The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1886-09-18
SOUTHERN WRITER'S OF FICTION

u SOUTHERN WRITER'S OF FICTION.
New Elements in the World of Litera
turc.
A correspondent of the New Yorl
Evening Post, writing from Lexiug
ton, KY, says:
Has any one remarked the fac; thai
, the critics have had of late rather
heated term? In months or two
months time 1 have happened upon q
single notable piece OF perfectly amia
BILE criticism, it has escaped my mem
ory, and that, too, when tho rarity OF
the article would have made it pecu,
liarly Impressive. 1t would be diff
cult 10 say just when the trouble began.
Probably it was on the day that Mr..
HowelIs took his seat in stThe Editors
Study"
Such an event WAS in itself a signal
for the commencement of hostilities,
as must readily have been foreseen by
any one who understands the sensi-
temperament. The spectacle of rep
resentative novelist and critical spe-
cialist taking his seat upon the throne
i Vi -1Coli5As3 ~ "o<C tuO SPSShC Va du
thority over a class of minds that pro-
fess to acknowledge none, looked ror~
tentous of rebellion. Was it not sub
versive of the simplicity of freedom
and genera: equality Of democratic lit.
erary creeds and conditions:
To change the figure II little, ii was
evident that Mr.. Howeiis would not
sail through many of the twelve
monthly signs Of the critical heavens
before he encountered the z>diacal
ram mid air or, may be, the goat So,
indeed, it happened; aud from that
day TO this it has been one prolonged
case of lively and vigorous rebu!tal.
Even Mr.. James, over the quiet Waa
ters, suddenly grows rampant, and
though weli.nigh covered with the
finest and whitest fleece Of Partisan
courtesy, still contrives to show q bulg-
ing forehead and curling horns driv-
ing home at Mr.. Howells with the
blow that while lie is devoted to tho
usual and commonplace, life does
sometimes exhibit the extraordinary
and the wonderful in ways to mako a
ms,i-or even "a realistic ram-rub his
eyes with incrtdu!ily. Then drawing
back several PAGES, he pitches at him
again win the forceful reminder that
while his characters show great mutual
toIeration, there is really nothing much
in them to tolerate but each others
manners! Think of one of the two
great realsts of this country telling the
other that the only im,nuraiitieS his
books contain are little alterations of
thoughts and eXcesst s of beer, aud call
ing his strongest worst people ineffect-
uai sinners! In the realism of this life,
as we commonly know it, the sinners
are only too effectuaI, as they are eX-
pected to find out in the world TO
come.
Well, Mr.. Howells, sailing sturdily |
and sercnsly on as best he can (God
speed him y drops some words respect
ing Tolstoi and Russian criticism, ap- /
plauding its enlightenment as con-
trasted with the crude, old-fashioned
canons that still so largely dominate
American methods and taste. Then
Mr.. Julius Hawthorne, looking out of
the literary skylisbt Of the World and
seeing Mr.. Howels passing overhead,
hurIs after him several columns of
copy in minion type, designed to teach
him and all of US, once and finally, just
what this baneful thing realism is and
what it isn't; more particularly that it
is not art and never will be, and call
ing upon all professed realists and
notebook representatives, of the So
called scientific method, for decency's
sake and consistency's sake, not to
publish novels but their notebooks.
Then somebody in Cincinnati up and
calls Mr.. Hawthorne a born sneerer,
having remembered against him all
that he had said years ago about the
air, and the girls, and the homelife OF
a pretty little country in Germany.
Then Mr.. Maurice Thompson, in In
dianapolis, having impstiently waited
until Mr.. Howells reached his remote
and rather lurid quarter Of the heav-
ems, all at oncs rushes round and round
him like a headloug comet about
silver sun-his orbit, it would seem,
being determined about equality,
though very strangely, by the forces OF
repulsion and attraction. Indeed, Mr..
Thompson almost threatens to run into
Mr.. Howells and burn him up altos
gether. After letting him know that