The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-26

Trains leave from Central depot corr
in very strange places and. in very odd
wavs. but there is none o. the romance
of bohemia 10 enliVen their environment
20 them.
Among the younger writer's none has
shown a more herioc persistence than Mr.
Clinton Ross. He came GU. of Yale Col
lege few years ago with the prospect be-
fore him of being able to live his life very
much as he chose But his outlook chang-
ed suddenly, and he found himself under
the new necessity Of making his own Nv
ing. There was but one thing that ne
really cared to do, and that was TO write
He had already experimental somewhat
in it in an amateurish way; he had even
published small book or two--at his own
expense. So writing being, above all else
the thing he desired TO DO, he decided it
should be the thing he would do ana ne
buckled to II. No man could nave worked
harder. 1t was so.ely as story writer
that Mr.. Ross proposed to live but story
writing. as a livelihood every body agrees
is simply impossible. one can count Il
up for oneself; the calculation is easy, ten
acceptable stories a year, which Is more
bv four or five than any man, however
gifted, can possibly write, at $50 each
which is more than any unknown author
can hope to get except in his 'luckiest
hits" Despite the calculation, however,
Mr.. Ross somehow did it, Still, even he
hasn't depended on the short story exclu-
sively. He tried his hand pretty early IN
the struggle on a short novel and he mas
now written a number, and placed them
rather we'll He was further fortunate In
that his bent enabled him TO take advan-
tage of the tide that had lately set in for
historical stories. He has mace good use
III Of history
pecially of the revolutionary period.
Mr.. Ross is unmarried, and leads a
cheerful bachelor life, usually housing HIM
self in the busiest part of the city. While
he is capable of expanding as much pains
on his work as anybody, he is also capa-
BILE of very rapid production. He is an APP
proachable, genial man, one whom you feel
il cheerful to meet, and one who combines
some commercial gifts with his literary so
that he is not only able to write, but to
sell what he writes.
see il announced that Mr. Leslie Ste
phen is preparing a new volume of his
essays for the press, and this moves me
to think what a difference there is in
the fortunes of essayists. 1t must be all
of thirty years now since an exceptionally
alert reader here and there became aware
usually by the merest ohance-that in
a small volume then lately put out, un-
der the title of Hours i'm Library, p,
there was a rare and delightful book
Lowell for one found it out, and there IS
some where in his published correspondence
an expression Of his pleasure in 1t. He had,
indeed 20 help him TO the discovery, a pre-
Vious personal acquaintance with the au-
thor, but, no doubt, he would have come
upon it, sooner or later, without so direct
a provocation, for it was just the sort Or
book he liked-a half biographical half
.e.H sr4fg
ing of the English worthless of eighteenth
century literature-and a good reader IS
led by a kind of instinct almost infallfbly
10 the thing he likes. Yet in all these
thirty years | have heard that book men>
toned only by one person, and he was he
man who recommended and loaned 1t to
me- / think | have never seen copy Of
IT, but the one / read And this, / taxi
il, fairly illustrates the kind ana degree
of acceptance attained by Mr.. Leslie STE
phen throughout his career. Meanwhile
men of not one-half of his learning, and
even less OF his penetration and breadth
and liberality of mind, ana of 10 more
If as much power of style, have secured the
widest reading The prosperous essayist,
as a rule, has been good deal of
sentimentanst, and from sentimentalism
Stephen is about as far removed as man
can be- He is now So years old. He
has been tremendous worker, and for
many years against the odds Of very fran
health He had for his first wife one Of
Thackeray's two daugh ers, but she died
twenty years or more ago.
Although publishers still continue to
look scornful, and even say There's moth
ing in it," when you ask them about the
book of short stories, yet 1t seems to me
clear that this sort Of publication grows
quite constantly in favor. i have myself
4sTrv ttauF
mediate success. OF course IT was not the
success OF the popular novel; but still ii
was unequvocal. Moreover, the number OF
such books is increasing; take up almost
anv publishers advertisement and you see
a new one announced There was never
any quite obvious reason for the pubhc
indifference to collections of short stories.
In the magazines the short story has long
been so indispensable that editors have
thought il more prudent even 10 publish
some pretty poor ones rather than print
none and in other countries, notably
France. collections Of them have always
been much liked With US, on the contrary
it was almost impossible 10 get publisher
TO consider such book from an unknown
writer until quite lately.
Mrs. Helen Wafterson Moody whose
book. "The Unquiet Sex Is just now pro-
vocative of not a little wholesome mental
activity is one of the most interesting lit
erary women of New York to know. As
her book discloses she has exceptional in
telectual alertness and brightness, and she
shows this quite as abundantly and at
tractively IN ner conversation as in her
writing She is of ohio birth and education
Is related to Henry Watterson, the editor
Of the Louisville Courier-Journal, and was
for some time employed on the New York
Evening Sun. where she created depart
fhl ff fInIaU
terson Wen known and added not little
10 the popularity Of the paper. Among her
fellow workers on The Sun was the present
editor of the Book Buyer" On acquaint-
ance she found INN, as most who know
him do find him, a man TO be fond OF, and
consequently became his wife, and thus
added the Moody 60 her name. She holds