New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-12-12
HOMELESS NEW STORY.
4 NOVEL, OF THE PEOPLE.

publishers quote an opinion atttr1ontea 10 MT
Henry James. that HIn this great novel OF the
people Mr.. Howells touches high-water mark" IL
this is the deliberate judgment of the distinguished
writer whose theory of the art of fiction comes
nearest to Mr. Howes's own, @The Minister'S
CHARGE assumes q special interest for us apart
from its intrinsic qualities 1t becomes typical
example. The critic has to inquire not only
whether 1t is an entertaining story, but what are
its claims to be considered 1great novel of the
people," and what is the art of which this can be
called tho consummate expression.
Lemuel Barker s a country lad who goes to
Boston with foolish literary aspirations Of which we
hear no after they have served rs motive for
the journey and as the cause Of his 6rst stunning
disappointment He struggles through several hard
years IN the city. He is innocent prisoner In a
poice-court he Is a lodger at asylum for tramps,
be is q servant, clerk and factotum ct hotel,
reader for q gentleman of wealth. horse-car
conductor hospital patient; and we leave him In
debt, teaching a country school. He has become
engaged to working-girl, ignorant. light-minded,
incuraby vulgar, effusvely afectonate whose
influence always drags him back toward the level
from which he wishes TO rise; and he has learned
to love q lady in whose companonship his manners
soften and his mind expands. The scenes OF
common and sordid life in which he Is placed are
drawn with extraordinary care. Mr.. Howels las
his sharpness of observation and his skill in the
vivid description of everyday objects and every
day people. His account of the staton-hOuse and
poice-court incident would have made the fortune
of new spaper reporter. He shows us the interior
aud the domestic economy Of the wayfarers lodge
as plainly as if We were making a personal inspec-
ton of that establishment ut business hours He is
perfectly at home in all the departments of a
second rate hotel and he knows horsecars as If he
III
care has been lavished upon the two shop-girls
Statira Dudley and Amanda Grier. There is not
smlrk on their silly faces. twtch of their snowy
skirts an infection of their shrll voices, horror
in I'll cir grammar their behav or which he has
not studied with enthusiasm and reproduced to the
life. 1t is Statira who makes love to Lemuel and
captures him before he knows exactly what is going
on The affair, however, is rather romance of
Amanda's than OF the two persons more legtimately
concerned. aud that emphatic young person pushes
it forward 18th audacity of which only highly
developed specmsn of the saleslady" class could
ever be capable Mr.. Howes gives a great deal
of the company of S'tira "and amanda" We see
them trying their charms on Lenuel in the street.
and making open love to him in their rooms. and
showing their ignorance and rudeness to his
superior friends; and they pour upon us floods of
barbarous speech in which all the outrages the
English language is capable OF bearing seem to be
concentrated They are wonderful copies from
liie.-glrls whose ambition is to be stylish " on
So a week. and who can never be educated or
refined, not because their natures are base but
because they are When Lemuel began to
realize Statiras insufciency. he used to shut her
dooI with q feeling of relief after his visits and
make haste to forget her until duty sent him to
her again. We suspect that many readers OF the
book share Lemuel's sense of annoyance. and would
ka lad tbav coull shut the door the girl
forever 1t is possible to make portrait quite as
disagreeable as the original.
If The Minister'S Charge IS great novel of
the people is because it draws with Photographic
accuracy such pictures of the people as Stira and
'Manda, the tramp Williams, tho slangy and jocose
iaw-student Berry, and perhaps we should add
| LemueI though he is tar less distinct than tho
secondary persDnages 1t does not touch upon
what called the problems of the people. 1t has
no humanitarian tendency. 1t does not search
for the thoughts and aspirations of the multitude,
and opens disclosure of their wants or their
character 1t Is exhibition of strictly superficial
appearances The talk, the manners the occupa-
tions, the ways of living of certain unpleasant
representatives of the lower and the middle classes
are reproduced, not for any lesson ttey teach,
even for any share such things may he supposed to
have in the evolution of the story, but simply for
the delight of the author in reproducing them. The
| scuery and the studio are supposed to be equally
worth drawing; the only question Is about the
minnie accuracy of the counterfeit To sing inst
as fine crow is rs fine an accomplishment as to
sing just like nightingale. The great masters of
| fiction never made their ROC ues and vulgar people
repulsve because they never made Ioguery and
| vugarty the end Of their own existence Becky
| Sharp, Joe Sedley. Barnes Newcombe. Pecksnif
Jonas Chuzzlewt. are bad. vulgar. or contempt
| liza
because their traits have direct relation to
something beyond the faithful exhibition of
meanness- to actions inseparable from the plot.
to wholesome SATIRE or to humor. We cannot say
this of the actors in The Minister'S Charge" They
are nothing except for their manners IL this is the
great peoples novel, then this object of the peoples
| novel is TO show how i'll the people can behave
The question of realism in literary art is raised
again in its baldest form. Mr.. Howells makes the
strctest possible application Of his theory that the
subc for the novelist is the life at very DOORS
| no matter Whether it be ugly or beautiful, void o
any lesson or full of example The best artist is
the skiliul reporter with sharp eys facile neat
hand. and particle of imagination.
If we have delayed all this whie speaking of the
character OF the hero it is because in point of fact
| that ia one of the least important things in che
| book The development OF boy from Willoughby
| Pastures into Boston man is q theme which MIR.
| Howells would once have treated delightfully."-, but
here ne has not grasped his opportunity. Lemuels
strongest qualities to be pride and segrity
He is heavy, sluggish minded. obstinate. secretve.
| The minister GALES him about commun cItive as
an OYSTER and indeed he is as silent to us he
| 10 the Kew. Mr.. Sewell Near the end of the story
one of the personages says: 1" can't find that any
of us ever dropped an idea or suggestion of value
| that Barker did not pick IT up, aud turn it to
| al. h. rl.t..
| as a Tuscan peasant, as proud an Indian. aud
quick as a Yankee" The last trait he certainly
does not show in the story for he remains helpless
! sort of fellow to the end, and there is pathetic