The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-02-05
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
HI.
The Unrealty of Realism.

The Unrealty of Realism.
Copyright, 1894, BY A. s. Cody.
When a man of letters gets hard put to it
for material for a novel chat he has to write
about the literary professionalism is, his
own professional expeiience-he deserves q
little harsh treatment, If any one is inclined
to give it to him. The newspapers
have found decided fault with
Mr.. Howells' treatment of newspapers
in the first chapter of 1.-THE World of
| Chance" published last year, and I personal
ly wish to find a little fault, a very little,
with his treatment of his literary aspiranti in
New York. / feel that l can speak with
some authority, since / speak from expert
| ence.
Mr.. HowelIs sends his young mar to the
great city with $500. 1 had but $50 when l
went, which will account for some differen-
ces. His young man put up at a French care,
which l looked at myself but passed by. His
young man could pay $40 a week for board,
whereas / could pay but So. Then, his young
man is very gratiously received by his pub
Usher, and though the publisher does not
| publish his book, he takes the fellow home to
see his baby. | can vouch for the fact that
there is not a publisher in New York who
would ever, under any circumstances imagin-
able, offer to take me home to sea his baby
| when l went to cave a manuscript to be ex-
alnined. Publishers, in my experience, are
as cold as icicles under these circumstances
a better figure would be to say that they are
genuine ~sphinxes, before the sphinx was
turned to stone.
Mr.. HoweIrs publisher sends for the young
mans manuscript on the sudden chance that
such a man as Kane would approve it. l can
swear of personal knowledge that no pub
Usher ever dreamed of doing such a thing to
| my manuscript, though | am sure | have had
many quite as good as THE Modern
Romeo,n a wretched romantic" thing.
Competent writer's have told me that
Chapley &c Co. 70 would not think of pub
fishing a novel even by the Angel Gabriel,
if it came as the first crude work of an
utterly unknown youngster.
But to be more serious, Mr.. Howells seems
to me to have said nothing that is absolutely
true, in his history of his literary aspirant
going to New York. He does not want to
| make him get on too fast, for that would be
romantic; so he has him have his book re-
fused by all the publishers, though not with
out reluctance. He does not want him to
get on too slowly, and not get any encourage
ment at all las is the case with many a strug-
gler in New York literary life, for that
also would be romantic. So he makes him
petted by a well known man named Kane,
whom the ordinary young man would not
lave run across in ten years, even IN SO I'M
romantic a way as the sneak thief scene in
which Kane meets young Ray IA perfectly
impossible thing except in some freak OF ma
UuFe1. MOSU OIL dll, IO young uldU VIII was d
young man at all would give a poor and de-
pleted journalist a quarter to tell hin what
F. S. Funny Side stood for. No young man
who was a young man would be so provoked
with a newspaper editor who gave him a
check for SIS for writing a column article,
that he wouldn't get the check cashed. No
publisher who was a publisher would give a
Young man whose novel had been rejected
other young mems novels to reject; he would
be afraid the fellow would not reject them.
Mr.. Howells tries to be realistic by the
negative process of not being romantic; but
it takes something more than the lack OF
romance to make true realism a picture OF
things as they really are. Some people are
aware that under the checkered cloak of
various humanity there is a heart that beats
and suffers, and sometimes triunphs, some
times dies. Aud you don't make the aaunt-
ing stage of life a true home by simply taking
of all the gaudy scenery, as Mr.. Howells
| seems to hin
I hope that IN my next letter / shall show
| that I appreciate the really valuable work
which Mr.. Howells has done; but while l am
speaking my mind against him, l must utter
| a theory of which I am indeed ashamed, but
which has pushed its way into my mind now
and again. Is it possible that Mr.. Howells
| has realized his inability to understand the
human heart as a real master OF literature
should do, and has perhaps unconsciously
e~ndeavored to justify his ignorance by his
theory of realism ?
In 1.-THE Shadow of q Dream people cried
| out that they saw marked signs that Mr..
Howells was becoming an idealist. He at
tempted for once to analyze a psychological
problem-to understand the heart of a man.
/ read the result of his work with interest,
but with establishment. | never saw a book
more full of false statements in my life. For
my amusement and the amusement of my
friends, l wrote a long analysis of the abb
surdities of this book, quoting line
and page at ever statement.
1t is some time ago that l did
this, and I do not remember all the details of
my attack. But / do remember the effect
the paper produced on several bright friends
of mine, and that l destroyed both copies OF
the manuscript lest at some future time | be
tempted to publish it. But my careful study
of that book convinced me Of Mr.. Howells'
utter ignorance of the principles of the
human mind, principles which any careful
observer of men ought to know: and the
idea came into my mind that the
author felt his weakness Il purpose
A