The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-05-23
MIIIARD,S WESTERN IALES.


A PRETTY BANDIT-By F. B Willard. New
York: The Eskdale Press For sale in this City
at all bookstores.
Mr. Willard has in this book of tales done
very badly by the critics-he has given them
scarcely anything 10 criticize Having on many
an occasion IN the past professed himself
critic over the newly made grave of q luckless
wight that had died in the service OF making
him one, he should fully understand what
critic likes best and how al author might
serve him most effectively. II he aciU go off
ana be en- author let him take his fate in his
own hands and become the same 10 US that
other authors have been to him. To be an
author OF any other kind is extremely incon-
siderate of him.
"a Pretty Bandit" bears evidence in every
page that it was not written for the critics at
all, which, as mere circumstance Invested of
any Interior significance, is about as amazing
Il chara cteristic as any modern piece of fiction
could display. Nearly all of our latter-day
novels and the majority of our latter-day
short stories that are intended for book publ
cation are written primarily for review.
Overlooking The fact that reviewing in
itself Is neither essential nor import
ant to the simple scheme of putting
story between covers and sending ii out for
the public 10 read, this modern fraternity OF
author, publisher and critic who rule the
game of 1t and are wholly taken up in each
others movements. The public is represented
in their calculations by only financial con-
sideration, furnishing which ii is permitted to
go its way unsought, unhonored and unhung
for which small mercy it doubtless is thank
ful.
Mr.. Milard's different kind of authorship
carries him away from the fraternal trio and
straight 10 the public. His stories are written
wholly aud solely for the general people to
read. There isn't the fsintest appeal to a re-
viewer in one OF them-at least, none which
Mr.. Millard was conscious of when he wrote
il. In this respect the tales are not unlike
newspaper, and Mr.. Millard's splendid train
ing as a newspaper writer may have been re-
spOnsible for the similarity.
A newspaper is written 10 be read-not to be
criticized. In q finer sense that describes Mr..
Miuards stories. There is no striving after
effect, no bidding for particular attention to
his style-theIe is only plain, simple narrative.
This leaves the creations of his Imagination
TO be viewed alone. And the creations
themselves give the work whatever sta
biHly it possesses. The vehicle OF express
sion is level the things eSp pressed rise above ii
like powders on plain. And as to the quality
OF the bowlders-well, TO come straight TO the
point, they are far better than nine-tenths of
the powders that we find amid the tall grasses
and waving flowers of an overpolished style.
Some kinds OF writing rightly depend mainly
upon style. Story writing is not one of these
kinds. Mr.. Willard has impaled this truth
with a firm pen, and has let no fancy grass
grow under his hand in working out his
purpose.
1t must not be assumed that the "Pretty Ban
dit' tales are inadequately expressed. The
least that may be said of Mr.. Millard by one
who appreciates him altogether is that he is
naturally writer of good English. But that
is left to be affirmed mostly by those who find
themselves at a loss to describe him to any
greater extent or variety, and the others some
times forget when it has been left unsaid
Certainly in the present instance it goes with
out the saying.
If these rugged little tales to the public had
been written to me as a reviewer or a critic l
should proceed to prick with sharp pen such
small detects as the sentences here following,
ana at the same time mayhap should lose the
wholesomeness of the creations and see only
the tops OF the powders through the screening
grasses:
When finally Metie came TO leave Last Hope she
felt really sorry about going, for some reason or
other
Something glIded through the brush and she
nearly screamed, for she thought 1t was a noun
tain lion.
He made laundering offer of assistance, which
she, OF course, couldn't think of accepting
From a convenhonally critical point of view,
leaving aside the character OF the whole work
those three sentences would be considered
weak. Indeed, the extreme righteousness of
them borders upon amateurish story telling
or pTimeT-narrative phraseology In the sec
ond one, for example. aside from the super
fluffy OF explaining what the girl thought
Cthe motive of her terror being oDvious), it is
suggest ted that if she had thought the gliding
thing anything else than g mountain lion she
would not have "nearIy screamed" The
thought of a gliding bear wolf would not
have disturbed her in the least. The two other
quoted bits might be dissected in The same way,
and yet few others might be dragged out of
the Tranquil whole and made to look badly
alone under microscope. But as threads in
the general groundwork of these tales, simple
in expression and broad in material as they
are, few little overkeyed accentuations of
the one do not mar, but rather add to the har-
mony of the whole. Certainly they serve
gently 10 impress upon you the characteristic
charm of the one, while the abiding charm of
the other prevents them from upsetting any
general effect
Mr.. MilIard's stories are more nearly West
ern literature than any thing else that has ap-
peared in California since Bret Harte wrote
here And they compare with the average
short story that is not western, but very much
eastern, as a woodcut engraving compares
with a hah-tone pate.
CARROLL CARRINGTON.