HEART TO HEART TALKS WITH MEN

QUERY ONE.

Whom do you consider the greatest living litterateur?

Formerly, this matter was in doubt; but there can be no dispute over this point in recent years. But, unfortunately, both good taste and modesty prevent me from making a more definite reply.

QUERY TWO.

I notice you frequently refer to Henry Ward Beecher as a great man; will you kindly state why you consider him such?

Mr. Beecher acquired some reputation in Brooklyn a few years ago as a preacher; this contributed somewhat to his fame. His principal claim to greatness, however, rests on his wonderful power of recognizing genius in others. He early saw the advantage of seeking out and connecting himself with the great geniuses of his neighborhood. I need scarcely add that I was raised in Brooklyn, and that he was among my first admirers.

QUERY THREE.

Should a young man smoke cigarettes?

I notice on glancing over our advertisement columns, that the cigarette trust has given up its devilish attempt to make our American women nicotine habitues, so I will divert from my usual plan of never referring to myself, and tell you my own experience as a reply to this question.

Ten years ago this very day, a large cigarette firm in New York City offered me ten thousand dollars a year if I would smoke their brand of these death-dealing instruments of the evil one. I was very very young at the time; this is my explanation of my only great temptation. I confess that I did not see the horror, the degradation in this suggestion; I saw only in the offer the gold. I am changed now, but, then, it was a fierce battle. But my mother plead with me, and she made me promise never even to think of such a wicked thing again. See the result. I now edit the largest journal in the world, and am educating the women of America what to do and how to do it. This lesson teaches you to do always as your mother tells you. Some day you may edit the Homely Ladies’ Journal, and then you can catch the sympathies of your readers with this sentiment, without fear of your conscience keeping you awake at nights.

QUERY FOUR.

Which of our great poets do you consider led the happiest lives?

Whittier and Tennyson, because they were so blessed with great friendships. I knew them both well myself.

I shall never forget that glorious day in London, when Tennyson told me, with tears in his eyes, that his only regret was that he had written himself out before I had taken charge of the Homely Ladies’ Journal; while Whittier, the dear old chap, told me his fiery war songs that brought him social ostracism, need never have been written had I edited the Woman’s House Journal during that period.

QUERY FIVE.

Do you find editing such a great journal as the Woman’s House Journal hard work? It must be, for I find it very hard to edit properly my own little country weekly.

This question it is almost impossible to answer; to you my work would seem Herculean, unceasing, impossible; but to me it is so different that I feel that I cannot answer this question to make myself intelligible. This question is doubly difficult to answer, for I have systematized my work by establishing a drag net for getting material. I will explain my method. I take up the latest magazine; I see a story by some new great writer, a society leader in the metropolis. Presto! I order a series of articles on “How Women Should Behave at Teas” from her pen. I hear that a great English novelist is coming over to seek the American dollar; again, as with lightning, I order an article “How Your Women Impress Me.” It is immaterial to me what they actually do write, or how far they wander from their text, so long as they use my ready made titles. They look so nice in the index.

In this way, I use the small talk of the writers as a soft food for my readers. Just as you attempt, in your feeble way, to serve up the gossip of your little hamlet in your weekly paper, so I do; for I tell you in confidence what women want is not literature, not art, not science, but gossip. So I make all the great writers of the day write gossip for them. This is the secret of my success. You should feel very happy now, for, although my thoughts and pen fly with lightninglike rapidity, I have spent five hundred dollars’ worth of time in answering your inquiry.

I will answer the rest of my anxious readers as soon as I can systematize other incidents in my very short but successward career. In the meantime, young men by following the lines laid down in this paper cannot fail of success, real, pure, noble success.

J. Howe Adams.