The Worcester spy., 1898-11-10
OUT AND ABOUT 4.
THE SEED OF LITERARY MINOR.
TALITY.
"Droch" on The Novel of Today
"Saleratus Biscuit" and "Sanatar-
ium'-Literature- Colonel Glasgow
and ''The Song of Roland

ana Inc song OF Roland.
"The Novel of Today furnished
Mr.. Robert Bridges of New York, the
clever writer who signs himself
"Drach," with a congenial subject for
his lecture yesterday before the
Woman's Club Mrs. ]. C. MacMurray,
chairman of the literature committee.
under whose auspices the program was
given. introduced the speaker in a very
complimentary little speech, to which
he responded in humorous vein, say
ing that "Drach' and he bore the same
relation to each other as DR.. JekylI and
Mr.. Hyde. In opening his address. he
SAID that he did not sympathize with
the attitude of solemn regard which
the public generally had come to show
toward literature and the men who
make it. For his part, he admired, not
the man who was content to SIT il
quiet room fumbling with letters, but
the man who could build a great bridse
or railroad across a continent. The
act OF writing is not per Sc a sacred
office. "Of all poses,' said he, tine lit
erary pose is the most offensive. be-
cause it is so often founded on variety:
" . L
offensive is the critic"
Aside from the novels that are writ
ten for the deleetation of fools, if we
look over the novels of the last decade
we shall see that they class them
selves. To begin with, there is What
/ call the saleratus biscuit novel of
village life, which portrayed q STATE
OF society where the conscience and
the digestion We're equally powerful
and important. Out of this school
which, however, chiefly fourished in
England and prior to the time we have
liked, grew the sanitarium school
which took not quite healthy view of
things, and might have been support
ed by all the health resorts in the
country and of which the best exam
pie is Ships That Pass in the Night. j"
This was founded by a school of
equally unhealthy novels, but founded
on science rather than feeling, which
overloaded itself with the problems of
heredity and fiction, and, adopting the
conclusions of the scientists without
possessing their knowledge, pushed
them to an extreme never dreamed of
by the latter. The best exponent of this
scientific pessimism is Ibsen
Naturally there came a reaction
tinuing. 1t took two directions, one to-
ward sentiment, the other toward ac-
ton. The former is exemplified by the
scotch school-hardy unspoiled men
with supreme gift for writing and a
certain attitude toward life that made
you the better for it. The essence oil
their stories is not the dialect, but the
relations Of men and women. They
are a healthy antidote to pessimism'
But men who do things like to read
. oil 7 MT
reaction against pessimism took more
active form in the novel of adventure
In which Stevenson was followed BY
Anthony Hope, Conan Doyle, Kiplins
and Weyman. For a time it seemed as
IL ell our fiction were trending to wai
and bloodshed. But there is vet an.
other way in which men who write turT
TO action, and SO it is only natural thai
Kipling, in his latest book should turr
to the man who has done one thing ant
done it well. making every story re.
volve about the men who are doine
things. In them you are shown The
very fibre Of mans mind. The same
idea lies back of modern fiction-that II
IS the deeds of men and women who dC
things that are interesting, rather thar
the heart throbs of immature boys anC
girls at picnic. Fiction has
gained in consideration in proportion
as it has broadened; the wider the
canvas, the more interesting it is. We
can't live in a cage. 1t is only as VIC
take our place with our fellowmen ant
women as a social unit that we are
beings worth considering in the philo-
sophy Of life.
There is one man who has EN-.
bodied this idea better than any other,
continued the lecturer-George Mere,
Tn he oil he es1,T
ciety as an organism and men ant
women part of it--not eating theil
hearts out with problems of this or the
next life, but doing their work as citi.
zens III the modern English world. HI
has the power Of looking into the hu-
man heart, and, while laughing at the
false and sympathizing with the good
not losing his respect for human nat.