Joe Says, Mar 1, 1937

Your "Hunches" (#14) was read with pleasure, but I looked in vain for your inimitable sense of humor. Make believe you are writing to me the next time you do one and assume I am down on my luck. You can draw a laugh from any subject in your private life, and you would be a large success if you could do it there. I thought you crusaded a little too hard to be as effective as you can be. Writing isn't an art unless it makes its point by indirection. And I certainly wouldn't attack a particular person without being willing to name him. It makes you a coward, and lets the rest of us sinners off too easy. If you go after some vice for its visciousness, then we all get stepped on, and think you have a lot of nerve, and come back for more. Have you read Alexander Woolcot's "While Rome burns"? You could take a few pointers from him. He has so much Christian charity in his soul for an old rounder and yet can crack knuckles with the toughest. And he sneaks in plenty of comedy relief.

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