-vee, who swept the floor and polished up
the handle of the big front door. You must face the drudgery of
apprenticeship or quit right now. What do you say?"

The abruptness with which he demanded her decision startled her. As she
faltered, she could see a shade of disappointment beginning to darken
his face.

"In a way it must be considered a test," he added encouragingly. "A
severe one, but so much the better. Now is the time. Are you game?"

"I'll try," she said faintly, at the same time making a note of the
directness, abruptness, and haste of these city men with whom she was
coming in contact.

"Good! Why, when I started in, I had the dreariest, deadliest details
imaginable. And after that, for a weary time, I did the police and
divorce courts. But it all came well in the end and did me good. You
are luckier in making your start with Sunday work. It's not particularly
great. What of it? Do it. Show the stuff you're made of, and you'll get
a call for better work--better class and better pay. Now you go out this
afternoon to the Loops, and engage to do two turns."

"But what kind of turns can I do?" Edna asked dubiously.

"Do? That's easy. Can you sing? Never mind, don't need to sing. Screech,
do anything--that's what you're paid for, to afford amusement, to give
bad art for the populace to howl down. And when you do your turn, take
some one along for chaperon. Be afraid of no one. Talk up. Move about
among the amateurs waiting their turn, pump them, study them, photograph
them in your brain. Get the atmosphere, the color, strong color, lots of
it. Dig right in with both hands, and get the essence of it, the spirit,
the significance. What does it mean? Find out what it means. That's what
you're there for. That's what the readers of the Sunday Intelligencer
want to know.

"Be terse in style, vigorous of phrase, apt, concretely apt, in
similitude. Avoid platitudes and commonplaces. Exercise selection. Seize
upon things salient, eliminate the rest, and you have pictures. Paint
those pictures in words and the Intelligencer will have you. Get hold
of a few back numbers, and study the Sunday Intelligencer feature story.
Tell it all in the opening paragraph as advertisement of contents, and
in the contents tell it all over again. Then put a snapper at the end,
so if they're crowded for space they can cut off your contents anywhere,
reattach the snapper, and the story will still retain form. There,
that's enough. Stu