Through the kindness of Dorothy Gale of Kansas,afterward Princess Dorothy of Oz, an humble writerin the United States of America was once appointedRoyal Historian of Oz, with the privilege ofwriting the chronicle of that wonderful fairyland.But after making six books about the adventures ofthose interesting but queer people who live in theLand of Oz, the Historian learned with sorrow thatby an edict of the Supreme Ruler, Ozma of Oz, hercountry would thereafter be rendered invisible toall who lived outside its borders and that allcommunication with Oz would, in the future, be cut off.

The children who had learned to look for thebooks about Oz and who loved the stories about thegay and happy people inhabiting that favoredcountry, were as sorry as their Historian thatthere would be no more books of Oz stories. Theywrote many letters asking if the Historian did notknow of some adventures to write about that hadhappened before the Land of Oz was shut out fromall the rest of the world. But he did not know ofany. Finally one of the children inquired why wecouldn't hear from Princess Dorothy by wirelesstelegraph, which would enable her to communicateto the Historian whatever happened in the far-offLand of Oz without his seeing her, or even knowingjust where Oz is.

That seemed a good idea; so the Historian riggedup a high tower in his back yard, and took lessonsin wireless telegraphy until he understood it,and then began to call "Princess Dorothy of Oz" bysending messages into the air.

Now, it wasn't likely that Dorothy would belooking for wireless messages or would heed thecall; but one thing the Historian was sure of, andthat was that the powerful Sorceress, Glinda,would know what he was doing and that he desiredto communicate with Dorothy. For Glinda has a bigbook in which is recorded every event that takesplace anywhere in the world, just the moment thatit happens, and so of course the book would tellher about the wireless message.

And that was the way Dorothy heard that theHistorian wanted to speak with her, and there wasa Shaggy Man in the Land of Oz who knew how totelegraph a wireless reply. The result was thatthe Historian begged so hard to be told the latestnews of Oz, so that he could write it down for thechildren to read, that Dorothy asked permission ofOzma and Ozma graciously consented.

That is why, after two long years of waiting,another Oz story is now presented to the childrenof America. This would not have been possible hadnot some clever man invented the "wireless" and anequally clever child suggested the idea ofreaching the mysterious Land of Oz by its means.

L. Frank Baum.

"OZCOT"at Hollywoodin California