The morning times., 1896-04-12

of state policy and SNUG diplomacy, and
that Will mt last force the hands OF ca binets
and State councils. When this has been
accomplished Mr.. Watson will be found TO
have done more for Armenia than the whole
foreign office together" Without hnting
for moment but that the English poet
deserves this commendation, might il not
be suggested that had an American written
in his strain there would have been an
hundred voices 10 cry "Jinso.
The bane of most authors is the carly
effort If they could only bury their
past il would afford exquisite relief, but
ghouls of publishers will unearth the inn
mature beginnings that are the skeletons
in the closet. :. X. Crockett is the latest
victim. A publiShernamedF Fenno orevamped
his A Galloway V Herd and the annoyance
brought out this letter TO an American
friend: Il have been dreadfully annoyed
by the republication, from old numbers or
a religious periodical, of my boyish story
called "A Galloway Herd should be
obliged to you if you would state on my
authority that the book was pirated ana
printed without my knowledge and against
my viii. The book was written many
years 90 from week to week. simply TO
fill space in paper 10 which had TO con-
tribute a certain number of columns. 1t
was my first work of the kind and cert ainiy
never intended for book publication. |
should be deeply obliged if through the
press you could make This known, for the
matter has greved me deeply,
The justification of the Home Magazine
is found in its name and its realization
| in a glance through its pages. There is
alwa VS. place on the literary table for what
| is clean in matter and clevating in character.
| When a periodical is substantial enough
in tone for the eldest OF the family and
| wholesome enough for the youngest, 1t
| embraces the measure OF perfect maga-
! zine. This is the aim OF the editors OF the
Home Magazine and they are achieving
! their end splendidly. With the assistance
| and recognition that is due and should be
! forthcoming for il, the Home viii be Il
| substantial and permanent figure in tue
| literary world. The April number presents
| Easter topics short and continued fiction,
| an article on the Daughters OF the American
| Revolution, fashions, house wifery and
many similar well-devised subjects.
Truth and humor are happily confiuenl
! in the remarks of that Hebraic young genius
| of London, |, Zangwill, when delivering
! himself of his idea Of a poet We recog-
| nZe the verify of his strain because we all
| feel Just Hs he expresses 1T: 1T is one OF
| the pleasures of my life that never saw
1 4
| of him as a poet for even his photograph
| is not diSillusioniZing, and he dressed for
| the part almost as well as Beerbohm Tree
| would have done. Why ones idea OF poet
| is fine frenzicd being, / do not qui te
| know One seems TO pick it up in the very
I nursery, aud even the London gamin kno VS.
| a poet when he doesn't see one. Probably
! il rests upon the ancient tradition OF
! oracles and sibyls, foaming at the mouth
| iI-.a f-h hnIflpS
originally demoniac possession, and to
modern thought prophecy a I'D poetry are
! both epileptic. Genius is a degeneraiive
| psychosis of the epileptoid order large
| experience of poets has convinced me as
| little of this as OF the old view summed up
| in genus irritable vatum.' Poets seem
| to me the homelest and most hard working
! of mankiud-'tiS a man in possession, not
daimon nor a disease. or course they
have their mad moods, but they don't write
! in them. Writing demands serenity, steadi-
ness, patience; and of all kinds of writing,
poetry demands the SteadieSt pen. Com
pleX meters and curious rime-sChemes are
not to be achieved without pain and pa
tience. Prose is q path but poetry is q
| ii ght-rope, and to walk on it demands The
incest deXterity. You may scribble eff
| prose in the fieriest frency-who so fiery
and frenZied as your journalist with the
| printers devil at his clbow?-but if You
would aspire to ParnaSsus, you must gt
slow and steady"