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Show MISTAKES IN WESTERN FICTION. When the New York Sun. In a recent Issue, Is-sue, Jeered at Hamlin Garland because of r.ts reterence to a "bronco ponv." it unconsciously un-consciously voiced a grievance which the cst has long held against most writers of so-called Western fiction It Is by no means an uncommon thing for writers ol vstcrn novels and short storicx to dls- play derso Ignorance or the part of the country from which they draw their - local lo-cal color." This Is due to the fact that thoy have not lived thc life. for. despite the assertion that the outsider gets the best view of any rommunitv. no wrltei can master tho West's peculiarities in ono season, nor In many seasons. Tho West anel this term should be -ccepted as ap-l-y,".ff. t0 V1.0-, romantic cowboy-and-mlncr West in which the story-tellers revel has posso3ed many peculiarities of its own since the days of tho first trappers and Indian lighters. The men who mado the csi of romance were largely thrown on ii!, ,n". roso,,rc'i.!' ''lnJ 'Onseoueiuly lhe fell Into rough-and-rcadv forms of expedltlousnees. In everything from talk ,..Jln5 knots. In time there pec iliaritle? will disappear Indeed, they are elNan-pearlng elNan-pearlng today. 1 But until an absolute change doe take Place, wr tors on Western themes should use caro in observing thoKo details which S.f rVr,V,,nU ",l,t wn,ch- tl'' finer points of by-play In a well-acted drama ?r,i0 cr?at; a s.atiefaclory Impression! Lick oi such nttenlon to detail must have caused Mar o Van Vo.st to write as fol-l0.?3 fol-l0.?3 ln aTfl,,ort- story in Harper's Magazine Maga-zine for January, WG:' rode his bronco up at full 0on. before UcSSm I Square bank, tlrrew the lines over on his poiij' H neck, stalked In and held two Derringers at tho cashier's and paving teller's noses." Now the Western -b- d 01 th, ,typo lnla aullior flought o portray would never bo so foolish as to throw 1,1s reins on his pony's neck The cat,crn bronco has never been taught to stand with the reins In that posit on in tho same story tho author tel s of a man sleeping on the e.en pralrl at night In f.'o ?f ne danger from wolve". Yet r VI? mortc dancer from wolves in rlteSVho h- 'ndeil- vv.-ur nRr U, Ol,so methods of many w i Iters who aro iUr vine to iivn ti.r. ,.7..i K public ies impressions ofVes en life The man who has lived In the We3 nnd md?viuuai wEfc Ji-stlca J is nntaini'..;ilmoi,Dhcro' and that ju&nce is not being done a n.nrr re rt,Z SoeVw'h?,, ' P-ortuStle for . writer who uses eves. e-irj nwi v.vi. -Arthur Chapman In The Render. a'"' rlm"(lre?Jra,nt' 1ays ln I-oncman's Magazine: Maga-zine: People keep asking wh Mr Browning was so obscure. Probablv In part, because ho could not help It" ' his etlerc among his private friends aro not ,s "cent. Again, he tool; It for granted m?HUle '-T3". ?v,ls ramlHar with many matters of which the reader had nevor heard In Ids blameless life; that he knew what a miircx is, for example; nanVely ''a Iish armed with sharp prlckes nnd a kind of long boak. from which" (the beak?) purplo dyo was obtained." Again as Mr ' Chesterton Justly remarks, deas had odd associations in Mr. Brownlng'g ml d and these being habitual with him. ho took It for granted that they were pcreplci oSs to others Thus, to tnko Mr CI ev"erton fanciful example, a poet might thin" that plglous excitement was a kind of evil Intoxication (the poet being rather an nssj, and "that churches wcro h reilltv taverns " Ho might also, llko Mr lyle and others, bellevo in Pur tnnHm without its thcolog,. and might Itlmatc-ly Itlmatc-ly write, "You will not got tho god?es Puritan into your white taverns - Thil would be magnificently lucid to the noot but taking a Godlcfa Puritan to mc??, -i trusty Tompkins (in Woodstock) wAad-c-rs yould my that you could readilv cet 1 once v.as privileged to see Mr Brown Ing In a temper. A now pem of his Ihm tho opinions whlol, yon Shcfaim nre imrllnilcd. to you nnd mlkO. KMS ly Is nni-oyliiK. bpciiusd tho inilili viV.. ?S.rnoon!5SnotJS & R3 obvious that, bv a visual lmli7ioinoM tho critic had read andaco,ffidUC0uttltCh,o wrong words. inQ I did this myself lately. ReadJiic-'in historical MS pllntc-l by the His 'oTlcn" .Manuscripts Commission. I rend m t copied down in my notes, the word ' r Prance Hllvcromlth." For reasons,' herd yeaned to bo an historical discovery nl,t a friend pointed out to mo that the real words wero "Mr. Prince, .silversmith" qulto nnothor affair. Mr. Browning's reviewer re-viewer had boon hallucinated in the sanio way, probably through extwetant belief r t r i that the poet would write nonsense. But 1 could not get thc poet to sco things ln this light. Mr. Browning came to ,hls perfection In the ")"nimatic L-Tlcs" of IS42. tho year when Tennyson alco, as Fitzgerald cald, rent-hod his nent In the.-o thero Is no "arro'cuntly tutcliec'-;al character," as Mr C'hecte-rton reamrks;. I do not know that tho "Cavalkr Tunes" arc "uplciulld war chants"; (hoy do not haunt the memory mem-ory like somo other cavalier soncs. However, How-ever, they, and many plocca that follow, I nro straightforward poetry, with no "nics-aco "nics-aco to tho age," a thinpr that is my aversion. aver-sion. 1 tv.iuiot agree rci-'h Mr. Ch'- .tcr-ton .tcr-ton that .Mr Browning's Is "the finest kz-mumj lllkl: uJT-r.' 1 r.- : love poetr in the world." becaus" it la Iks about "window panes, gloves and ga.de n v.'alls." Mot love pootry oo"s that, and girdles and ring and windows abound in Tcnnvson, and- Ovid, ana Rnrtnus. and cverj-'whTo: Shaktspeare. Sappho. Lovelace. Love-lace. Catullus and a 1 Reel Inedan s-uaw Cnatno unknown) havo T.Tittcn Just as lino Jove fong? a?. Mr. Browning. NoIukIj has over excelled Lovelace. To svy that Mr. Browning is "the greatest of love poets" Is to make much too high a claim. We remember, , , "When love with unconllned wings, If to be nbfcnt were to be Away from the'. Tell ir.o- not. pwect T cm unklrd. - |