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The hobby actually hinges on the meshing or blending of three part-time pursuits—writing, photography, and a persistent habit of poking into American history—plus a yen for travel.

One end product of this triple-threat avocation is a more-than-passing familiarity with places near and far. Another is good conversation material for dinners and parties. But the ultimate objective is a publisher's check, the stuff that pays for gasoline, film, and manuscript paper. While I am a relative newcomer to the free-lance article field, two major newspaper syndicates have recently paid more than $200 for my illustrated historical features.

MAKING THESE hobbies team up to produce income depends half on guesswork and half on personal cross-examination.

The guesswork involves trying to determine whether another writer has sold the same idea. While research in "The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature" tells what articles magazines have published, the question of what syndicates have used always is an X factor.

A tougher job for the writer is the process of withering self-interrogation, particularly when the article deals with a field close to the author's heart. And doing an incomplete job of personal cross-examination is about as profitable as cheating at solitaire.

To produce a saleable article, the writer must give himself candid answers to these three questions: Why do you think this place, incident or person is unique? As a syndicate editor, would you pay good cash for it on the chance that your newspaper clients would buy it from you? As a newspaper editor, would you purchase it from the syndicate on the chance that it would interest your readers?

Failure to come up with honest answers generally results in an unsold article. Personal experience proves that shoddy appraising rings up "No sale" on editors' cash registers.

LAST YEAR I came across a story that looked interesting to me. A local industrial firm faced a shut-down and possible relocation because it could not obtain additional property in which to dump an unavoidable, by-product, thousands of tons of useless, semi-liquid waste.

I wrote up the dilemma and took a half-dozen photographs to illustrate it, Without stopping to analyze the piece, I wrapped it up and shipped it out to a syndicate. Article and pictures were returned in a week, along with a note of comment—"Too local for us," I sent the package out to another editor, only to have it come back with a similar criticism.

After applying the three key questions in the manner of the man locking the barn door too late, I shoved manuscript and pictures into the back of my filing cabinet. There they remain, identified only as "Lesson No. 1."

This experience and subsequent market studies of material circulated by syndicates indicate that editors don't want articles that:

Are based on spot news events which may be "stale" by the time the feature appears.

Feature information already exploited by press agents and professional promoters.

Merely repeat history-book data and legends about famous figures without contributing any new information.

Are based primarily on legends, unless you quote authoritative sources who can prove or disprove the tales.

Deal with inaccessible places reached only by airplane, canoe, or pack-horse.

Require technical or other specialized knowledge for comprehension or appreciation.

Violate general taboos of journalism—sex, gruesome details, offend minority groups, etc.

WRITERS USUALLY have a general pattern for certain types of stories and my four-point system for producing palatable historical features begins with the "tip." This idea germ may come from a conversation, a story in the local daily, an obscure passage in a book, or a tourist hint on a road-map.

In the case of a recent article on sunken treasure, the tip was a wirephoto of a Miami salvage diver who had just raised 200-year-old Spanish guns from a submerged hulk in the Florida Keys.

A tip on the North American Phalanx, a nineteenth century Utopian community near Lincroft, New Jersey, came from a descriptive passage in the autobiography of radio's late "Town Crier," Alexander Woollcott.

The suggestion for an article on the 125th anniversary of the opening of the famous Erie Canal across New York state was provided by a reference in a history textbook.

Step number two is finding the "peg," the reason why this topic would or should appeal to a reader. The peg is the lure, a carefully-baited statement designed to attract him and make him take the hook.

My story on sunken treasure, aimed at the imaginations of all those who dream of hunting for gold, began: "Miami, Fla.—If there's a shred of truth in the old saying about smoke and fire, Lester Cunningham here is on the brink of recovering a sizeable chunk of Florida's $170,000,000 worth of buried and sunken treasure."

The North American Phalanx article hinged on a recent news event which it served to background. It started: "Lincroft, N.J.—Five hundred dollars almost bought Alexander Woollcott's birthplace and a houseful of history for a Brooklyn man recently at an auction on the steps of a rickety old mansion near here."

A peg for the Erie Canal story was the fact that a noteworthy "birthday" was about to pass unobserved. The lead paragraph began: "Syracuse, N.Y.—There'll be no cannon fired and no fireworks touched off here October 26 to mark the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal, the spoon that fed this city in its youth."

Step number three is research, and on local stories this means interviewing, as well as a thorough search of newspaper files and regional history books, for background. For out-of-town subjects, this job may mean days of tedious library reading. Letters also must be written to editors, public officials, historians, and chambers of commerce to verify information and obtain additional details.

Step number four, which I follow whenever possible but not as frequently as I would like, might best be described as "getting from hyar to thar."

While some articles can be written at long range without on-the-spot investigation, I prefer to visit the scene. At the same time, however, I should emphasize that syndicate pay rates do not justify long trips to gather background data. If distances of more than twenty-five miles are involved in research, the average publishers check will hardly cover travel expenses.

If you must travel to get your material, make it part of your vacation, a business junket, or a weekend jaunt to a relative's. You'll find that minimum daily costs for two on the road amount to about $20, including car expenses, meals, overnight lodging, and no frills.

WITH THE operational pattern in mind, the reader might now raise a logical question: "What is there to write about?" The answer may be found by studying the syndicated feature stories in your local newspaper.

So far, I have written and sold articles on the Erie Canal, a fabulous mining town in the Colorado Rockies, an experimental Utopian community in New Jersey, abandoned towns between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, and lost treasure along the Florida coast.

Unlike many hobbyists, however, I do not maintain that everyone can achieve fame and fortune in his spare time as a roving writer-photographer-historian.

To paraphrase the old wheeze about insanity and job security, newspaper experience is not essential—but it helps. In preparing historical articles, particularly for newspaper syndicates, compact but interesting writing is important. Newspaper training offers the best background for this style, and such experience also makes it easier to evaluate a story in terms of "uniqueness" and potential reader interest.

Equally important is the ability to make or to provide top-flight photographs as illustrations. While some pictures can be made by amateurs with inexpensive equipment, it must be remembered that competition is keen in the free-lance field. Novice cameramen who submit their own snapshots with articles are up against some of the top professional and commercial photographers in the business.

Unless the writer can shoot professional-quality pictures himself or get such photos from other sources, he must be satisfied with smaller returns from the syndicates. Commercial pictures cost at least $3 to $5 each, and few syndicates pay more than this for illustrations. When an article and its "boughten" pictures are rejected by the editors, the author is money out of pocket.

Sometimes, however, the free-lance is lucky enough to get good free photographs from publicity bureaus, historical associations, public relations offices, and those highly cooperative American phenomena, chambers of commerce.

Essential in this line of writing is the knack of making history digestible to readers who usually shy away from historical material as such. To the average newspaper subscriber, history is pretty dry stuff. He prefers it in fiction form between the covers of a novel, often one whose jacket design features a well-endowed young lady.

Interesting quotes, amusing anecdotes, capsuled legends, and sometimes detailed "how-to-get-there" tourist tips comprise the sugar-coating which makes the subject more tempting.

OFTEN ONE feature "tip" turns out to be several separate stories which will double or even triple the value of the original tip. After visiting a colorful Colorado mining town on vacation several years ago, I sold a 1,500-word piece and pictures to a syndicate. My peg was the fact that this town was rising from the dead and might experience another boom because of the new discovery of pitchblende nearby.

Later, while studying a blank piece of paper in my typewriter, I realized the tourist-trade angle on the same town. Before long, I had written a 700-word article which began: "Central City, Colo.—They are waiting for spring to melt the snow in this old Rocky Mountain mining camp and usher in what may be the last pre-war gold rush." This was sold to another syndicate and, oddly enough, the second check was twice as large as the first.

Another subject also paid off twice. The original article for a midwestern syndicate dealt with a ghost town which almost became the world's sewing machine center. This yarn opened: "Atsion, N.J.—Towns seldom look gift horses in the mouth when industries offer to build factories within their borders, but this one in New Jersey not only looked at the horse but kicked it in the teeth."

The trip which turned up this deserted village also yielded material on others in the Jersey pine barrens about forty miles southeast of Philadelphia. The abandoned towns of Batsto, Harrisville, and Speedwell were written up, and the resulting article was sold for $25 to the same syndicate which had paid a similar amount a few months earlier for the Atsion story.

Rewards from historical writing vary widely among the syndicates which buy and distribute these articles. Those purchasing material outright pay from $10 to $30 for 500 to 2,000 words and several photographs. The average probably is about $17 for 750 words and one or two pictures.

Syndicates operating under the royalty system make little or no initial payment to the writer, usually splitting receipts later on a fifty-fifty basis whenever a newspaper client buys the story.

Articles sold to small magazines may yield from a cent a word up, plus a minimum of about $3 for each acceptable photograph. When unusual subject matter, top-drawer pictures, and smooth professional writing produce a major article, big-league national magazines may write you a check for at least $100 or as much as $500.

FOR THE reader who is interested in taking up this hobby but who lacks experience, the best place to start is in the hometown daily or weekly newspaper.

Local or regional historical articles appeal to editors because they stimulate and maintain readership among certain subscribers. Most editors welcome such articles, especially as the daily pressure of spot news coverage makes it difficult for them to turn full-time staff reporters loose on these features.

Financial rewards, of course, are not large for the writer who sells directly to newspapers. The maximum most editors will pay is the current country correspondent space rate—10 to 25 cents per printed inch, $2 to $5 per column, or up to about one cent a word. These relatively small checks might be regarded merely as "pay while learning."

When you are ready for a fling at syndicate work, you can find syndicate listings and requirements in the monthly writers' magazines and such reference books as "The Writer's Market," published annually by Writer's Digest. The editor or managing editor of your local paper also may be able to help you with a list of the bigger syndicates.

A beginning list might include Central Press Association, Cleveland, Ohio; General Features Corp., New York, New York; NEA Service, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio; North American Newspaper Alliance, New York, New York (no pictures); Ullman Features Service, Washington, D.C.; and Western Newspaper Union, Frankfort, Kentucky.

If you are looking for a "get-rich-quick" hobby—and a hobby is not supposed to be a substitute for a vocation—this business is not for you. But if you want a group of spare-time pursuits that will provide you with a lot of fun plus a little something for the savings account, this is your game.