The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-27
THE REAL AND THE IDEAL
Edgar Saltus Tells Just Why He
Has Published His Remark
able Books.
When He Took Characters from
Real Life Ills Writings
Sold.
hut When He Drew on His Imagination
He Got Only Praise in
Return.

There was an epoch in literature whe1
fiction was a battlefield, writes Edgar Sal
tus in the San Francisco Examiner. To
day it is a restaurant. The novelist does
not fight, he caters. The guests are vege
tarians. Instead of meat there is succotash
canned at that. 1t is cheap. easy of diges-
tion, and as easily prepared. There is no
aftertaste, at most q feeling of slight dis.
tension which presently disappears.
In view of this condition OF affairs thu
present writer, a few years since, prepared
amanuscript which he considered absolute
ly in%nocuous. 1t was a simple story, ia.
miliar to many New Workers. of a gentle.
man who married, and who fancying-
whether rightly or wrongly no one evel
knew-that the lady who had lone him the
honor to take his name was lacking in GER
tain circumspections. put her out of the
way in such a manner that her death was
attributed to accident. The facts in the
case were property that for years had beer
retailed not behind the fan, but before it
Once in print. however, a prominent critic
declared that the WI tier was envious oil
Catalle Mendes
subsequently it was his privilege to meet
the prominent critic, and to discover that
that gentleman's knowledge of French was
COIllNiou W Il COutSS VI Blk leSSCuSt which
he had received in his childhood from a
German.
1husc omforted, the writer took heart
again and produced a second manuscript as
simple az the first. In this instance he took
another situation from real life, one thot
had been SO gossiped over that he wondered
it had not found its way into print before.
The story was that of a young man who
became engaged to a girl who was in love
with q married man. A misadventure oc-
Cured. As a result the young mans eyes
were opened. he ls now insane. In the
manuscript he slew his rival.
No one. it seemed to the writer. could
object to anything in that. Morality was
upheld and immortality punished. And vet
every one did object to it, even to the edi-
tor of the magazine for which it WINS writ
ten. and the people who had discussed it
could not but wonder why the press was
permitted to give the bald facts of some
scandal which he was reproved for re-
proving.
Then it was that he remembered the veg
e~tarian. He determined to have nothing
more to do with tie actual. and to deal ex-
clusively with romance. by way of IL good
beginning he manufactured u plot, the
story of a young woman who married, sus-
Iected her husband, left him, reviled him,
and b would have died had not every
thing turned out in the last chapter of the
Aovel as II never does in the Last chapter of
life. Throughout the entire work there
vas only one suggestive word, 1t WAS in
Greek, spelled wrong at that; in brief, there
Wns nothing in it at which a NURSERY gov
erness could cavil. Presently it was pub
lished. Its predecessors had been abused.
IL was praised. But it's predecessors had
sold, IL did not.
Tho perplsxitv of the writer increased.
Prnise to an author 10 believed to he very
grateful. Az a rule, yon cannot stick il on
thick enough; and to the present writer it
was not only agrteful. il had the allure