The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-26

told me. in his school during the winter
and his extensive and familiar acquaint-
ance with American biography consisted OF
his knowledge of the lives of Ralph Waldo
Emerson and Jesse James. 1t could not be
expected that he would speak English flu
emily, but there was such an intimate re-
semblance between his phraseology and
that of a three-year-old infant that the
suHerings We endured during the next two
We're but slightly alleviated by the amuse-
ment his language furnished us"
The second number of niterature, the new
international gazette of criticism published
In this country by the Harpers opens with
a sensible little essay on the domination Of
the novel; The opinion is expressed that
the novel must always remain popular be-
cause it is the surest refuge from boredom,
but that there are welcome signs of a
tendency, in the literary world. at any rate.
to form saner and less extravagant view
OF the Importance of the novel," Ian Mac
laren also takes the novel for his theme
and protests against the tendency Of fiction
writers to dwell upon the dark and painful
phases of life. Why" he asks. should
the artist in life forsake the quest of the
perfect and beautiful. wrought out often
through poverty and agony, and spend his
skill on what is loathsome and disgusting?
Is he not also bound to the service of the
IDEAL and is it not his function to fling out
before us that model of high character and
living which all have imagined, after
which we all strive, but which we cannot
express or is it that the canon of beauty
which guides the sculptor and the painter
has no authority over the novelist, and he
typ
Gen. Lew Wallace is given the place Of
honor in the beautiful Christmas number
of Harpers Magazine his narrative poem,
THE Wooing of Malkatoon," with its
charming Illustrations by t. V. Du Mond,
occupying the first twenty-four pages.
'Malkatoon' is an imaginative tale of love
and adventure told by the Sultana. wife of
Murad II, to her young son Mohammed.
The incidents. Of course, take place in the
East, and the characters are mainly Mo-
hammedans. There is undercurrent or
religious feeling, Notwithstanding the ORR
entail coloring.
Rudyard Kipling's poem in Scribner, THE
Feet of the Young Men, has his charac-
teristic dash and swing. He endeavors to
give expression to the longing for the will
derness that comes now and then to every
man oppressed by the environments of civ
iliZation:
HE must go--go-go away from here,
On the other side the world he's overdue.
Send your road is clear before you when
the old spring fret comes Ger jou
And the Red Gods call for you"
Mr.. Henry James has completed a serial
story called THE Turn of the Screw
which is soon to appear in Golfers Weekly.
1t is said to deal with some aspects of the
supernatural. The regular stan OF conner
lneIudeS EDGAR Sa5tus JulIan i;t
an aggregation of literary talent
The December Black Cat publishes what
is said to be a thousand-dollar prize story,
by Charles Stuart Pratt At regular market
rates for fiction it is not worth the money,
and suggests sad thoughts to what the
other stories in the competition must have
been. The magazine opens another prize
competition.
James Whitcomb Rileys sonnet in Scrib-
ner on the youthful portrait of Robert
Louis Stevenson we'll describes the picture.
1t is, perhaps the only portrait published
of the dead novelist that shows him APP
parently unaffected by the ravages of dis
ease.
Joel Chandler Harriss story, "A Run OF
Luck" in the December Scribner, is illus
trated by Fred G. Yohn, the young artist
formerly of this city. A full-page drawing
of a burning steamboat is especially eff
fective.
The Christmas number of the Pail Mall
Magazine contains the opening chapters of
Anthony Hopes new Zenda story, Rupert
of Hentzau." Some beautiful Illustrations
in color, printed in Paris, are presented
The well-filed avertising pages of What
to Eat are the surest possible indication
that it is successfully occupying very
definite gustatory want.
The Strand for December is up to its
usual standard of quality, and contains a
story in which figures an American who
does not talk dialect.