Options by O. Henry
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page 6 of 248 (02%)
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myself, and a circulation booster as good as any, if I do say it.
I'll guarantee an increase of anywhere from ten thousand to a hundred thousand a year for any publication that isn't printed in a dead language. I've had my eye on _The Rose of Dixie_ ever since it started. I know every end of the business from editing to setting up the classified ads. Now, I've come down here to put a good bunch of money in the magazine, if I can see my way clear. It ought to be made to pay. The secretary tells me it's losing money. I don't see why a magazine in the South, if it's properly handled, shouldn't get a good circulation in the North, too." Colonel Telfair leaned back in his chair and polished his gold-rimmed glasses. "Mr. Thacker," said he, courteously but firmly, "_The Rose of Dixie_ is a publication devoted to the fostering and the voicing of Southern genius. Its watchword, which you may have seen on the cover, is 'Of, For, and By the South.'" "But you wouldn't object to a Northern circulation, would you?" asked Thacker. "I suppose," said the editor-colonel, "that it is customary to open the circulation lists to all. I do not know. I have nothing to do with the business affairs of the magazine. I was called upon to assume editorial control of it, and I have devoted to its conduct such poor literary talents as I may possess and whatever store of erudition I may have acquired." "Sure," said Thacker. "But a dollar is a dollar anywhere, North, |
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