The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-11
NOVELIST HALL GAME
Looks Like Shakespeare and
Has a Great Future.
THE TRUE TEST OF FICTION.
When Story Is Not Bloodthirsty IT II
Sensual, He says-The Eneminacy
OF Modern Literature.

LONDON. Sept. 2s.-lspecial Correspond
ence. Some thirty-eight years ago there
was born at Runcorn, in Lancashire. the
son of Manx father and Cambrian
mother, the subject of this article With
out doubt it is to his parentage he owes
the weird, vivid power of thought that is
SO strangely characteristic of the books
which are now and again forged by an
iron pen dipped in ink that at times APP
pears to be the veritable heartblood of the
man. To no placid-living, easily-jogging,
self-satisfied Southerner could it have
been possible to have written in such
splendid stock Saxon that romance of
The Bondman" which so recently thrilled
and delighted the English public, already
SICK OF the feebleness Of modern fiction,
disguised with the filthy details of the
French realists, and gladly appreciative of
the production of a romanticist like Hall
Game, who with honest courage endeavors
to place before them life, not as it is, but
as it should be. Yes, it is life with all it's
brilliant potentialities and its splendid
possibilities, its lost opportunities, its ir-
reparable facts, its available future, its
joys, its sorrows. its sunshine and its
gloom, that Hall Caine takes for the text
of his thrilling romances. l do not think
/ exaggerate when l describe HIM as en-
phatically the novelist of the near future
His aim is so lofty one his tone so
pure, his sincerity so evident, that he
cannot fail of reaching the hearts of all
those striving after the better life. And
these, and such as these exist in every
class in far larger majority than we can
dream of; these who desire the better
thing, and alas! are frequently forced to
be content with that which only is within
their reach, and it is to these that Hall
Game appeals with a force and power
which only they can know who have read
his splendid books. Early last summer it
was my good fortune to spend week at
Hall Gaines new home in Cumberland.
The spot itself is classic ground to a liter
airy man. Thus at Keswick lived Coleridge,
first of the little band of great writer's
who were known as the Lake poets;
first of that illustrious band of which Mr..
Game is himself the last After Col
eridge came Southey and Wordsworth
(who was a man having a little
estate at Applethwaite) and who settled at
Grasmere about the same period. Rather
later came DeQuincey and Christopher
neau to AmbIeside, where by that time
little Hartley Coleridge was keeping
school. Still later the Arnolds found their
home in that most lively corner of Eng
land. But perhaps most important of all
to the subject of the present sketch Shell
ley in 1s11-12 occupied a little chestnut cot
tage which stands almost on the site of Mr..
Gaines new home. This is called Haw-
ia Aacf
little Cambrian house of no preten-
tions beyond that of rustic beauty and
which nestles almost Immediately beneath
the shadow of grim Skiddaw, whose sum-
NIT is forever hidden in cloudland. The
house itself is full of literary and artistic
interest. The bust of Shakespeare on the
bureau in the study once stood in a SINH
lar position in Rosettis studio in Chelsea
and the reclining bust at the wall by its
side is death mask of Rosetti himself
the great poet having died in Hall Gaines
arms. The beautiful carved oaken chest
which stands on the left of the Shakes
peare, was Rosetti's manuscript chest,
and it contains very large packet
of his letters and the manuscripts
of his poems as we'll as very
curious Rosetti relic. viz, the pen which
he was using during the last writing days of
his life. have, know, by this time said
as much as Mr.. Caine would wish of the
belongings OF the great painter-poet, for
while his friendship with Rosseti is a
source of pride to him, 1T seems to have
been somewhat more frequently touched
upon than he could altogether wish. The
room is full of old oak cabinets and tables
collected by Mr.. Caine himself, and in a
corner hangs the lantern borne by Eugene
Aram on that fateful night, and which
was given to Mr.. Game by his old friend,
Lord Houghton, the poet.
In the midst of all these articles of "big-
otry and virtue" sits the great novelist
himself, rapidly writing on tiny sheets of
note paper the chapters of his next novel,
and surrounded by perfect chaos of
papers. books and debris of every imagin-
able kind. His face is of curiously Eliza
bethan cast, and ne very strongly resem-
bles the portrait of Shakespeare; his tenn
permanent is Celtic entirely. he is excitable,
intense, nervous to a painful degree, but
yet he is always thoughtful, courteous and
unassuming, singularly unassumlng con-
sidering the fact of his humble birth and
the rapid strides he is making towards the
very summit of his profession To see
him in the bosom of his family is to see
him at his best. His brave old father, the
descendant of long line of Manx farmers,
Is supplemented man of the soil, with
flavor OF the turf about him, not man of
education, but nevertheless man of good
intelligence and some reading, and much
alive to the intellectual life of the country
and well able To take his share in discus
sions. and obviously at that period when
his own life being practically done, he
lives in the life of his son. Indeed that
was the most touching thing about him.
Then there is his wife, a pretty, simple
minded, laughter-loving little woman,
whose sole JOY in life is TO care for her hus-
band and the bonny little boy who flies
down the stairs, three steps at time to
ring out true Cambrian welcome to the
visitors who is coming in at the door. The
scene is an idyllic one and can never fade
from my memory. Many long talk have
/ had with Hall Caine upon the art and
purport of novel writing. / remember one
day when my friend Grant Allen had
penned an article denouncing the blood
thirsty tendency of modern fiction.
took it to Hall Caine and asked him what
he thought of it. Why" he replied,
II wholly disagree with him when he
would do away with the bloodthirsty
element. Do you not see that in reality it
is a very healthy element. Experience
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