_very_. It seldom strengthens a sentence.

It is better to use such words as _feline_, _bovine_, _canine_, _human_
as adjectives only.

Prefer _several_ or _many_ to _a number of_.

_Healthy_ means possessing health, as, _a healthy man_. _Healthful_
means conducive to health, as, _healthful climate_, _surroundings_,
_employment_. Do not use _healthful_ in speaking of food, but
_wholesome_.

_Parlous_ is archaic. Don't use the phrase _in these parlous times_. The
word in good usage is _perilous_.

Nobody has explained the difference between _actual photographs_ and
_photographs_.

_Awful_ means inspiring _awe_, _fearful_ inspiring _fear_, and
_terrible_ inspiring _terror_.

_Anxious_ implies _anxiety_. Say _eager_ if you mean it.

The first meaning of _hectic_ is habitual. The second meaning is
_fevered_. It connotes _heat_ more particularly than _red_.

Great care is needed in using these three words: _livid_, _lurid_ and
_weird_. _Livid_ means primarily black and blue. It also means a
grayish blue or lead color, as flesh by contusion. It doesn't mean
anything else. _Lurid_ means a pale yellow, ghastly pale, wan;
figuratively it means gloomy or dismal, grimly terrible or sensational.
When used in its first sense it is properly applicable to the yellow
flames seen through smoke. It does not mean fiery red. In its figurative
sense it can be used to describe a series of incidents calculated to
shock or to stun by the enormity of them. _Weird_ means primarily
pertaining to witchcraft and is used in reference to the witches in
"Macbeth." It also means unearthly, uncanny, eerie. A green light might
be called _weird_. It must not be used to mean peculiar, as, _She wore
a weird hat_.

YOUR AUDIENCE

Says Irvin S. Cobb: I'd rather have my work read by thousands of people
throughout the country than be the author of the greatest classic that
ever mouldered on a shelf.

In my opinion, the masses are worth our art. If we believe in a
democratic form of government we should believe in a democratic attitude
toward the art of the short story, and I, for one, frankly admit that I
write for the shop girl and business man rather than for the high-brow
critic. That does not mean you must necessarily choose between them, but
if I had to choose I would let the critic go.

+----------------------------------------------+
| DEFENDER OF CIVIL LIBERTY ... STRENGTHENER |
| OF LOYALTY ... PILLAR AND STAY OF DEMOC