The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-16
ROMANCE IN AMERICA.

y
tor, arrived in New York week ago
Saturday, and as was inevitable, was
interviewed. He expressed the belief
that we have a national drama coming
and that it should be encouraged. He
was complimentary in the extreme in
his talk about American audiences.
They love the drama of romance and
abhor the hospital problems that are
occasionally offered" AS he spoke. of
hospital problems" did he have in
mind the Ibsen craze that has been
so prevalent in England for the past
few years?
After expressing himself as above, he
somewhat elaborated his idea, saying:
There never was country in the
world with the romance of America,
and in time you will have your great
historical dramas. 1 have been read
ing the history of the Puritan settle
ment recently and am really fascin-
ated with it. When Conan Doyle quit
ted our shores last year he said sub
stantiaIly the same thing.
The whole history of America
from the day when Columbus dis
covered it until the close Of the
Civil War is one long romance. What
tale of story-teller is so full of romance
as the story of Pizarro in Peru, .Cortez
in Mexico, Coronado in New Mexico,
Smith in Virginia, La Sale exploring
the Mississippi?
America has produced one great
writer of romance, Hawthorne. And
the subjects of his romances have
mostly been taken from that same
'"The House of the Seven Gables, "The
Scarlet Letter." the ''Twice-told Tales
they are all stories of Puritan times.
What Is, what could he, more ro-
mantle than the life of the pioneers in
all parts Of the country and their
struggles with nature and the wild
Indian, from King Philips War to the
conspiracy of Pontiac. from the con-
spiracy Of Pontiac to the humiliation
Of Custer and his command by Sitting
Bull and his red warriors? And the
story of California and forty-nine. The
romance of that time, a time so unique
that it all seems like a dream that
comes from a memory of Arabian
Nights, is recognized by all the
world.
It is the love OF romance that leads
Americans to Europe, to visit her ca
thedrals and baronial halls. to live in
the past, to dwell amid scenes made
memorable by the mighty dead.
After all, romance is in the heart
and its longings. People look for it in
the clouds while it is to be found in
the street. 1t is found more often in
the fsherman's cottage than in the
rich mans palace 1t is not the plant
and moping Of a silly young maiden
nor the incidence of a love-sick youth.
Rather it is the heroic struggle Of
strong man, or Of some woman against
a cold world, but who ever wears a
smiling countenance if she have not
merry heart.
Wherever there is human life there
is romance: American writer's have
too often looked for it in lands other
than their own while it was every
where around them. A short time ago
Sir Walter Besant, speaking Of the
young Chicago novelist, Henry B. Full
ler said that he had found an abun-
dance of material of the richest kind
right in Chicago. And what he found
in Chicago is to be found elsewhere
Mines rich in romance and literary
material are everywhere to be found
in America, and they lie ready to
yield a great return to whomsoever
shall properly work them.