Closely connected with the Interview, and forming a natural sequel
to any treatise upon that Exercise, is the Personal Par. It
contains, as it were, all the qualities of the Interview condensed
into the smallest possible space; it advertises the subject,
instructs the reader, and is a yet sharper trial of the young
writer’s character.
The homely advice given in the preceding section, where mention
was made of “pride” and of “pockets,” applies with far more force
to the Personal Par. With the Interview, it is well to mask one’s
name; with the Personal Par, it is absolutely necessary to conceal
it. The danger the author runs is an attraction to Mrs. Railston,
who in her book strongly advises this form of sport--she herself
does Bess in _All About Them_. On the other hand, Lieut.-Col.
Lory says, in his _Journalist’s Vade-mecum_ (p. 63): “A Personal
Par should never be penned by the Aspirant to Literary honours.
Undetected, it renders life a burden of suspense; detected, it
spells ruin.”[9] He quotes twenty-five well-known peers and
financiers who rose by steadily refusing to do this kind of work
during their period of probation on the press.
The present guide, which is final, will run to no such extremes.
Secrecy is indeed essential; yet there are three excellent reasons
for writing Personal Pars, at least in early youth.
(1.) The Personal Par is the easiest to produce of all forms of
literature. Any man or woman, famous or infamous for any reason,
is a subject ready to hand, and to these may be added all persons
whatsoever living, dead, or imaginary; and anything whatever may
be said about them. Editors, in their honest dislike of giving
pain, encourage the inane, and hence more facile, form of praise.
Moreover, it takes but a moment to write, and demands no recourse
to books of reference.
(2.) The Personal Par can always be placed--if not in England, then
in America. Though written in any odd moments of one’s leisure
time, it will always represent money; and the whole of the period
from July to October, when ordinary work is very slack, can be kept
going from the stock one has by one.
(3.) It has a high economic value, not only in the price paid for
it, but indirectly, as an advertisement. This is a point which
Lieut.-Col. Lory and Mrs. Railston both overlook.
A short specimen, written in August, 1885, at the very beginning of
the movement, by my friend, Mrs. Cowley (the Folk-Lorist, not the
Poetess), for the _Gazette_, will make these three points clear:--
“The capture of that rare bird, the Cross-tailed Eagle, which
is cabled from St. Fandango’s, recalls the fact that the famous
Picture ‘Tiny Tots’ was formerly in the possession of the
present Governor of that island. The picture is put up to auction
by Messrs. Philpots next Saturday, and, judging by the public
attendance at their galleries during the last fortnight, the
bidding should be brisk.”
There is no such bird as the Cross-tailed Eagle, nor any such
person as the Governor of St. Fandango’s, nor indeed is there even
any such island. Yet Mrs. Cowley was paid 5_s._ by the _Gazette_
for her little bit of research; it was copied into most of the
papers, with acknowledgment, and she got a commission from Messrs.
Philpots. The former owner of “Tiny Tots” (Mr. Gale of Kew, a
wealthy man) wrote a long and interesting letter explaining that
some error had been made, and that not he, but his wife’s father,
had been an _Inspector_[10] (not Governor) in _St. Vincent’s_. He
begged the writer to call on him--her call was the origin of a
life-long friendship, and Mrs. Cowley was mentioned in his will.
I must detain the student no longer with what is, after all, a very
small corner of our art, but conclude with a few carefully chosen
examples before proceeding to the next section on Topographical
Essays.