13 



reMembered it« and long afterwards Qus Vollmer said« 

 "You should just dictate that talk and publish it as 

 you gave It." Later I did. I sent it to the 

 Atlantic Monthly and they published it and asked me 

 for other articles* 



Oilb: Did you know the editor or did you just send it to him? 



Coggins: Ho, I just sent it in* At first I got it and a 



note back, "It was an atrocious coincidence «" the 

 editor wrote, "but your piece arrived just as we 

 decided to discontinue our humor department. We 

 are B9TIJ^ but if we open it again please let us 

 have it.**" I saved it for them and soon they did 

 reopen the department^ and they published it. After 

 that Z wrote a series of satires for them. One of 

 them, "The Burglar Trap," attracted quite a little 

 attention, and I got a letter from Tom Beck» 

 Chairman of the Board of the Crowell Collier 

 Company, who had seen it. He wanted to know if I 

 was the Herbert Coggins he had known as a boy on 

 Martha's Vineyard and who had taught him how to 

 make bird skins. 



I wrote that I was and he wrote back, "Well, if 

 you are going to try to write, why don't you send 

 your stiiff to us?" 



