Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-02-17

The return of the Atlantic to its first literary
loves is the startling confession of fact which
good observers have for some time noticed.
We have just lived through a generation of
creative literature and the men who made the
generation illustrious by their originality have
either passed away or are standing zone inch
from lifes safe hem" It needs no refec-
ton that, If an equally strong series of
writers were pressing into the vacated places
the editors Of the Atlantic would have con-
tented themselves with new talent in the nat
ural sequence Of things. But their action is
| a virtual proclamation of the intellectual
dearth which just now marks New Eng
land authorship. We have developed a
generation , Of critics. and criticism has
our newer writer's has been to talk about the
greater men who went before them The process
| Is a natural one and has occurred In the literary
history OF other countries. Germany rested uXuri-
ously for long time upon the laurels won In
| the Goethe-Schiller era; and her scholars are
still analyzing the great dramas and 1ctions of
these two creative minds, instead of producing
new work. There is, to be sure, new series
| OF German nOvelists and poets. but they COM
1t seems as if we, in New England, were repeat
| ing this old story Of the blossom, fruitage and
decline of authorship. Nor need we confne the
statement to New England, for We may look
with strained vision over the whole field of
American talent tor single powerful novelist
essayist or poet, unless, perhaps. we except the
coarse, democratic genius of Whitman. We are
doing much in the fnesse of criticism and sur
face description; we are holding arguments and
amassing statistics; but we are not producing
| serious original work. One of the largest liter
airy activities Of our day is the itinerant type
books Of travel and comment; but this too, is q
sort of reportoral profession.
| 1t is worth while to look for some ofthe prob
0h1 In For cha
! literature. How comes it that we see no men
| likely to become the spiritual and artistic sue
| cessors Of Irving, Bryant. Hawthorne Emerson
and Longfe!low? HOwels and Henry James.
| tr., are the two strongest writer's to whom we
| can point among younger men. We are thank
! full tor these. and hedge them about with dis
Greet praise, lest they too, may fail u.s. But the
| great number of novelists, poets and essayists
who must feed such magazines as The Century
and me atlantic are weak fraternity. Thus,
very naturally, the magazines are stretching
their hands toward England or reaching back
into our own past. If any principle of protec-
ton could be applied here, it is certainly to be
prayed for. But our literary talent of good
class Is SO we'll paid that no reason can be found
here.
One undoubted cause Of the dearth is the pre-
| vailing restlessness and lack of seriousness in
| the present American nature. Let one read the
sweet. thoughtful measures of Longfellow's
posthumous poem, "Michael Angelo and he
will at once sec that the fine penetration which
makes such poem possibility can only be the
evolution OF at least two or three generations of
deep-natured and earnest ancestry. Bret Harte
Walt Whitman and Joaquin Miller are better
opponents of our contemporary spirit than the
genial and 1ne-grained men who have either
vanished or are fast vanishing. Whittier speaks
to US now only in the infrequent intervals of in
trinity, but his song has lost none of it's simple
power. There is no sign of decrepitude in Holmes
new paper. and we are rejoiced to find in it the
Old neighbOrliness which his ddactic wit
never 0bscures. There is not one of our new
writer's who speaks to us with this old glow of
affection We feel like clinging to the hands
that have ministered to us so long; and Ger
tain sense of spiritual orphaaage falls upon US
In thinking back upon the tenderness as well as
the intellectual insight of these men of the past
The new writer's do not stand in the same rela-
ton to us; and it is questionable whether that
almost brOtherly interest which men like Emer-
son and LOngtel0w cherished toward their fell
lows can reappear in generation so immersed
IN senSatIOHaiism as ours Ii takes much more
than information, ambition and mental activity
to constitute a great writer
Moreover our political life of the past twenty
years has not favored mental repose The civil
war created aud left for us legacy Of hot emo
lions. which are but just dying away. Social and
economical problems have acquired completely
anu have absorbed energy. We are still in the
turmoil OF these large, immediate questions;
and art and literature can scarcely flourish in a
SOIL which is being continually ploughed by an
tagonisms or debates. Just now sociological
| matters bid fair to make a large demand upon
our best minds for good while to come. But
we can hardly make full excuse for ourselves in
| this way; since English nationality has devel-
Oped In corresponding turmoil, and vet has
given lite to the rich and deep temperament
OF Tennyson, Browning and George Eliot,
in the very heat of such upheavals. After all we
| can only say that we have somehow missed the
golden conditions which give life to great liter
airy art; and it is doubtful if any studied observ-
ance OF conditions will give us what we have
| missed. One thing is plain, however: that ear
nestness OF life and fine moral rectitude are
ingredients Of worthy literature. The i'm
| mense Increase OF American literature is but a
sorry compensation for It's lowered quality.
There are those who double If the materials fer a
great poem or romance can be found in the United
States. Drama and fiction, it is said, express the
| tragedy and suffering of humanity, and the
study Of modern civilization is to obiterate
suffering. There Is truth in this; but without
being pessimists we can see that some struggle
and suffering Is inevitable. Moreover. the
drama Of personal development always offers
alluring material to the artist Of human nature
| 1t is not believable that a dearth of material
can explain the dearth Of writer's. It is more
creditable that the spread Of the scientific spirit
which brings all the phenomena of life within
the reign OF law may have indsposed the
STRONGER intellects to poetize human experience.
That such pOetiZatiOn is compatible with keen
psychologist analysis, we have demonstration in
Thackeray and George Eliot But whatever
the causes Of this lowered quality OF American
| authorship, it is impossible not to feel regret
at the undoubted fact
The Lime-Kiln Clubs Stove.
From the Detroit Free Press.
When the Lime-Kiln Club was first organized
it lent Samuel Shin eighty five cents In money
and took chattel mortgage on a box-stove val
ned at al r. Samuel failed to retnrr thu Ioo,