LETTERS


One of the drawers in my desk is full of letters that people have sent in.
Some of them are knocks or boosts, but most of them are tips. There are
several hundred tips on stories in the drawer.

Today, while looking them over I thought that these tips were a story in
themselves. To begin with, the different kinds of stationery and the
different kinds of handwriting. You would think that stationery and
handwriting so varied would contain varied suggestions and varied points
of view.

But from the top of the pile to the bottom--through 360 letters written on
360 different kinds of paper--there runs only one tip. And in the 360
different kinds of handwriting there runs only one story.

* * * * *

"There is a man I see almost every day on my way home from work," writes
one, "and I think he would make a good story. There is something queer
about him. He keeps mumbling to himself all the time." This tip is on
plain stationery.

"--and I see the old woman frequently," writes another. "Nobody knows who
she is or what she does. She is sure a woman of mystery. You ought to be
able to get a good story out of her." This tip is on pink stationery.

"I think you can find him around midnight walking through the city hall.
He walks through the hall every midnight and whistles queer tunes. Nobody