Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-03-06
DRIFT.

,idered the best novel thus far written in
merica. without hesitation | answered
4 pr SEWER" Ivy George W. Cable. Whether
regarded from purely literary point of view,
or from the higher one OF moral purpose and
it remains the most arustically
perfect and ethicallv wholesome novel yet
produced 10y an American writer-not except.
ing either hawthorne's or Harriet Beecher
stoves For strictly speaking neither OF
these enters into comparison with Cable.
Hawtborne's romances are not novels hut |
romauces, and unquestionabv without
peer scarcely without a rival, in the language,
while Uncle Toms CABIN is far more than
novel, and therefore to he judged by other
tests and according 20 other standards
Non is this estimate of Cable unsupported
10y weighty and recognized authority. only
few weeks after it was first expressed a
notable article on recent American hcton
appeared from the critical pen OF my Trend,
Prof Charles +. Richardson, than whom
there Is no higher authority on literary SUI
iects in the country, in which he pronounces
Mr.. Cable "the whoesomest OF later Amerl-
can novellsts," and further says: "lhe 'art
for arts sake dogma gets no encouragement
from his short stories and novels. through |
New Orleans life he sees the good and bad
threads running, but the warp and wool |
which he weaves therefrom into his books
are presented to us as beautiful and hope |
iul result He knows what life is, and what |
it is for and the life he describes is real ana
complete, not imaginary and partial. Mr.. |
Cables Louisiana, like Bret Harte's Caliior- !
MIA is a land OF hopes and fears of struggle |
aud victory or defeat, OF right and wrong, oil
reward and penalty, Mr.. Cable Is the inner
artist, Mr. Harte, the brighter wit but each
in his own way Is a moralist i'll literature.
Mere finish seems cheap and poor beside
downright wholesomeness, when effectively
and beautifully brought before the reader.
"a NNhnlaSnmp-
ness" wrought out with a. eNquisItely deli
cate an art as anything of Howels or James
that makes Mr. Cables work Of larger, and !
believe more lasting merit than the writings
OF these two leading and popular authors.
They may technically ha We more art; but he
has more heart And as between art and
heart, the world aud literature can less afford
to excuse a lack of the latter than of the
former. Nor will it, so long as men with hu
man sympathies, feelings and COnsCiences are
the Judges. over against Daisy Miller or the
Iapham girls and their mother, sweet Mary
Riching shines forth as a "gem of purest ray
serene" in whose light the former appear
but as Caricatures of true womanhOod. In
the whole realm of English or American fc-
ton there is no more perfect representation
of the fairest ideal of pure and loving
woman. wife and mother, and noble help.
| meet withal, than we have in Mary Riching;
not an ideal that is never realized but pre-
cisely one that is realized to such an extent
| that She is but the representative of the true
and highest type of American female CharaC.
| ter Read Dr. Seivier'' over again, care
| fully, and see whether this is not true. At
| any rate, il you know Of a lOvelier character
| than Mary's in any novel, why just let me
know, too; | have never seen one and
scarcely expect to- certainly not in any novel
OF the James -IIowels school of fiction,
Mr.. CABLE, by the way, has promised
| new novel, in a new field, which is to appear
soon as a serial Its scene will be laid
among the Acadians, the people to whom we
owe great debt for having given us Evan
gelne Ever since he has come north he
| has been studying the history, characters
tics, scenery, architecture and customs of life
| among that once unfortunate people. For he
| is in so far As throughgoiug "A realist as Mr..
| James himself The "Old Creole Days :"
| aud " Madame Delphine" are as Couscien-
| tious pictures of life, dress, temperament and
speech in the old-tme Creole quarter OF New
| Orleans as are Miss Muriree's - In the Ten
| nessee Mountains" or Mr.. HOwells's 4" Rise
| of Sllas Lapham,' or Mr.. James's Boston
| iaus," of the localities and people of whom
| they treat 1t is, therefore, with much inter
| est that / await the result of his Acadian
| studies in fact, there are only two other
works for which l look forward with an
| equal interest and eagerness The first of
| these is Mr.. LOwells volume on Hawthorne
| in the " American Men of Letters" series !:
| and the second is Prot, Richardson's " His
| tory of American Literature" work we
] need very much, and which no one il more
| fully competent To give us than he. Mr..
| LOwel's volume * now in press while
| Prof Richardson writ me that he is " peg
| ging away every day a little Fl" at his work,
which will occupy from three to five vol
| umes. He expects to have the first volume
| out this spring, II possible.
| / SUSPECT that neither OF these writers is at
| present working as hard and steadily at his
| task As is Mr. Cable. But who can tell The
| methods OF work of literary men are so differ
| ent, that sometimes they are working hardest
when We least imagine 1t while riding on an
omnibus, as Victor Hugo used to do, or pac
ing up and down fayOrite woodland path, ,as
| Nathaniel Hawthorne, or like Mark Twain,
on railroad train, or walking through the
| fields and meadows and along forest streams,
| as did DIR. Mulford in thinking out his two
great works on " The Nation" and "The
Republic OF GOd,n than which nothing more
profound and fundamental in political phil
| osophy and theology has been produced in
this country.
Mr.. CABLES method is different from any
of these at least since he is living in the north,
where professional engagements, and the ha-
tired of the New Orleans Creoles, have caused
him TO take up his permanent abode at North
hampton, Mass. His study in his new home
| there is almost as bare as garrett lie does
not want any books about him except lust
those bearing on the subject he has in hand
and selected by him for reference. a recent
writer in The Book Buyer says OF him 4" Mr..
Cable Is not among those who believe in be-
| ing ruled by inspiration; he goes into his
study at nine in the morning and leaves ii AT
five in the afternoon, only stepping into the
next room at lunch time and back again.
| This is his invariable habit he never waits
| for inspiration, except at the desk with pen
| Gil in hand, aud often shuts the windows to
| guard against the temptation Of looking upon
| what is going on without, and being distract
| ed thereby. From his work he goes upon
long walks, not so often drives-he rarely
| drives Tor his own pleasure, preferring the
exercise of brisk walk. In winter, after
| his days hard work, he attends TO his cores
| pondence and the reading and revision of I'M
| finished work. But in the summer he stops
| all thought of his work at five in the after
| noon, and devOtes the rest of his time To wife
| and children, taking mis- rest in, as he eN-
| pressed II, potteriEg with music in which
he processes himself wretched dabbler,' 4"
| though in reality, like the late Sidney Lanier,
| he is fine musician % At hs work he is a
| struct his thoughts into written speech. He
| never lets outside noises or happenings dis
| turb him, but works steadily until his stint
| himself to turn with facility from one subject
| to another, and at the present lime he Is writ.
| ing two books at once"
| SPEAKING of authors often doing their
| hardest, and therefore their best work, when
they least seem to be working, reminds me