Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-12-24
FAR WESTERN REFLECTIONS.
About Books and Periodicals of tn
Day
Address all mss. and comnunica
tions to the editor.

tion of a so-called moral or religion
character. Many of the so-calle,
Scotch writer's have diluted thei
pages with weak solutions of Calvin
} ism that would not be considered
orthodox IN any respectable Presbyte
rian pulpit, until the readers of thi
weak pOrridge have become more nu
merous than the listeners Il
the Gospel. To be tirst-grade popu
lar preacher in London or New Yorl
means TO have been the author of
flabby novel or two.
Now comes ''St. James Bridget
and tells us that some years ago there
was neck and neck race between the
novel and the sermon; but the SER
mon has been some time left behind.
AMI the novel is an easy first-whereby
angs pregnant lesson.
"Year by year it becomes more and
more evident that the popular novel
is that which most notably supplies
| the place Of the sermon; and more and
more the astLte noyelist is pushing
the official preacher from the pulpit,
The cause is plain. On various accounts
our English public continue to eman-
cipate themselves from what are
called the trammelS' of dogma. They
may be weary of religious dogma and
tired of the official sermon, but they
but still yearn to be preached at;
and when novelist arises who will
preach to them sermons, not of strict
dogma, but religious-mOral, or moral
religious, politico-moral, or sentimen-
tal-mOral-but always moral, and (if
possible) sentimental, then thev take
that great purveyor to the heart. Who
are the most popular writer's today
with us land with our cousins of
who have the same itch
with ourselves for being preached at)?
is it not Marie Core!li, Mrs. Hum
phry Ward, Ian Maclaren' and S. r.
Crockett? And why do they count
their.sales by the ten thousand, except
that their success is not a success of
but of homiletics? There
is kind of slush and husk of cocoa
sold freely to farmers to feed calves
withal, and it is similar sort of slush
and husk of divinity and humanity
which these popular purveyors mix
and dilute for greedy public. There
needs bit to name Miss COrelli's
Sorrows Of Satan and The Mighty
Atom Mrs. Humphry Wards Sir
George Tressady, Ian Maclaren's'
Kate Carnegie and Those Ministers,
and S. r. Crockett's Grey Man
though it is not nearly so homiletical
as 'The Lilac Sunbonnet' and the
foolish play Actress1for
our statement to stand in full in
stance. Mr.. j. M. Barrie was won't |
10 be quaint and gnomic humorist,
but this year he has gone over bag
md baggage, to the successful preach
ers, with no advantage to literature,
whatever there may be to the cause
)f the pulpit and his pocket; for Ito
)ur mind) Sentimental Tommy dis
closes sentiment, religious, moral and
humane, of more impish, nasty and
prying order than any that has
offended us for many a day."
TO all of which this department
will say amenl The manner in which
alleged novelists 'work the sentimen-
,al racket" in patois of the wild
vest, is strongest evidence of deca-
lence in our literature. The large
ale of such books as "The damnation
)f Theron Ware" and "Trilby" in
licate the WEAKNESS existing in
many minds over the prostitution of
he novel to sermonizing and driv-
ng the ministry out of their pulpits
md the turning to illegitimate liter
Try excitement contained therein.
The critic in the Budget is not
lear as to what he wants, or whether
here is any real necessity for any
ind of fiction. He suggests the
picturesque novel:
"With this everything interest in
he sprightly breeziness and rich
olor of open life, as against the NOR
i'd whims and sick yapors of senti-
the wonder is that the
icuresque style of novel has not been
evived. There is a rich reward
waiting the man who reyives it with
indeed he be not overborne
y the steadily rising tide of love for
he sermonic-sentimental."
The tests that apply TO the art of
xpressiOn, and what is novel writing
ut form of the art of expression, as
luch so as music, sculpture, painting,
oetry and journalism, are that the
'ork of art in fiction shall be both
ramatic and entertaining. But a
)ng farewell to the sermon novel!
JUSTICE TO APPLEGATE.