In a letter (#184) to Tevis Clyde Smith, ca. November 1931 we learn:

Just before I left Cross Plains, work descended on me in large quantities. A novelet returned from Street & Smith, requesting that I alter it — i.e., eliminate the saloon and speakeasy setting. My hero was a bouncer in a tough waterfront bar. I made him a cook in a hamburger stand.

Frustrated, circa April 1932, Howard blows off some steam in another letter (#202) to Tevis:

Hear ye the tale of “Fighting Nerves”. I wrote this story — a Kid Allison yarn — as a complete novelet for Sport Story. I wrote it, I think, three times, before I sent it off. Back it came with the request to cut out the saloon atmosphere and reduce the length. I re-wrote it and returned it to the same magazine. It came back with the statement that they were all stocked up with fight stories — requested me to keep it several months and return it, with a letter reminding them of it. Not wanting to wait that long if I could help it — a natural desire of a penniless adventurer like myself — I rewrote most of it, changing the names of the characters, and sent it to Fight Stories. Back it came with the request to cut it down in length. I rewrote it and sent it back. Back it came, with the remark that it was acceptable, but that they couldn’t find a place for it just then. I should keep it a month or so, and then they’d like to see it some more. So I sent it to Sport Stories, with a letter reminding them of what they had said. It was returned with no explanation — merely a rejection slip. So I sent it to Fiction House — and back it came with the statement that Fight Stories had been — or was going to be — taken off the stands. I mentioned to you a year or so ago that that magazine wasn’t going to be published more than a year or so, you may remember.