The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-22

1t now for many years. And Bill Nye
himself held up wonderfully to the very
end, never failing in his weekly letter.
I in addition to dispensing a good deal Of
vivacity winter after winter from the
lecture platform. There have been. on
the other hand, some really excellent
humoriStS who, having tried being reg
ularly funny, have conspicuously
| failed. Mark Twain for one. Years ago.
when the Galaxy magazine WAS still
! living, Mark Twain tried to supply it
with a monthly department of humor-
! The effort continued. as remember. but
few months. and then Mark surren-
/ dered, with a frank acknowledgment
| IN the pages of the magazine that ne
| found the undertaking too much for
| him. But it is certain that if a writer
\ who can really do the trick VIII pre-
sent himself he can get quick appoint
ment- l was talking the other day
with an editor of the largest newspaper
! experience and acquaintance. and he
said: "One could not offer the Sunday
newspapers more acceptable feature
than good humorous weekly letter"
The war is piece of rare good luck
to at least one writer that / know, Mr.
James Barnes. He has Just brought out
his Yankee Ships and Yankee Sail
ors"-a book of true historical stories
anu HdS just ICdQS lOI
a collection of Songs of Ships and the
Sea" The collection embraces new and
old, but of the new number are writ
ten by Mr.. Barnes himself. and these
have had the privilege of reading. and
can say that they are fine, stirring bal
lads of the new navy.
1t could not come to any man more
absolutely in the course of nature &c
sing songs and tell stories of the navy
than to Mr. Barnes. He was born at the
Annapolis navy yard just at the close
of the civil war. His father was Cap
tain John s. Barnes; his grandfather
was Captain Thomas Hayes. and his
great grandfather was Commodore
William cambridge. From blood Of this
strain special susceptibility 10 the
navy could scarcely be absent. The
wonder is how Mr.. Barnes kept from
being of the navy himself. lie has
been a member of the naval reserve.
and has seen not little of sea life but
he remains. by education and vocation.
essentially landsman and civilian. He
is a graduate of Princeton, in the class
of 1891, and his employments have been
mainly editorial and literary. He had
for time connection with Scribners
Magazine: then he was assistant edi-
tor of Harper's Weekly. but latterly he
has devoted himself wholly to writing.
His first book was Naval Actions of
the War of 1872" published by the Har-
pers. Following this have come half q
dozen volumes, the larger number of
them having relation to the navy. Mr..
Barnes songs carry a very fair hint Of
the character of the author; he is an
open, hearty, ready man, who would
not have hesitated to sail his ship into
a mined harbor. had he kept to the vo-
cation of his ancestors.
Mr.. T. r. Sullivan, who has just pub
lished a new book of short stories
through the Scribners. is one of the
none too large number of younger
writer's who dare take time to write
we'll II may be that he isn't under
the popular pressure that some are to
publish over-rapidly: but still. he could
do so if he would Che doesn't have to
beg for a published), and yet he
doesn't It is more than ten years since
his name became well known; but he
has published not more than five or SIX
small volumes. From the first his
work has been noteworthy for its I'M
ish For many years he was in tha
banking business in Boston, and had
to do his stint of daily work quite out
side of letters. But he managed to do
pretty nearly a daily stint tnside also
For one thing, he perfected himself
very patiently in languages, so that
he now has a good working mastery or
say, with great care. He has published
two short novels, and, in addition to the
new one two collections of short sto-
ries. Most of his stories have appeared
in Scribner's Magazine before their is
sue in books. Mr. Sullivans books.
however, do not represent the whole OF
his literary effort. He has written
quite a good deal for the stage. The
stage version of DIR. Jekyl and Mr..
HYDE Dlaved so long and 10 such a
good personal profit by Richard Mans
field, was of his making; and he wrote
the play Of Nero which Mansfield
played for several seasons. He has
good deal of the Boston reserve: he is
not man one sees much of on hears
much about.
Major General FitZhugh Lee, since
the moment he landed on his return
from Cuba. has had a throng of peo-
pie pressing upon him; he has been
receiving mail by the bushel a day. ne
has been giving testimony and counsel
before congress: he has been advising
with the cabinet; he has received a
high military commission, and has been
organizing his command And yet in
,pite of an this he has found time
somehow, somewhere-to write an i'm
oortant magazine article on his obser-
-ations and experiences in Cuba, and
iiso book on the same subject. Evil
iently General Lee is rot d man who
lust has to have retirement, peace and
freedom from preoccupations, in order
% pursue his literary labors- OF course
he task would have been quite lmpos-
;ibIe. under such conditions. had he
lot been writing on a subject thor
,ughly familiar, and one upon which
lie was all the time thinking and feel
NO ardently Z. G. MARIlN.