St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-15
ST. PAUL LITERATURE

Idul. MI. w ACk mas been from time
to time connected with the GLOBE, and
is now a deputy clerk of the district
court and a member of the loca! bar
His article i'll Harper's is written in Wig
orOuS ard interesting style with a firm
grasp of facts. and shows beyond qucs-
! ton that its author has the ability to
think his subject through to the end,
and to present il to his readers in a
shape which is at once attractive and
symmetrical. 1t is the duty and the
privilege of the public press to call at
tenticn to good work which is doing
among US in paths where appreciation
is the chief reward, and the GLOBE is
! glad that the grand old man who was
the president of It's publishing COM
pany has found a public eulogist as
competent as Mr. WACK.
st. Paul is not a literary center,
whether we regard ii from the stand
point of either actor Or audience. If it
has a literary circle it is small and UNI
obtrusive one. 1t would be possible to
name in very small compass the num-
Der of books of even very unambitiOus
character which have been published
from the pens of resident authors: and
municipal pride. Which is strong enough
in other directions, does not seem to re-
spODd with any warmth to efforts which
are made here in the field Of letters.
This is partly, but not wholly, due TO the
homage of the community and TO its
lack of homogeneity. Anything like
serious and permanent intellectual pro-
ductivity comes as the offspring of
definite and predominant local thought
and feeling. In a new country, where
there Is an endless war OF contending
individualities and no general view as
sorting Itself, and stamping dissenting
opinions as heretical, neither the ortho-
d0X nor the radical finds an incentive
to activity.
But this is not 4 complete eXplana-
ton. Minneapolis is q younger place
than St. Paul, and with perhaps as lit
tie intellectual cohesiyenesS. 1t is said.
none the less, to sustain number of
literary people who enjoy themselves
after their kind, and whose contribu-
tons to the edifcati0n and education of
! the world through the magazines and
in books and pamphlets are received
with those plauditS and calculations
which are so precious to the assayist
and the novel writer. The presence of
a university strong and aSsertiye will
account for this difference in some
measure. But in general the key to the
problem will be found in the character
of St. Paul's people. The best men and
women in st. Paul are men and women
of the world in the highest sense of
that expression. That is, they are peo-
| pie of charming social qualities. wit,
and knowledge OF the usages and DOS
! sibilities of human intercourse. Our
noble climate and the glory of nature
| hold out allurements for drinking the
cup of real life instead OF contemplating
its portrait. There is no need Of arti-
fetal experiences for us, because the
delicious amenities Of actual existence
are at hand to kill enhui and to CRAFTY
US to the full limit OF our capacity.
These things make existence very
delightful i'll st. Paul. but we should
not forget that there are pleasures of
the mind which to those who can grasp
them are as real and substantial as
those of the body. We should also re-
member that those of our number who
are doing what they can to furnish ma
| terlal for pleasures of this sort are
worthy of encouragement from their
| friends and acquaintance. The GLOBE
has no knowledge as to the amount
of local support Miss Longs novel, "A
Squire of Low Degree" has received {;
but it is an exceedingly good book,
which we ought to buy that the author
may be nerved to further work in the
line in which she is fitted to succeed,
and which we ought to read because it
has merits emitting ii to our attention.
That the APPLETONs were willing to
publish it is all evidence that il is above
the average, but the mere fact of its
publication bya house of this character
has deprived it of the advantage of
sensational advertising which is so
often the basis of large circulation.
The browning merit Of "a Squire of
Low Degree" is that it is unusual and
interesting. 1t is simple, direct and
elevated, and all these things are char
acteristic of good literature. 1t has
dramatic force and local flavor, and is
Just such book as might be expected
from woman of well-trained and
sympathetic mind. and which will be en-
jOyed by those who have kept them
selves alive to the appreciation of high
motives and earnest endeayor in
others, although their own lives may
have of necessity been sordid and ma
terial. The faults of the book are the
faults of ineXperience-not of ineXperi-
ence as a writer, but of ineXperience in
life. Life is full of mysteries. and nh
less woman has the rarest of genius
or makes her entrance over the altruis-
tic path of intellectual union with
her husband, she runs the risk of
never getting behind the portal.
| There are no more marvellous
things in the history of the human
mind than the penetration of CHAR
LoTTE BRoNTE and GEORGE Eliot
both bookish women, and with lives
spent far from the madding crowd-into
the profoundest secrets OF human pas
sion and sorrow. God somehow opened
to them the divineSt of things which are
IN the inner sanctuary, where only a
few mems minds have entered, and
| that too, with much travail of soul and
suffering. They saw with the acutenses
of the anOinted, and they wrote their
visions with fiery vigor OF the prophets.
Miss LONG's book does not breathe of
such depths, but this only character
istic, not fault. The GLOBE repeats
that it is worth reading, and is credit
to its author and to those who know ner.
The latest local penetrator in this
field of letters is RoRERr II. MERRIAM,
who has just published a translation
from the French OF ApoLPH Bel or,
which he calls The Woman of Ice.''
1t IS handsomely printed by local
house, and, from its shape and appear
ance, seems to be the beginning OF
venture by the cnterprlslnc firm of