"HORSE MAGIC."—We offer our apologies to the Badminton. Magazine for
having published in last week's Spectator an article entitled "Horse Magic" which appeared in the February number of that magazine. We of course were unaware when we accepted the article that it had been accepted elsewhere. We have asked for an explanation from the writer, Mr. Ralph Stock, but are informed that he is in Canada. His brother, Mr. E. Elliot Stock, sends us, however, an account of the transaction, which as far as we gather is that Mr. Ralph Stock entrusted him with a number of MSS. to send to periodicals here, and that Mr. Ralph Stock, owing to some misunderstanding, also sent some of these MSS. direct to London editors. Mr. E. Elliot Stock adds : "In any case, I tender you a deep apology for the inadvertent error I have committed." We are sending the cheque which would have gone to Mr. Stock had his con- tribution not already been published to "The Royal Literary Fund." Amateur writers seem to be extraordinarily careless as to the way in which they scatter their manuscripts throughout the -journalistic world. Part of the evil, we expect, arises from the facility with which typewritten articles can be duplicated. When people had to write out their own MSS. they seldom possessed more than one "fair copy," and so could not send it to a second office till it had returned from the first.
Previous page
