Show lierari 60lp When I have nothing to do I work Raid Prof Max Muller In the course of a recent interview and this Is characteristic charac-teristic of the literary man Few absorbed ab-sorbed writers know how to play V 1 After a long silence Lucas JIalet tho daughter of Charles KIngslcy known j to her friends as Sirs St Ieger Harrison Har-rison Is to publish a new novel called I The Gateless BarrierS Barrier-S S Miserable nepenthe is what Mr Morley Roberts himself a novelist l calls the unnecessary fiction with which the public dally drugged He declares de-clares that a novel having any real connection with literature Is as rare I as n blue moon or n fourleaved shamrock I sham-rock and that as for the rest were there a law abolishing them and their writers no startling change In the I starLng worlds economy would be effected He I is sanguine that after the privation of n year or two the public would have forgotten that It ever needed novels Then having freed his mind 3slr Roberts I Rob-erts trotH off and writeswell what la I really a highly unnecessary e novelS 1 The members of the Shakespeare society so-ciety of New York have compiled lA Catalogue of the Words Used but Once I in Shakespeares Plays with Notes of Their Occurrence in the Poems and this catalogue is to be brought out ns No 13 of the societys publications Prefixed Is a reprint of the first English En-glish Grammar 1iS6 The society announces an-nounces that It will hereafter print only 250 copies of each Issue ot Its publications pub-lications this In consequence of the limited public interest S appealed too Edmondo de Amlcls the most popular popu-lar of ItalIan authors of whose Cuore 233000 copies have been sold has just brought out his Memoirs They tell less about himself than about his friends and contemporaries One of the most dramatic Incidents In his life was his attempt as a boy of 33 to escape from his home and with some other boys Join Garibaldis forces on I the way to Italy His mother got wind of the project and frustrated IL In the lately issued memorials oC Charles Henry Pearson once one of Australias chief men of affairs there I are some interesting notes on a visit to America and the Americans Emerson Em-erson Impressed him deeply and at i freethinking seance appeared to him like a prophet In a madhouse He dwelt on Longfellows patriarchal grace and praised TIcknor and Ages siz as among tile most charming old men he had ever known He noted I that the bitterness left by the Civil I war was so fceen that one Southern lady felt constrained to explain to him that she declined to tell her boy it was wrong to steal because she knew If I she so taught him gIt would only unfit 1 him for soclelj In the North when he grew up 0 0 TUB AMERICAN SHORT STORY Bret Harte has oren been credited with being the pioneer writer of tho distinctly American short story and he admits the soft Impeachment In admis sor an article which ho has written for a forthcoming volume of The Universal Univer-sal Anthology and which In printed in tho New York Times Saturday Ro vleu Bret Harte has made n close I study of the short story since colonial times showing that It never broke away from the tame and conventional English models until after he had set 1 the example with The Luck of Roaring I Roar-ing Camp In the Overland Monthly after the Civil war The war itself produced nothing distinctive In the I way of short stories As Mr Harte says it seems almost Incredible that until the last few years nothing worthy of that tremendous cposldc has been preserved by the pen of the romancer ro-mancer Tho most valuable feature of Mr Hartes essay Is tho way In which he traces the evolution of the modern short story from the humorous anecdote anec-dote The story of the old type was I evasive of all that was distinctly American when It was not apologetic But early In the national life there grcsv up a school of characteristic ando and-o humor It consisted of terse anecdotes usually humorous exaggerations exagger-ations or marvels of understatement without a needless word In getting to the point At first this sort of humor was merely verbal but in time it got Into the newspapers as well as Into campaign speeches I was burdened by conscientiousness It was often Irreverent Ir-reverent It was devoid of all moral 1 responsibility It was original From a paragraph of a dozen lines It I grew to half a column By degrees It I developed character with Its incident or gave a picture of a whole community commun-ity In a few lines but it always reached Its conclusions without an unnecessary un-necessary word This species of comic anecdote was so distinctly characteristic that It soon became known and appreciated abroad as an American story Then came the Civil war with Its pathos and with its creation of a national consciousness All that was needed was to graft these elements upon the tree already planted But the force of conventionalism was too strong to permit of such a revolution revolu-tion in any circles of established society so-ciety The Innovation had to come from the picturesque and devilmaycare atmosphere at-mosphere of the California mining camps where all the distinctions of conventional society lost their force Jn this realm of rough but Utopian simplicity with Its environment of magnificent scenery a unique climate and 11 marvelous vegetation and with a background of crumbling Spanish ruins the now and distinctively American Ameri-can story was born I met with bitter hostility and denunciation at first buS t It prevailed and It led the way for a whole new school of such writers as aI Harris Cable Page Mrs Stannard I and Miss Wilkins The secret of the modern type of story Is that It teats of characteristic American life Instead of seeking to get as far away from It I as possible Bret Harte sees In the short story of today the germ of American literature to come It may just be said that he did more In I bringing about the revolution than any other one author Chicago Tribune 00 Mr Kipling has used his recent experiences ex-periences In South Africa as the basis of a series of stories which he hi i about to publish I Is stated lint these sketches will present under the guise of fiction phases of both the administration adminis-tration and the actual conduct of the war which Mr Kipling felt he could not embody in loiters which he sent home 0 My advice to struggling fellowscrib I blers Is I you are blessed with some I talent n great deal of Industry and an I amount of conceit mighty enough tenable 0 I t-enable you to disregard superiors equals and critics as well as tha fancied demands of the public It Is pos rible without friends or Introductions I or bothering celebrities to read your manuscripts or cultivating the camp of logrollers by dint of slaving day I and night for years during the low r of your youth to attain to fame Infinitely In-finitely less widespread than a prlze fighters and a pecuniary position which you might with far leas trouble trou-ble have boon born to Israel Zang j J will In June Succe8 f For the last fourteen years tile editor j of ono of the large London illustrated weekly Journals has written un annual 1 letter to W S Gilbert of Pinafore I and Bab Ballads fame for 0 Christ t mas story Four fourteen years Mr Gilbert has annually repllfd through j his secretary that Mr Gilbert re S i grcttcd that he wouid bo unable to com I ply with the request an Mr Gilbert f I M as not writing anything for serial I publication Last year says the Sun jillI day Evening Post the patient editor wrote his fifteenth letter and this time the answer came In the author own handwriting I was to the effect that Mr Gilbert would send him a Christmas Christ-mas story Therefore just after the holidays of last winter work was begun be-gun and now the manuscript has been turned In I will appear next winter In i both England and America 0 0 A LITERARY LOVE AFFAIR I love her well and tnnd yet There comes the sober question That hills mo with a vogue regret t 1 And troubles my digestion reget TIs not IL mutter of the heart But In lifes wctlcilng weather I Can we whono views arc so apart Live happily together Shes beautiful and fresh and sweet And altogether charming The Instant thut wo chanced to meet My symptoms were alarming Yet dr wore happy nh I lear Twill be Indeed a marvel My favorite Is Will Shakespeare Sue dQtes on Richard Carvel Shes plqunnt yet shes solid too She knows her moods nnd tenses A witty thing thats straight and true Sho oftentimes dispenses Yet all my faith seems but a shnm And doubts throng harumscarum At thought of how I love Charles Lamb I While sho loves David llarura Tho fact Is I while shes very good I j At lighter conversation Sho has that fault of womanhood She does lack concentration Im like an ale thats heavy blent Whilo shes n bright Martini Mv mind on history la I bent While hers Is magazlny Yet heres a hope I entertain 1 And may It never perish That as the years roll round again And Cithvr things we cherish N I When Cupid slowly turns us los I And never even pities Wo may unite on Mother Gooso I And other childrens ditties Tom Masson 000 In I the Smart Sol I Here is a little story of Daniel Webster Web-ster relate in 1 the just published memoirs mem-oirs of SurgeonGeneral Sir Joseph 1 i Fayrer After dinner at his fathers i house Webster was shown some of little boy l Josephs drawings and when a particularly i clever sketch of an Arab horse was produced the orator gravely observed to the youngster Sir you draw horses so well you ought to have horses to draw you a S 0 Mr Edwardss picture of Jcrrold la not a pleasant one He Indulged at every opportunity In repartee which sometimes facetious generally sarcastic sarcas-tic was too often In bad taste When he had made what seemed to him a smart speech he closed his lips with a ort of snap exclaiming on particular occasions when he had made a palpable palpa-ble hit I had him there His talk was like the talk of sonic fiveact comedy come-dy In which the author has striven hard to make every line effective In conversing with any one his sole object seemed to be to have him there and whenever he made a point an around him burst into an applauding laugh 0 0 0 In Great Britain and her colonies the demand for James Lane Allens new novel The Reign of Law a Tale of the Kentucky HempFields has been so great that the final date for publication publi-cation has been fixed for July Gth The book would have been published two weeks earlier but for the dllllculty In getting the necessarily large editions ready for simultaneous publication at such distant points 0 0 0 Mrs Flora Annie Steel Is an uncommonly uncom-monly thorough novelist It Is said that when she was writing On the Face of the Waters although she had llvpd for many years In India she revisited re-visited the country In order to learn all she could of the native reminiscences of the Indian mutiny and thus be as accurate as possible In her details Though the native Is not communicative communi-cative as a rule she overcame the dllll culty by making her temporary home in one of their villages and one ot their houses with neither companion nor servant and in a short tlmo she had won the confidence of her neighbors 0 S 0 NEARER TO NATURE It is a very healthy sign in New England Eng-land that the books which deal with the study of nature are extremely popular popu-lar In this section They may be seen in almost every book store of any size on Washington street Just at present and there Is almost always to be observed ob-served a spectator or two Interestedly looking at the engravings on the open pages The number of such books published pub-lished indicates that they till a strong demand and one sees them in many homes handy for Immediate reference It Is well that this is so There Is always a danger in a prosperous country coun-try that materialism will rule everything every-thing In the dally life of the people This is not healthy nor does it tend to produce the best type of citizens If the sole test of any creed or belief or political po-litical policy Is to be found in the monetary mone-tary profit and loss If men think only of material delights If bread and games are the sole foundation of popu luiity if the highest good Is a fatness of the pocketbook then at that very moment thjj foundations of true national nation-al wealth and health must be crumbling away History has shown this with constant and unvarying repetition It Is b I y the things that bookkeeping never records that time stock market or the produce market never knows and that the monMy market never quotes that the life of a nation is sustained and made glorious The man or the woman or the child who learns to study nature learns to love the things of nature and natures lessons never go wrong The man or woman or child who loves the wild ilqwcrs and the trees and the birds and the shortlived Insucttt learns insensibly In-sensibly but surely to love his or her fellows so that to do wrong to any seems hateful and petty and abominable abomina-ble The nation that huts right above gain and Justice above self In the nation na-tion that triumphs in the end when great empires have fallen Into Impotent decay and the relentless hand of time has torn down the unjust thrones of the past Boston Advertiser 0 S 0 A JUNE SONG Tho world runs on with Its mellow song And Its subtly woven rhymes Bright April breaks and the violet wakes Am May comes many times Time young lurk sings ice his matetobe Anil his wooing Is 1 ever now Due thero8 no love dear llko time first dear love The love 1 boro for you Thu world runt on with a laugh and n sons And with merrily moving rhymes The wild flowers blow anti time bluo waves flow And each loves many times With every blooming the wild bird wins A mate toe himself unow But theroa no love dear Ilka tho first dear love The love 1 bore for you Mildred McNcul In the Womans Homo Companion 9 S 0 OUR CRYING LITERARY NEED Sonic critic whom persistent reading Of Howells George Meredith and Ibsen I line aflllctud with mental dyspepsia af flrmd that fully 6000 Americans could have written To Have and to Hold j and at least 25000 could have produced I j Janlco Meredith or Richard Carvel i The Now York Hoxn Journal not only j I Indorses hue Inrlammatory utterances but even Increases our present troubles by adding There are certainly nowaday many thousand of Americans who have the i culture and the power for writing we I cellent books who have never done so A magazine editor recently remarked j that he rejected ninatynino out of j every hundred manuscripts submitted j J many of which would have bcun per j faetiy fin I tod to the magazine had Its space been unlimited If 25000 people cannot write Janice Meredith fully as many iiwDli us that in our country havct the ability lo write books that have as mmh mnrlt In thf name of thr longsuffering edi i toriil ind rrltl < il trib md In I f < irni i of sord oppr wd readers UG must = protest against language so dangerous and Incendiary Docs the Homo Journal Jour-nal l writer realize what an Insurrection ho Is Inciting He not only encourages encour-ages our present horde of authors to greater activity hut even advises those few Americans who have mercifully refrained re-frained from authorship to write And this In an age when even tho most tireless tire-less readers are beginning to rebel and pray for the day When wo Hhnll be delivered from tho clash of mngasIiiLs When the Inkpot stinll be shivered Into countless smithereens If King Solomon thought In his day that t there was no end ot time making of books what would he say now Events hi Even-ts wives would have a Browning club and would quarrel over first reading of Marion Crawfords sixtyninth novel If Job came to Chicago oven his patience pa-tience would break down under prevailing pre-vailing literary conditions and he would be 1I 1 driven to golf and Scotch whisky as the I only way to keep out of Dunning Not only tne woods but a so the cornfields corn-fields the sagebrush the slum alleys and even the Lake Shore drive are jammed with authors now Only by locking 1 himself In a burglarproof vault can the hapless publisher now obtain a nights j untroubled rest If the literary pressure increases time editors and critics will have to emigrate to Guam and leave the authors to edit and criti cise each others books Then will there age civil strife In most uncivil language lan-guage and a Battle of the Books such as Swift never could have Imagined Our crying need today Is not more authors au-thors but some system of mental and physical training that will enable readers read-ers to endure time overwhelming flood of books Chicago Inter Ocean The socalled critics whose stock In trade consists of unadulterated treacle might be benefited by consideration oC Hcpworth Dixons counsel to his Athenaeum reviewers Bo Just bo generous but when you do meet with a I deadly ass sling him up The fashion of today alas Is to make sweet all tho pathways of the deadly asa to the consequent con-sequent lowering of all literary ideals and the ultimate decay of true literature litera-ture |