Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1897-06-25
PROsLlGACf OF WRITING.
II Is No Longer n distinction to De an
Author.


1t Is No Longer nistinction to De an
Author. I
This is an age ofyigorous intellects,'
but not of great minds. This is as evil
dent in science as in the arts. 1t is
the motto which every publisher should
paint over his doo. There were never
SO many vigoroEs intellects. The
schoolgirl has one; your office boy af-
fronts you with his vigorous intellect.
1t is the stigma of the age. The result
has been general icveling up-and
down. There Is less scholarship and
more intelligence. There is less genius
and more talent.
Fifty years ago 1t was in the way of
being distinction to have written
book, Authors Slre pointed out on
the streets; poets had hats doffed to
them. The female novelist was an eX-
ceptional person. Amazement waited
upon her public appearances, as though
she had been white crow. To-day q
far surer anodyne to oblivion is to be
nodded at us the man who has never
written a book or letter to newspa-
per. The cause of all this pronigacy of
writing is not far to seek. The world
is democratic, education of n sort is
universal, the printing press has be-
come fecund and impersonal breeding
monster. Of old it sat like hen and
hatched out dozen novels in twelve
MONTH now il is an incubator, which
las practically no limitations. 1t can
hatch It's thousands as easily as its
scores.
Production is at the cheapest. The
most anaemc schoolgirl can publish her
novel for few hundred dollars, even
II the speculative publishers reject it.
And literature-who used to be retir-
ing and august dame-has gone down
into the highways and byways. She
may be found in the boudoir and in the
nursery, on the race track and in the
barber shop. If you are beset now and
again by curious, eager wish to look
into the future, you have often asked
yourself what the outcome Of this is to
be. 1t is evident that literature is COM
ing home to mems bosoms and business.
There can be no question of this fact.
Most of us write, and all of us read.
The wisdom that used to be kept in the
jars of the pundits has been spread thin
over the whole generation. No one of
us is very wise, but, taken all together,
we know more than our ancestors. Wis
dom was five-pound note, which one
man carried in his pocketbook; to-day
It Is changed into coppers, and each one
has his tuppence.
Books are cheap-cven good books
are wantonly cheap. For $50 you can
buy n better classical library than
Christopher North could have bought
for $500. More than that, for few
cents you can buy newspaper contain
ing more sound literature than your
grandfather could have got for twice
as many dollars. The popularization of
tc-day-more notable than the mechan-
ical progress of which ii is theeXponent.
1t is inevitable that the average should
be low. You cannot get quantity and
quality. The machine which makes
things cheap and plentiful makes them
insignificant. Books are set up and
printed by machinery. Some of them
are not even written by hand - Mr.
Howclls uses a typewriter. This is
natural. There is an immense market
which can only be supplied by tireless
machinery. In this race to supply a
demand the man of genius goes under
There is no place for him.
None of the books written to-day will
surprise rosterity. We are happy. in
tcllectual and mediocre generation. We
nrc prodigal and fecund, but we lack
distinction. Literature has become &
trade, in spite of some desperate en-
deavors to raise it TO the dignity of &
sport. This result is perfectly logica
in an age the shibboleth of which Is the
greatest good of the greatest number
1t is better that every man should have
n Waterbury than that one man SHOULD
have a Tobias.
What is true of literature is equal,
true of the arts. One need not assume
the airs of n prophet in ioresceing th'
time when oil painting will be done b,
machinery. The statue makers hav'
already shown the way. Democracy de
mands the merely clever workman, be
cause II is he-and not the man o
genius.-who contributes most to th'
general comfort, physical or intel
lectual. The tendency is easily dis
cerned. Books will grow cheaper ant
more plentiful; little by little the lin
between journalism and literature viii
be obliterated; the state of literatur
will correspond to the social state.
The tendency is not deplorable; it is
indeed, the most hopeful sign of th
day. The greater danger of the futur
lies in the greed Of the unintelligen
rich and the despair of the unintelligen
poor. The best weapon against thi
danger is the printing press. For it i
only unintelligence that is dangerous
N. Y. Advertiser.
Twisting Tobacco.
When the raw leaf tobacco reache
The factory it is in large hogsbead'