The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-05

George W. Cable has resigned from the
position of editor of Current Literature.
1t is said that Mr.. Kipling has authorized
Miss Olga Nethersole to dramatic his story
1.-THE Light that Failed
The West as Interpreted in Fiction" will
be the subject of paper in an early num-
Der of the Atlantic Monthly.
Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson will soon
go to London to arrange for the publication
of her husbands life. The work will be
partly in the nature of a biography and
partly collection of letters.
John Payne is the latest to venture upon
the daring task of rivaling Fitz Gerald as
a translator of Omar Khayyana. He has
done nearly nine hundred quatrains into
English, beating the record for quantity,
at least. The work viii be published by
the Villon Club.
Henry NJ Stanley, in the last Atlantic
Monthly, thoroughly indorses Christian
missions in equatorial Africa, and says,
THE story of the Uganda missionary en-
terprise is an epic poem. l know few secu-
lar enterprises, military or otherwise, de-
serving of greater praise"
OF Kiplng is related that he declined pay
ment from the London Times for the poem
called "Recessional." That poem, it seems,
he preferred should go out as a purely dis
interested expression of feeling, and he had
the same sentiment-so goes the tale-about
his other recent patriotic poem, Our Lady
of Shows" "Recessional'' was a poem be-
yond price and it is pleasant to believe that
no price was put upon 1t.
The increasing use in schools of Long
fellows "Hiawatha" has led to a question
as to the proper pronunciation of the word.
In response to an inquiry from Houghton.
Miffiin & Co., the poets publishers, his
daughter writer's: 1.-The pronunciation used
by my father was "He-a-wa-tha." the ac-
cent on the first syllable being slighter than
N wa q sounded
not war as sometimes used. | should be
glad to have this impressed on the public"
The book trade, with all it's questions of
discount and met and one or two pennies
in the shilling, and where is the poor
author to come in, is the subject of endless
discussion in the English press just now.
Referring to it in magazine article, frank
Andrew Lang says: Moi qui parle, |
could no more live Comfortably by writ
ing new books than the booksellers can
live by selling them. have to sell fal-lals
articles, essays, miscellaneous hack-work
but like that commerce of all things"
The book reviewer of the London Daily
Mail says: mo observer of contemporary
fiction can fail to have noticed that Of late
there has been decided increase in the
number of notably good long novels COM
ing from American authors. 1t has been
felt hitherto that American writers of fic-
ton excelled only in the production of short
stories; but such novels as King Noanett, =
Hugh Wynne, have sufficiently proved
their capacity for more sustained work Of
almost equally admirable quality. And now
another American novel strikes me as Sc
cure of popularity, "A Deserter from Phil
istia,' by Z. Phipps Train"
A writer signing himself can Hussar, "
by the way, has just been unburdening
himself on the subject of Soldiers Three
and the "Barrack Room Ballads" Mr..
Kipling has succeeded, he says, in task
that acts of Parliament have failed in,
namely, in making the Queens uniform re-
Spected. The story tellers command of
technique, he goes on, is almost perfect.
There is a glazing instance of error in one
ballad that the soldier at once detects, but,
with this one exception, have never met
the soldier who could find any fault with
his local color, nor can | myself. And his
command of sailoring technicalities is,
have learned just as perfect. A marine en-
gneer to whom read 'McAndrew's Hymn
said, after l had concluded, The man who
wrote that has done his graft in the stoke
hole and the engine room. Lord! to think
chap could write poetry on my engines! ="