St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-03-30

The Case of MIR. HOweIIs.
If an American explorer were to re-
turn to his native country about this
time, from some unknown land so saw
age and remote as to be out of reach of
the Tribune and similar chronicles
of events and opinions, and were TO look
In current newspapers for traces of the
most important movements, in litera
| ture, art, and morals, he might imagine
the country to be in revolt against two
malign pretenders, whose books are at
once an atfiront to American intelligence
and a danger to American letters.
These mischievOus and unprincipled
persons are Mr.. Henry James and Mr..
William ID. HOwells. They have been
writing novels for several years, and
the world appears to have been tricked
into supposing that they wrote very
well. AT any rate people have been
glad to read their stories, and publish
ers to pay for them and foreign critics
have recognized them as the principal
representatives of a new school of fic-
ton, distinguished by certain fine and
fresh qualities in which contemporary
English nOvelists are almost universal
ly deficient. Only few months ago
this was the general opinion of Ameri-
can journalists also. We looked upon
James and Howells as a credit to our
country, and since Americans have a
pleasant habit of appropriating the
credit OF the country to themselves in
dlvldually, and assuming a generous
personal share in the celebrity of Nj
agara Falls, the common school system.
General Grant, American humor. the
climate of California, Saddle Rock
oysters, and Boston novels, we ap-
plauded these young men foe showing
the Old World what we could do in the
way of English composition when we
thought it worth while. This is the
way we looked at the matter few
months ago. But suddenly the tone
of the press has changed. There is
hardly anything too severe to say of
these successful nOvelists now.
With regard to Mr.. James perhaps
the case is not quite so queer. There
has always been party hostile to him
IN the American press, an American
literary clique angrily refusing to ac-
cept him as an American novelist, ow-
ing to an uncomfortable doubt whether
he had any desire for patriotic fellow
ship. The present outbreak against
Mr. James is the extension of an old
grievance rather than the discovery of
new one. He has given no fresh
cause of offence. He has not recently
depicted the American abroad with Ii
bellous fidelity to facts which is spoken
fo us cynicism, and that provoking in
difference to popularity which some of
us relieve our minds by calling snob-
bish and if he is denounced Just now
with more fervOr than usual, it is be-
cause he has been keeping bad com
pany. The favor and friendship of Mr..
HOwells seem to be regarded as the
crOwning outrage for which Mr.. James
is not to be forgiven. The clamor
against Mr.. HOwells is so sudden, so
violently in contrast with the praises
Lately lavished upon him, so grotesquely
improper when we consider the amia-
blllty of his character and the cheerful,
genial, unaffected tone of his writings,
that the dispassiOnate observer is both
puzzled by it and amused. What has
he done all at once Is Mr.. James to
be cast forth because Mr.. Howells
praises him, and Mr. Howells at the
same time to be laid under the ban be
cause he praises Mr.. James Or is the
American press fired with noble re-
sentiment because Mr.. Howells has
spoken with qualified appreciation of
the favOrite nOvelists of Englandq ? The
unfortunate remark about the methods
of Thackeray and Dickens was mistak-
en- criticism, and we wish that Mr..
IInVra1l, hnl l., =
not bear the Interpretation which
many censOriOus persons have placed
upon it, and it certainly does not ac-
count for the chorus of reckless de-
nunciation which is suddenly raised
against its author. "Why, this fellow
cannot write," exclaims a wild west
ern newspaper which knows as much
about literary taste and style as Mo-
doe Indian knows about French gram
mar. ''This fellow cannot write he
cannot write at all"
We are half persuaded that the un-
pardOnable sin of Mr.. Howells is to be
found not in the sketch of Henry James,
but in the story of ga Modern In
stance" BARLEY Hubbard was much
too true to nature. There are some
hundreds of men whom a tolerant pub
lie maintains in American newspapers
men of coarse fibre, selfish instincts,
weak morals, untruthful, undisciplined
not respecting other people because
they do not respect themselves, and
wanting only temptation to develop
into rascals. S1r. Howells has read
them. He has gone to the bottom of
their vulgar little souls and turned
them inside out. "Pshaw !" they cry {:
''this dull and common story could
have been told in ten lines. 1t is not
interesting" All, the trouble is that
for them the interest is much too keen
and personal. And what makes the
wound rankle the more is the fact that
Mr.. HOwells himself has been country
journalist. A gentleman in their own
profession is the sort of gentleman
whose superiority they especially re-
sent. They dislike him because he
understands them so well because in
the same circumstances of life he has
developed qualities so much finer than
theirs; because he is distinguished and
they are mean /; because he has done
honor to his old calling, and they only
show how little an honorable calling
can elevate a common mind. Proba-
bly, the journalist of the BARLEY Hub
bard order does not stop to analyze
his own sentiments, and is hardly
aware of his grudge; but he has an in
] stinctive antipathy to the novelist who