The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-31
wEsrERN STORY WRITERS.

| stronger than the literary cult of the
| east. Our big magazines are published
| along the Atlantic SeabOard. If they
| were not so fond of home talent their
| readers would get more for their
| money. 1t is through them that the
| eaSterner who has a mild analytic story
| to tell reaches the public. Dozens of
such stories are published every month.
No one remembers them. They have
no incident to. speak of. Nothing hap
pens in them. The hero or the heroine
uses up some pages trying to find out
things about him or her self that are
patent to everyone else. They go on,
however, in an endless stream, year in
and year out. The fact that their writ
ers are well paid for them is the only
redeeming feature about them. The
east today holds but three writers of
short stories who say things when they
write. They are Julian Hawthorne,
Dick Davis and Owen Wister. Even
much beans and Goldfish. The trail of
the anaemic is over them all.
Let me say right here that have not
offered any stories to eastern maya
zines. They are not sour grapes. No 4,
petty jealousy enters. To be an Ameri-
can a man must be broad enough to
appreciate worth in whatever section
of the country it shows it's head. If
necessary 1 am willing always to give
the devil little more than his due just
to show that there is no hard feeling.
1 deliver an unbiased opinion: Beyond
a doubt the strongest novelist in Amer
lea To-Day is Il. w. Howe OF the Atcn-
ison (Kan.) Globe. He has not writ
ten of late years. He is a disappoint-
ed man. He did not belong to the mu-
tual admiration society of the east and
have had nothing so good 1.-The
Story of a Country Town since Ma
thaniel Hawthorne. Indeed, in many
of its characteristics the book is Haw-
thornesque. 1t was followed by 1.-The
| Mystery of the Locks and "A Moon
! light Boy" The later is Dickensian.
| Together they form a trio that New
| Englanders and New Workers cannot
| touch. Someone in whom he has con-
| fdence and for whose opinion he has
| respect ought to go to Mr.. Howe and
| beseech him to give up the daily grind
| of newspaper work. He is too good a
! man to waste. In the foregoing opinion
of the merits of 1.-The Story of Coun-
try Town" am backed by Julian Haw-
| thorne, who frankly admits it to be the
best of modern American fiction.
No man of the east has the grasp of
| human nature, the kindly impulses, the
! wealth of incident, the sense of humor
| and the untutored pathos which are be-
| tween the covers of every novel which
bears Opie Reads name. People have
| complained of the sameness of his
| characters. So far as their outward
and visible seeming is concerned the
complaint is just. The fellow who kicks
| the can down the road in "A Kentucky
! Colonel is frequent. He is the Read
| ian type of the south's poor white
/
| of the novels, thinly disguised. So are
| the beautiful girl and the strong, loose
| limbed hero. There is not much differ
| ence in the villains, although in Len
| Gansett'' the colonel is the villain. But
| these characters do not say the same
| things, and the same things do not
| of Mr.. Reeds wonderful fecundity of
invention. In each succeeding novel
they are as fresh as if we had never
! seen them before. 1 say that in origin
/ a1ifU n fhaT7n holiness of fire.
| and strength and beauty of diction we
| would go far to find in literature the
superior of THE Wives of the Prophet"
| This novel is utterly dissimilar from
| anything that its author has done be-
| fore or since. 1t is, indeed, distinct
from anything in literature. 1t is a
| haunting book. Many years ago MI.
| Read wrote newspaper sketch of not
! more than two columns. I remember
| little of it except a sort of refrain that
| ran through it, "a quail piped in the
corn It was very beautiful. He does
! not need the vehicle of verse to prove
| that he is a poet.
Hamlin Garland is another of the
! westerners who has written too little.
| There is but one adjective in English to
| fifty describe him as a fiction maker
| he is natural. The style is limpid, often
| monosyllabic and never strained. He
is a painter of types-not individual,
| but broad, general types. A friend of
| the soil tller and desperately DESTROYS
to soften in some way the hard lines of
the western farmer, he has drawn him
| with all his passions, his mistakes and
| his miseries. Main Travelled Roads
| is filled with people who are PopuliSts
and the conditions under which they
| live and suffer are what has made Pop
| ulism possible. These short and sim
| pie annals of the poor are strangely
moving. 1t was reserved to Garland
| to discover that there is romance in
| lives that to the casual observer are
| colored only with gray.
Out in the city of the Golden Gate
| lives a modern Poe. His name is Am
| of the staff of the San Francisco Exam
| liner. 1t seems strange to read upon
| the dedicatory page of his Tales of
Soldiers and Civilians" that its publ
cation was made possible only through
| the liberality of a merchant. 1t had
! been offered to printer after printer and
| firmly declined. 1t seems stranger still
to know some years after it's appear
| ance that it is a work of restricted
! circulation. Eight out of ten of our
| best read men and women will saw
when asked that they have never seen
it, yet it is a wonderful work. In some
of the stories the element of ghastliness
and horror is nearly equal to the Fall
of the House of Usher" In others the
word painting is little short of perfec-
| ton Such is the chapter which de-
| tails the impressions of a man who was
hanged from a bridge and whose neck
was instantly broken. In his ''Sebas-
! topor' Tolstoi tells of a soldier struck
in the breast by a shell and instantly
killed. Bierce's picture is the finer of
| the two.
Here is a list: E. w. Howe, Opie
| Read, Hamlin Garland, Will Allen
| White, Stanley Waterloo, Maurice
| Thompson, Ambrose Bierce, James
| Whitcomb Riley, Joaquin Miller, Eu-
gene Field, Lew Wallace, John Meow
| ern, Ella w. Peattie, Thomas A. Dem
| nison, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Lillian
| Bell, Mary HartweI Catherwood, Geo.
Horton. Elwyn A. Barron. Rose Field,
| Sam II Glover and Ernest McGaffeY