"In your last letter ... you ask where in the name of the Devil, to use your own words, is 'Manuscripts' heading? It is a question which has been torn limb from limb...
The soul and body of every journal, contributions of material and subscriptions, are inseparable. 'Manuscripts' remunerates nothing to its contributors—which in no way seems to affected the quantity of material sent it. However, it makes it most difficult to omit when not quite suitable. In each number there are usually six poems. Naturally, it is to be desired that thirty-five be submitted, but the remaining twenty-nine have to be refused...
No contributions, whether they be poems, articles, woodcuts, short stories, tailpieces, or plays have ever been paid for... You, who haunt the secondhand book stalls and are so proud of your two-and-sixpenny bargains, should be much prouder of 'Manuscripts'.
What I really mean is that I want you to contribute thirty-five poems, twelve articles with subjects ranging from a concise life of Botticelli to something that will excite fastidious collectors of old silver spoons, make Mary cut fifteen decorations in wood, and extract fifty subscriptions from your many friends." (H. Tatlock Miller, extracts from a reply to a letter to the editor)