Evening star., 1896-01-04
THE AMERICAN NOVEL
Its Scenes Will Be Laid in the Ma
tional Capital
The WORLD OF LETTERS
A Washington Writer Talks About
Fiction and Its Reading.
OMNIVOROUs READING HABIT
BE WORLD OF LETTERS
OMNIVOROUs READING HABIT
Written for The Evening Star by Julia .schayer.


sition in the worlds literature which those
most interested in the advancement of
American art would wish to see it occupy.
This is no neV thing. The writer's who
| during the past fifty years have made
| American letters to be honored the world
| over, in but few instances have won their
fame on the field of fiction. We are still
awaiting our Balzac, our Thackeray and
our Tourgenieff but we are awaiting them
hopefully and eXpectantly.
We have writers who are doing for differ
ent sections of our country what Barrie is
doing for Scotland, Caine for his quaint
little island and Hardy for unfamiliar parts
of England, and doing it with wonderful
lean novel to be will not be a sectional
novel. 1t will be a work that sends its
roots down to the center and heart of our
national life, political and social, and the
scene of it will be the national capital.
Where else. indeed, can be found such a
wealth of almost untouched material as
here, where is stationed the mighty Corl!Ss
engine that keeps the governmental ma
chincry OF the entire country in motion;
here where that hydra-headed monster-the
spoils system-has his noisome lair; here
where human brains scheme their deepest,
human passions burn their fiercest here
to sink into darkness the most hopeless?
veritable embarrassment of wealth."
truly.
The First Attempt.
Yet let us see what use has so far been
made by the novekst of this vast treasure.
The earliest attempt in this direction which
the writer has been able to unearth is
little volume entitled "a Wanderer in
Washington" issued by the Washington
press in the year 1929, when, as every one
remembers, Adams was President. The au-
thor Is a Mr.. Watterson. Strictly speaking,
this little book cannot be termed a novel.
Still, as something family resembling
plot occasionally thrusts very dreadful
head above the inchoate mass of obser-
vat.ons and reflections in which 1t has been
swamped, and as 1t is altogether too anus
ing to be lost. We will give it the benefit of
the doubt.
The author starts out with the virtuous
resolution nothing to extenuate naught to
set down in malice" But he is panied at
the very outset to discover that the popula-
ton of what he calls 1.-The proud metropolis
Of the nation'-that was nearly seventy
years ago, be it remembered-is given over
to the worship of people in high places to
an unheard-of and nauseating extent; that
1.-The females are wrapped up, body and
SOUL in fashion and frivolity and the men
engaged in und:gnified scrambles for social
and official notice. Many families of small
means, says Mr.. Watterson, in order to
keep up with the style in public, maintain
privately "a continuous Lent" To quote
further:
'If one sports buggy, another mus. fig
ure in a carryall; one gives a dinner,
other dashes out in a route, and if one
goes for his health to Ballstone (O or Sar-
atoga. another. not to be outdone, flies to
Shannondale (D or Bladensburg!"
At White House levee he meets a GU
riously mixed society, but is gratifed on
the whole by the republican simplicity of
the entertainment. His companion and
mentor, however, refers regretfully to the
Jeffersonian administration, when visitors
to the White House were regaled solely
with the traditional feast of reason" ETC.,
ETC., instead of cakes and whipped syla-
bub, as on this occasion, or as in Monroe's
time on such frivolities as sugar radishes,
lemon candy and other pretty sweet
meas"
Washington's society leaders no longer
fer their guests lemon candy and whipped
syllabub." but in spite of its antique tone
Mr.. Watterson's picture bears a strong re-
semblance to those drawn by the average
correspondent of today.
Moral and Religious Tone.
Yet now comes something which the lat
ter has apparently overlooked. Our an
cient chroniCler declares that high moral
and religious tone pervades all classes Of
society here, and but for it's fashionable
infatuaticn, Washington would offer a So
ciety which the philanthropist would love
to contemplate, and with which the moral
ist might glory to mingle"
The Office seeker, too-no modern inven-
tion, as we all Knows treated by the au-
thor with considerable wit, and in this
connection Mr.. Watterson tells story, so
old that it may bear retelling.
1t seems that President Adams was af-
flicted with an obstruction of the lachry-
NAL glands, producing what Is commonly
known as weeping eyes" An aspirant for
Office who had just left his presence was
asked what the President had done for
him. One can imagine the twinkle of the
tod IL
gave to misery all he had-a tear!'
Late Washington Stories.
If any works of fiction Cbarring those of
the correspondent purporting to deal with
Washington life appeared during the pc
riod between Mr.. Watterson's book and the
civil war, oblivion has claimed them, as it
is fast claiming most of those which have
appeared since that time. Yet within the
past twenty years some famous pens have
taken up the theme. Foremost among these
appears the name of Mrs. Burnett, author of
the well-known novel Through One Admin
istration,' written with brlliancy and fin
iSh, and abounding in local COLOR deli
cately and artistically used. Yet in spite
of this the book is hardly washington"
or even an American novel, in the full
est sense, it's motif being a mistaken mar
riage-a circumstance unfortunately not
peculiar to any place or people.
Next, perhaps in literary Importance
comes Democracy" whose authorship has
80 10 ...->h Th~ -~-+.o'
idea in this novel is what we have right
to expect from the title, and it is brilliantly
and even thoughtfully written. Other
novels dealing with our society life have
been written by Mrs. Dahlsren. Mrs. Jeanie
Gould Lincoln and others less known. Ger
tain lurid productions, dealing with the
seamy side of department and official life,
have appeared-and disappeared-to reap
pear, let us hope, in the less Objectionable
form OF domestic utensils manufactured
from paper pulp!
The burden of all these Washington
novels, great and small, artistic and vul-
gar is the same-the venality of men in
power, the impotence of the executive, or
of any man who tries to serve his country
and keep his hands clean, and the misery
and folly of things in general. None of
them are strong, hopeful and stimulating
as a really great book must be.
Disraeli being asked If he had read the
latest work of George Eliot, answered, loft
lily:
when 1 wish to read a novel, 1 write
oner'
Perhaps some day one of our own states
men will be seized with similar desire,
only to be gratifed in the same way. Then,
if he be a man uniting to his knowledge of
history and politics skeen insight, broad
sympathies. literary skill and general cul
ture the whole animated by strong pur-
pose and illumined by the divine spark
then, perhaps, we may get our great
American novel"