The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-17
WORLD OF LETTERS.
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

down Richard Harding Davis as tire
some, caddish creature, perpetual
candidate for the services Of the kick
ing-master. Somehow the estimate Of
his private character has been allowed
to assume this phase until 1t Is now
almost a certainty that If you pass be-
yond the mans books and talk of the
man himself you will find that your
friend has gathered to the full the idea
that Mr.. Davis, divorced from his lit
| erary work, must be counted only as
a dreary, tedious and even despicable
upstart. Mr.. Davis has been charged
as one who looks down upon the days
Of his newspaper apprenticeship to lit
erature, and indeed this fugitive para
graph has been quoted often against
him-a paragraph which bears upon Its
face its own contradictions: "Mr Davis
Is setting forth that he is very tired
of being pointed out as the man who
wrote Gallagher He says: That story
was all very well, but 1t has reporter
ial curtness and capitalization about ii
| that l have now scared far beyond.
Gallagher" has the thumbmaIks of the
poor. wn.ticketed, free-lunched hack
reporter on its pages. l want to for
get that part of my existence. / want
to wipe off the newspaper-shop part of
my life. l will sacrifice "Gal!egher'
and the royalties thereon, If people
will only forget that l was once that
scorned thing-a reporter!'
| o.
AS a matter of fact. there is docu-
mentary evidence in the hands of one
now writing this. which is to the direct
effect that so far from believing i'll Of
the reporters craft. Richard Harding
Davis has been a stanch supporter of
the theory of its high standing. One
time man wrote story of western
military life, in which a newspaper
correspondent. acting purely in the
capacity of reporter, figured. The
story was based upon an enmity sub
| sisting between a second lieutenant
and the correspondent, and on the in
cident that once when both were In
| oxicated-together with a lot of other
| &C nvival Junior officers and civilians
| the lieutenant committed the unpar-
| donable sin of criticislng the conduct
of the campaign of the general COM
manding. Realizing the gravity Of the
officers action, the temporarily ire
sponsible correspondent. drunkenly re-
joicing at this chance to do i'll to the
man of his enmity wrote an account of
the episode and forwarded 1t by courier
| for publication in his far away paper.
| When he had recovered his sober senses
the horror of his offense presented it.
self to him and his life was q torment
until copy Of his paper arrived and
he discovered that the story was not
printed-it had been Intercepted on the
way and had never been wired. Such
thought as there was in the narrative
centered upon the remorseful feeling of
a normally decent man who awakes to
the fact that while intoxicated; he has
committed sin against honor and the
just mans religion Of being fair.
o.
People who submit contributions to
| such publications as Harper's Weekly
become familiar with printed forms Of
rejection, but this declination was not
printed. 1t came as an autograph let
| ter from the editor, Mr.. Davis, and no
| stenographer had knowledge of it. 1t
| ran in sprawling, scrawling chirogra-
| ply in these terms: IT write you per-
| sonally about this story. because I
want to ask you not to submit 1t else
| where. ] would not like to see 1t in
print. and I fear that If offered further
1t will be published. For my part
would not dare to use 1t, for the reason
! that there are already too many peo-
pie who are anxious to have a chance
to say that the newspaper worker Is a
person morally reprehensible. and do
not want these to have the satisfaction
| of saying that one newspaper man
who ought to know wrote and another
newspaper man who ought to know
published a narrative depicting re-
porter as drunkard and q cad" At
first the rebuke was bitter, but, al
though differing somewhat from the
editor as to the actual purport Of the
story, the newspaper man who ought
to know" promptly made burnt offer
ing of his manuscript, departing from
the usual course Of huckstering 1t to
other publications. But the letter was
preserved and it serves now, four or
five years afterward, as a reminder of
the fact that the ready penciler who
insists that Richard Harding Davis,
the editor. was ever ashamed of the
Richard Harding Davis Of the report
ing staff-or, indeed, of the life and
associations of a reporters room-well,
that penciler, we remark, makes posi-
tive statements upon negative facts.
Which is only another way Of saying
that he-mistakes.
Having entered upon this theme, let
us follow 1t to its legitimate conclusion,
and that conclusion Is depreciation Of
the tendency to "backcap" successful
men. The backcapping system prevails
In literature, business, politics-every-
where. A man perfects something ad-
vantageous, of which his neighbors had
never thought and the neighbors, in
stead of being in neighborly way glad
of it, proceed Immediately to pick flaws
In the work. One spends hours, days,
years in bringing some performance to
q fruitful issue and another damns 1t
with sneer, which occupies only q
fraction Of a second. A citizen Is NOM
mated for governor and he loses the
vote of his own town because his own
town cannot understand why on earth
he was hit upon as being better fitted
for the high Office than any of the 9TH
ers of his tOwnsmen-themselve In
deed. they conclude that his selection Is
in the nature of a sighting rebuke
rather than compliment to his resi-
dent associates. 1t is too bad. And the
worst of it Is that strangers, when
ones character or capabilities are under
discussion, find 1t easier to believe i'll
than good Of the absentee. 1t would
be a happy provision If the unwritten
eleventh commandment were presented
in the words "Thou shalt not backcap,"
and If the new law had an emergency
clause attached and severe penalties
were provided for its infractiOn.
The Sun comments thus upon An
thony Hopes new novel: 1t seems clear
that now at the end Of the century
the great story tellers Of the type Of
the elder Dumas, the masters Of plot
and incident. as distinguished from the
careful students Of character and mo-
tive, are to have once more their in
nings as they had seventy years ago.
The author of 1.-THE Three Musketeers,"
after being eclipsed for more than a
generation, found a ,compeer in the au
thor of "The New Arabian Nights"
and now the mantle worn so dashing-
ly by Stevenson has fallen upon An
thony Hope. In one obvious respect,
indeed, the two last-named writer's can
scarcely be compared. We did not look
in the writings of the elder Dumas
for the fastidious style Of Gautier, nor
did we find in the narrative Of 1.-THE
Prisoner Of Zenda" the amazing flex-
ibility and curious felicity Of dlction