When a line is drawn between title, writer's name and the body of the story, it is easy to set the carriage pointer on "35" and touch hyphens until you reach "45." It is easy to number the pages of a manuscript in red with a bichrome ribbon, and to put the number in the middle of the sheet. Nor is it very difficult to turn out clean copy--merely a little more industry with a rubber eraser, or perhaps the re-writing of an occasional sheet. After a manuscript is written, the number of words computed, and a publication selected wherewith to try its fortunes, a record should be made. Very early in his literary career Edwards devised a scheme for keeping track of his manuscripts. He had a thousand slips printed and bound strongly into two books of 500 slips each. Each slip consisted of a stub for the record and a form letter, with perforations so that they could easily be torn apart. Record of Ms., No. ...... Title.......................... Class.......................... No. Words...................... Sent to........Date............ Returned......Condition........ Sent to........Date............ Returned......Condition........ Sent to........Date............ Returned......Condition........ Sent to........Date............ Returned......Condition........ Accepted....................... Am't paid......Date............ Remarks........................ ............................... 411 Blank Street, Chicago, Ill.,........189.. Editor............. ................. .................. Dear Sir: The inclosed Ms., entitled.. ............................... containing about.........words, and signed..................... is offered at your usual rates. If not available please return. Stamped and addressed envelope inclosed. Very truly yours, John Milton Edwards. Every manuscript was numbered and the numbers, running consecutively, were placed in the upper right-hand corners of the stubs. This made it easy to refer to the particular stub which held the record of a returned story. Edwards used this form of record keeping for years. Even after he came to look upon a form letter with a manuscript as a waste of effort, he continued to use the stubs. About the year 1900 card indexes came into vogue, and now a box of cards is sufficient for keeping track of a thousand manuscripts. It is far and away more convenient than the "stub" system. Each story has its card, and each card gives the manuscript's life history; title, when written, number of words, amount of postage required for its going and coming through the mail, when and where sent, when returned, when accepted and when paid for, together with brief notes regarding the story's vicissitudes or final good fortune. After a story is sold the card serves as a memorandum, and all these memoranda, totalled at the end of the year, form an accurate report of the writer's income.