"The Pace that Kills" Letters consists of carbon copies of four typed letters exchanged between M. L. Sears and "L.B.R." (identity unknown). The first and longest letter, from Sears, is "a sketch which I commend to your most careful consideration." The essay -- entitled "The Pace That Kills" and ending with the initials "W.B." -- concerns the perils of "fast living" (e.g. excessive partying, alchohol, drugs, sexual promiscuity).

"Once I went to a French ball. I was very very young, and very very unsophisticated; therefore my paper sent me to see what I thought of things...I pretended to be rather reluctant. I said I was afraid, and so I was, but I was really very much pleased to think how wicked I really was getting to be. The ball was a great success, so everybody said. I had all I could do to keep from crying with disappointment. The people were so dreadfully dull. When they wanted to laugh they drank something, and when they wanted to be witty they kicked someone's hat off or hit an inoffensive person in the face with a broken fan. Faugh....I've known them and seen them, many of these people who goes the pace that kills, and my heart aches for every one of them. For miserable, dissatisfied, disappointed, unhappy creatures the dizzy old earth can show them no equal."

The sketch cites Stephen Crane and Della Fox as cautionary examples. Following this is an exchange of three brief letters between Sears and L.B.R. about the piece, some of which are written as limericks.