The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-04-12
SHORT STORY WRITER'S.
Special Gifts of Many Bright Men and
Clever Women.

Clever Women.
NEW YORK, April 10.-A foreign
country is to ones own country, as has
been said, kind of posterity. This is
specially true of literature. When an
author is welcomed and praised abroad,
be may rest assured that his fame will
reach another generation. Whatever
value the early Americans may have set
on their writings Immediately after the
establishment Of their independence
they were not recognized as a literary
people until early in the present CEN
fury, when Washington Irving and SUBJ
sequently Fenimore Cooper were accept
ed in Europe as authors of freshness, in
dividuaIity and power. Since then our
literary reputation has steadily and rap
idly increased across the sea, and now
most of our books are not only repro
duced in Great Britain and her colonies,
but are translated into the leading con-
tinentaI languages.
Our fame in fiction stands highest for
short stories, and deservedly perhaps,
for our novels and romances in general
are not ranked there as equal to those
of the old world, fast as they are gain
ing in originality and strength. Irving
indeed won his first substantial renown
by the f'Sketch Book, - the first volume
of which he printed in London at his
own expense, though Murray later gave
him So, 900 for the complete work. 1t is
a collection of short stories, the most
notable of which are rip Van Win
kle'' and the Legend of Sleepy HoI-
low" and attracted immediate atten-
ton from its novelty and the beauty Of
its sentiment and style.
1t must be more than so years since
Edgar Allan Poe wrote the greater part
of his short stories, collected and pub
lished posthumously as tales. They are
the strangest and most remarkable of
his writings, and on them his reputa-
ton rests. They have been translated
into all modern languages and have
been everywhere admired and Landed
for their invention, subtlety, variety and
perfectness of expression. There is moth
ing that approaches them in any litera-
ture. They stand alone, the unmistaka-
Bile product of morbid genius, but the
highest genius of its kind. They COM
bine to wonderful degree the poetic,
metaphysical and mathematical facul-
ties. Their language is so closely incor-
porated with the thoughts that the two
are indivisible to the understanding
The "Fall OF the House of Usher" the
'fMurders In the Rue Morgue, the
descent Into the Maelstrom' and the
''Facts In the Case of M. Valdemar''
are not only original, but they are origi-
nality itself. They are unforgettable.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's ''Twice Told
Tales were probably written about the
same time in divers periodicals, where
they drew no attention whatever, and
very slowly made their way to favor
when presented under that title. AS IN
like Poe's stories as possible, they are
models of their kind, and the style is
faultless. No man, I venture to affirm,
has ever written English prose like
Hawthorne.
I have mentioned these departed au-
thors-they live and will long live in
their works-to show what genius the
Americans have had for short stories al
most from the very beginning of their
literature. And the genius is clearly
continued, as we see by any number Of
living authors, some of them just COM
ing on the stage One reason unques-
tionably for their production in the last
few years is the increased demand for
them that has sprung up, not SO much
from the magazines, always in the mar
ket for them, as from daily newspapers
throughout the country. Until recently
the dailies did not publish them, though
they had done so before the war. Liter
allure, like everything else in this age,
is commercial. It is not furnished I'M
less it can be sold, and the higher the
price paid the greater the supply and
the better the quality.
One of the very best of the elder
group is Bret Harte, who, while edit
ing The Overland in San Francisco rs
years since, contributed to it's pages the
Luck of Roaring Camp" the "Out-
casts of Poker Flat, 'tTennessee's
Pardner, - ''M 'Iiss'' and other idealized
mining stories. They caught at once the
ear Of the English speaking race every
where and ecipitated him into fame,
which still holds.
Julian Hawthorne has shone in short
stories. So have Thomas Bailey Aldrich,
Edward Eggleston, Edward Everett
Hale, Edgar Fawcett, Brander Mat
thews, Charles B. Lewis, John Hay,
Thomas Nelson Page. Owen Wistar,
George W. Gable, Thomas A. Janvier,
Richard Harding Davis, Wolcott Bales
tier, Joel Chandler Harris, Fred Slim
son, Maurice Thompson and any num-
Der of men, young and middle aged.
Quite as many women as men do very
clever short stories-Mary Wilkins,
Harriet Prescott Spoford Cher first, ''In
a Cellar in The Atlantic, was not
published for some time because it was
| thought to be a translation from the
| French). Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Ju-
lien Gordon (Mrs. S. V. Cruger), Mrs.
Burton Harrison, Mary Mapes Dodge,
Mrs Kate D. Wiggin. Rose Hawthorne