.
single copies. 5 cents.
BACK 5 L'.Vll.X E35.
3.‘... numbers 'or the Ledger promptly
mailed. Always give Ill! dates desired, plainly
written. lCC0l'nDiiDiEd by your (bill address.
Price 5 cents per copy
ADVERTISING RATES. >
For Display. $3.00 each Agate Line: for
Clssslhed, 1:‘: cents a war per insertion rnr
circulation of the Cliictlgn Ledger Ind The
sarui-nay Blade combined.
All rights in stories purchl-ed’hy the
Ledger revert to the author fol owing their
pu icn e y us. persons are warn:
‘attains! reprinting lhenhi without arm ohuinlng
r or.
the consent or the nu
GENTLE J ABS.
Truth and trouble play no favorites.
And'tbe old hen moves in a set of her
OVIIL I
High words are apt to consist of low,
language.
Blessings of poverty’; y look good to
the millionaire.
A man may be driven. but a woman
must be coaxe ‘
: ‘
a great hope is erected on a
small foundation,
A “duck or a man“ often makes a
goose of a husband.
And the lullaby is responsible for
many a kid-napping.
Sometimes a man‘s past taiies a short
cut. and heads or! his future.
After some men get a start in life
they don't know when to stop.
man usually drops his prosperous
' look when a bill collector calls. ‘ >
The average reporter is asvaccurata
us the average man he interviews.
man is compelled to ‘eat his
W en n
words his appetite is quickly satisiled.
Many a woman's makeup prevents her
from holding the mirror up to nature.
. The Blanks treat their mother shame-
fully-they no longer laugh at her
jokes. ' , .
. Having tlgured out his income tax. the
tired business man feels Ihat’he could
demonstrate the binomial theorem with
his eyes shut. r - "
Telling a man not to worry is about
as effective as warning is small boy not
to eat too much. -
What everybody knows is not enough
with which to run a bootblack stand, let
alone a government.
contrary that if their
Men are so
V ‘wives wanted them to stay out late they
probably wouldn't do it.
When a very young man is in love .it
is hard to interest him in things per-
taining to the next-world.
The street faker reaps a golden har-
vest every time he t
Wants something for nothing.
&n
Every time a married man lets out the
remark that he is free from worry and
care. other married men give him the
. merry grin.
This is,our idea of hospitality’. We
load people down with kindness until
their backs break. and then wonder why
they dou’t die happy. ‘
"When you hear a comic stage sl-tit."
we are asked. "do you applaud the au-
thor of the lines or the comedian who
speaks them?" The author, if it is not
too much of a. strain! lf itxis. we ap-
plaud the comedian, lest those around
us take us for A critic or theater em-
Dloye. ‘
faces a crowd tha
space to a former member of the
Ledger editorial stall. whose talk,
based upon the remarkable experience
of having been part of the stad’ of this
famous weekly for twenty years cannot
fail to be of interest to all readers. Mr.
Kerr, altho having retired from active
editorial work for over two years now,
nevertheless watches with keen inter-
est each and every issue which comes
from the plant. Mr. Kerr will now
take the speaker's chair.
2 3 o s
TIlE> Editor’ this week gives his
3
A kind but thoughtless fairy in the
Ledger editorial office has invited me to
be reminiscent, to say some intimate
and personal things about myself as a
fictionist and as a former member of
the Ledger stall accompany my
stories, which appear from time to time
here. I accept with alacrity. It is a
new experience, being the first time in
my life, I think, that I have deliberate-
ly sat down to write about myself. To
one who for forty years has written
about others, mostly about people‘0l
the imagination, this attempt at self-
publication comes as a decided innova-
tion. It has, too, the spice of danger.
for no doubt it must be even easier to
lie about oneself than about other peo-
ple. and of course to the barn notion
writer lying must be as natural as eat-
ing.
Others
very pretty. things. and some
pretty. but
not so
need of self-etfacement when the editors
of 0's Who" ask one for the facts
down close to the vanishing point. That
readers may taste personal history dis-
CHICACO L1::DGE'IE
have written about me. some‘
whittie biography .
bodily by an eastern writer and pub-
lished in the Metropolitan Magazine.
For this theft the name of
trstor was ‘at
‘blacklist in all the principal magazine
editorial omces of the country. ‘
But perhaps -of larger moment and in-
readers is the fact
every week for-twenty years. helping to
select all its stories. ‘
“'2 bought during that long Mretch of
years hundreds of thousands of dollars
worth of sfories, probably a larger amount
thru our hands to readers in a parts
f the United States, Canada and the
Islands of the sea. A momentous and
responsible thing this work was-yes,
indeed. - .
Yet. my conscience is clear. I never
ceased to aim that all Ledger stories,
interesting, should
heir general enact
honor, an that sin
and crime are dangerous iireworks
play with. lifetim of observation
has condrmed me in the conviction that
this last statement is everlastiugly and
bitterly true. 7
on the whole. I believe the Ledger. as
an instrument of influence. -has been not
only entertaining but widely instructive
ture is in essence more criminal than the
injury human bodies by physical
23.!) "
one of the greatest pleasures of my
Ledger dur-
0 Years and to observe
has not only lived up to the old
traditions. but has forged steadily on-‘
Rimles of the Times
BYLLSIR. .
‘To A DEPABTED coox - ‘ v
I
All the
Just s.-wearyin‘ for y
time a-feelin‘ hlu
DU.
The girl that Bureau sent won't do- T‘
'e're it-weal-yin’ for you.
Used to howl so for
’. ' -Momin‘ comes-the kids awal-te;k -
your cake.
' Now there's anguish in the no
[99
That come sobbing from their throats.
The puppy seems to miss you, too-- it
All a-wearyin' for you.
Evenin' comes. we miss you more,
When the guests are at the door.
Jvhlle we're a-wearyin' for you!
In): srmn of THE DIVAN
She wanted the gold and she got it: -
She tolled and she slaved for fair:
And at last she struck a high grade
ore-
She married A millionaire. ,
SPRING OVEBHAULING
There was at young fellow named Bell,
Who liked common denim so we
He wore overalls -
To snquets and balls-
And overhauled H. C. of L.
tilled to the last drop, here is what
" 'ho's Who" says about me:
‘Alvah Milto K editor, author;
haw. July 20, 1353: son
ar uECCI. Sanders Kerr:
schools. Monroe.
it-graph service and
consin; r ed; to
train dispatcher. 1875 to 1383: editor and
mar
consecutively editor
associate editor Bel-
w
I) I UP-ti)-Dale.
ford’: Magazine; editor Iroquois hing-
zine, s d. the past sixteen
irears on the editorial stad of he
sophical
1 92; "Heroes 0
“Two Young inventors," 1904:
Blond Key." 1907. Address 500 North
Desrborn street. Chicago."
There it is. Certainly a brief chron-
icle or it ‘etime approaching the
biblical limit of three score Years and
ten. But prev the merit of often
is not worth
more years should be added to the six-
teen, making my o on the edi-
torial staff of the Chicago Ledger Just.
twenty years; also the fact that during
those twenty years I contributed stories
sucoessruily to the Saturday Evening
Post, Cosmopolitan lit.-izazine. hlcclurezq
iliagazlne, Collier's ‘Veekly. The lied
Book and Blue Book. The Youth's Com-
panion. lllunsey’s Magazine. Success
Magazine and other periodicals. besides
having 5 story of mine. which had ap-
peared in the Youth's Companion. stolen
3" came w hit
ntenss, dramatic,
KEIUDUS. Dassionate and alluring,
they can at the same time
fiction has not done more"than the
preachers in modern times to civilize
mankind. Having beengin the fiction
business thru the larger part of a life.
me. I naturally hope so,
The growth of the Ledger's circula-
tion has been interesting. When I am:
in 1893 it was printed all
in black. contained eight pages and was
of newspaper Boyce bought
almost the nrst color-printing press
built in the United States, and under his
instruction we changed the Ledger from
its newspaper shape to its present mags.
lino 10"". Drinting it in colors. It had
a relatively small circulation
time, t in those years its circulation
increased steadily year after Year until
it reached phenomenal figures. which it
has maintained. Much of this success
was due to Mr. W. D. Boyce himself,
who is 9. Eenius in organization and the
management of newspapers and periodi-
cas. V
having written down some of
real life it not told in this fashion: his
nrivatrlife. his inner mental life, his
the time placed oiIvthe'
rider
at that
A Talk of Interest to Old iedger Readers
spiritual experience, hisAdeepest joys and
rrows. are hardly for the publi ,But
written tion that has
my
Wisconsin.
ness he die
gion where there were tens of thou-
sands of acres of timber. There I had
fifteen years of country life. which gave
me knowledge of all sorts of trees and
animals. domestic and wild and an ac-
quaintance with farming and country
people. Following this came fifteen years
in small and medium sized country
town chiefly as telegraph operator and
train dispatcher, out of whic grew my
stories of railroad -life years afterward;
many respects the most amazing 0! a
earth's great c
.My educatlo mainly. was derived
‘from the diversified life I led and an in-
satiable curiosity about the things of this
world-an ex From child coil
to the present hour I have never ceased
to marvel at the phenomena of this
planet and the solar system. I thank
heaven that my sense of wonder has
never grown cold. I have been present
for sixty-sinyears at a. continuous and
very great show. I've had a big run for
my money and am satisiled.
I um‘,thanktul that I was born an
American and in this age, the very great-
est era of the world's history; that I
have had the pleasurable surprise of
seeing nearly a
ventions appear; that 1
every American President for forty-live
years: that I have aided m
way in the creation of an American lit-
erature. -
What is the greatest thing I have seen
in life‘! The face of G
growing and living th n
strangest thing I have encountered dur-
in; these yes.rs'.‘, Consciousness in my-
self. What is the most powerful thing
I have met? Human thought. What is
the most sweet and beautiful thing’ I
have contacted? Humanlove. Do I be-
Southern California.
ting stories for the Ledger
and other magazines. and where January
is May.
The President‘s Parable.
LINCOLV used his anecdotes not only
as anecdotes to stress and strain.but
. ALVAII BHLTON KERR.
R x
e time there was a great war
ttnfong the animals and one side had
great difficulty in getting a commander
who had sufficient contidence in himself.
Finally,
him until its weight broke him down
"1 SEW the point." added General
Grant. “and arising from my chair, 1 re.
plied: ‘Mr. President. I will not call for
more assistance unless 1 tin mpos.
sible to do with what I already have."
0 our thinking, this parable is en.
hsnced not only by Lincoln's visualizing
the detail of the monkey general‘: nams
ocko-and res ‘ ., tho Yengthened
tall "admirlngly," but by his subtly
holding up to ridicule Grant's predeces-
sors-all without danger of bringing on
a libel suit.
it 7. V. .
“In the Sweet Dry and Dry.”
' CROWD about a rigging attracted
the attention of n sad-eyed individual
who seemed to be still visibly affected
by the succession o hangovers that had
marked his life before the long dry spell
ERIYL
"Whatsa matter?" he inquired.‘
h. we're just watching the work."
"VVhat work?" '
"This is a drilling machine.“
"What are they drilling for?“
"Water." . ,
As the shaky individual turned to
move away he muttered with fervor
most intense:
“And to think we'd ever come to thin."
